Paper short abstract:

This paper explores what happens to a concept of performativity within contexts of climate adaptation policy. The paper draws on ethnographic research with technoscientific experts affiliated with the Guyana Mangrove Restoration Project (GMRP).

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores what happens to a concept of performativity within contexts of climate adaptation policy. I argue that experts rely on calculative tools not only to interpret data about climatic risks but to manage the socio-emotive arrangement of expert practice itself. To make this argument, I draw on ethnographic research with technoscientific experts affiliated with the Guyana Mangrove Restoration Project (GMRP). Aimed at modeling the effects of sea-level rise on mangroves, the GMRP requires experts to modify their pre-existing knowledge practices to better respond to conditions that contribute to the vulnerability of mangroves. At the same time, model outputs suggest that no matter their efforts, mangroves will eventually uproot and wash away. More than an intervention to avert climatic risks, the GMRP elicits apprehension amongst experts about their limited abilities to protect mangroves. In doing so, apprehension creates a demand for innovative technical measures, while often reinforcing the authority of those who in advance claim a position of skepticism about such measures. Rethinking the status of expertise under climate adaptation, this article moves beyond the constrained logic of intervening that informs many ethnographic studies of performativity. It demonstrates that apprehension stands-in as a generative component of climate adaptation policy, ordering both the material and socio-emotive worlds of experts.