ABSTRACT
This introduction introduces the concept of climate adaptation, highlighting its central role in development thinking. It goes on to interrogate the limits of this approach, pointing to how issues of power and resistance are swept under the carpet. As such, the chapter looks to move beyond the adaptation paradigm, in its place foregrounding the idea of climate resistance. It highlights how for many in the global South, precarious work combined with an erosion of state support following the onset of neoliberal globalisation have rendered them more exposed to the vagaries of the climate. As such, in addressing the uneven impacts of climate change, we need to first address these underlying structural conditions that forge uneven trajectories of development. The chapter finally goes on to explore the different chapters in the collection, which look to conceptualise what labour is vis-à-vis the climate, to unpack notions of adaptation among the working poor, and finally to shed light on instances of climate resistance as they already exist.
