Paper short abstract:

Climate change adaptation often seeks technocratic top-down responses and mainstream approaches to well-being. Insights from our interdisciplinary work with stakeholders in Europe and the South Pacific show how bottom-up approaches can reconfigure more plural paths for the future.

Paper long abstract:

Climate change adaptation often aims to turn adverse effects into liveable futures by drafting technocratic top-down responses. Therein lies the tendency of thinking in unidimensional ways that reduce well-being to habitable environments. In our research, we encountered examples of people living in constantly shifting water-land-scapes where they work with the unpredictable in flexible ways, but – most importantly for their own adaptive purposes – aiming at thriving rather than surviving. Habitability is not sufficient, as those affected by climate change reconfigure the spaces they inhabit. In the Global South, atoll-islands are becoming assemblages of nature technoscapes. In Europe, and due to the scarcity of water in continental rivers and lakes, discussions about centralised water management are becoming increasingly difficult, fostering new relations to water. In these areas, efforts are being made towards making plural liveable futures. Single solutions are being contested and locals explore and demand ways of self-determination and agency to establish their own diverse adaptation pathways. We suggest examining these slippery roads, the interstices of seemingly clear-cut solutions. What does this mean for the definition of future well-being, and how can these solutions get past the reductive conceptualization of habitability? Giving insights into our interdisciplinary work and discussions with stakeholders from Europe and the South Pacific, we reflect on how in our ethnographic work we can further think about the interstices for developing plural paths for the future.