Climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction: contested spaces and emerging opportunities in development theory and practice

Using the example of disaster risk reduction, this paper explores the developing interface between climate change adaptation and existing development methodologies that have overlapping interests. While it has been established that there must be greater collaboration between these fields, many questions remain surrounding the scope of such interaction.

This paper reviews the literature on the relationship between disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and then explores some unanswered questions and developing conceptualizations. An examination of the theoretical points of convergence and divergence raises a range of questions surrounding how climate change adaptation is conceptualized in both the academic literature and the policy environment.