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Social Policy and the Determinants of Vulnerability – Missing ‘Race’ in Climate Adaptation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2025

Nasar Meer Open the ORCID record for Nasar Meer [Opens in a new window]
Nasar Meer*
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article stresses the need for climate adaptation to better grasp the social dynamics of vulnerability to climate change. It argues that prevailing approaches in the UK have been inattentive to the social determinants of vulnerability for ethnic and racial minorities. The article begins by setting out the ways in which adaptation is understood and interpolated across multiple levels in the policy process, before discussing why prevailing approaches struggle to recognise that certain social dynamics render some populations more vulnerable to the ongoing effects of climate change. Following this, it will focus on domains of housing and health to reinscribe vulnerability in adaptation as a multidimensional concept, something that registers differentiated levels of structured adaptive capacity by focusing on racialised communities. It concludes by elaborating ways forward in climate adaptation planning and action.

Keywords

Adaptationclimate changeracesocial policyvulnerability
Type
Article
Information
Social Policy and Society , First View , pp. 1 - 12
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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