ABSTRACT
Because socio-ecological relations are embedded within economic, political, social and cultural relations, adaptation will touch every aspect of social life, not simply an actor’s vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. This will include relations with distant others, to future generations as well as those living in geographically far-away places, now connected by the time-space compressions (Massey, 1994) and teleconnections (Adger et al., 2009b) of globalisation and global environmental change. Rogers’ (1995) opening observation reminds us of the intimate connections between the spreading of new ideas and practices in society and social context. Even planned innovation and adaptation in society can exaggerate existing inequalities or generate new ones. Without care, those with most assets and freedom to adapt to climate change will gain additional advantage over those who do not. Rogers’ work on the interaction of social and cultural context with the diffusion of innovations in society has wider relevance to studies of adaptation (Atwell et al., 2008). These are returned to in Chapter 9.
