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Integrating Social Learning, Adaptive Capacity and Climate Adaptation for Regional Scale Analysis: A Conceptual Framework

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Abstract

The impact of climate-related changes on northern Canada’s renewable resource sectors makes bolstering adaptive capacity an urgent imperative throughout the region. Although social learning is a key ingredient of adaptive capacity, our understanding of the relationships among social learning, adaptive capacity, and climate change adaptation is limited. Building on previous conceptual and empirical studies, this paper develops a framework that clarifies the interactions among social learning, adaptive capacity and climate change adaptation pertinent to a regional scale of analysis. The framework is multi-layered and consists of different levels of governing variables, units of analysis, learning outcomes and climate change adaptations. It is also integrative in that it encompasses social learning motivations, context and process factors, and outcomes, along with key determinants of adaptive capacity. A post hoc assessment of two climate change disturbances in northern boreal resource systems reveals the applicability of the framework to a regional scale analysis.

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Notes

  1. In Canada, the term ‘Indigenous’ refers to First Peoples, which includes First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples.

  2. Since 1985, [CCFM] Canadian Council of Forest Ministers is a forum where fourteen elected provincial, territorial and federal ministers exchange ideas and information regarding forest-related issues of import domestically and internationally https://www.ccfm.org/english/aboutus.asp.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the anonymous reviewers and editors for their helpful comments. We also thank our C-LAND project assistants Julia Antonyshyn, Miranda Hamilton, Bryanne Lamoureux, Kaya Lange, and Avery Letkemann. Co-authors J. Luedee and M. Zurba were both postdoctoral fellows at The University of Winnipeg when this research was initated. All errors and omissions remain our own.

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Grant [grant number 435-2018-0787] and the Canada Research Chairs program.

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences, The University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, R3B 2E9, Canada

    Ryan C. L. Bullock & Alan Diduck

  2. Department of History, University of Toronto, 40 St George Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 2E4, Canada

    Jonathan Luedee

  3. School for Resource and Environmental Studies and College of Sustainability, Dalhousie University, Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building 6100 University Ave, PO BOX 15000, Halifax, NS, B3H 4R2, Canada

    Melanie Zurba

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  1. Ryan C. L. Bullock
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  2. Alan Diduck
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  3. Jonathan Luedee
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  4. Melanie Zurba
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Correspondence to Ryan C. L. Bullock.

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Bullock, R.C.L., Diduck, A., Luedee, J. et al. Integrating Social Learning, Adaptive Capacity and Climate Adaptation for Regional Scale Analysis: A Conceptual Framework. Environmental Management 69, 1217–1230 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-022-01630-x

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