ABSTRACT
Conflict is an important factor in ongoing climate change debates and its role in management is under increasing scrutiny. In this paper, I present the results of an advanced discourse analysis that analyses trends in the relationship between conflict and climate change. I present two primary discourses dominate discussion: (i) climate as a security risk and (ii) climate as one of many factors affecting power relations that may lead to conflict. Both narratives implicitly or explicitly discuss climate conflict as a cause–outcome relationship, and further primarily construct conflict and climate change within normative frames. Yet, conflict has transformative potential and can be incorporated into management in ways that harness its capacity to drive innovation and lead to more robust and just adaptive governance. I argue for a shift in the discursive frame from a cause– outcome-oriented approach to a process-driven approach, one that treats conflict as an integral part of adaptive governance processes, thus being more just and equitable. Such a shift in focus can lead to positive on ground climate adaptation outcomes, in ways that respect rather than are counter-intuitive to dominant political and societal imbalances and institutional structures.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to my colleagues in the department of Geography, Environment and Population who critiqued this article when I gave it as a paper and thus strengthened it as a text. My thanks also to Rob Palmer who proofed (many times) this article as well as gave criticism of the content. Thank you to the Faculty of Arts, University of Adelaide, for supporting my application for study leave and for the Faculty Research Grant Scheme award which allowed me to do the research necessary for writing this article. Finally, thanks to the reviewers of this manuscript and earlier versions thereof, the paper is much stronger as a result.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.