Social capital and the public acceptability of climate change adaptation policies: a case study in Romney Marsh, UK

Jones, N. and Clark, J. R. A. (2014). Social capital and the public acceptability of climate change adaptation policies: a case study in Romney Marsh, UK. Climatic Change, 123(2) pp. 133–145.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-013-1049-0

Abstract

There is now a growing literature emphasizing the critical importance of social variables in the formulation of coastal management policies seeking to tackle climate change impacts. This paper focuses on the role of social capital, which is increasingly identified as having a significant role in climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. We focus on public perceptions of the social costs and benefits arising from two management options (managed retreat/realignment and hold-the-line), the resulting level of policy acceptability, and how this acceptability is mediated by social capital parameters within coastal communities. These issues are examined by means of a quantitative social survey implemented in Romney Marsh (east Sussex/Kent, UK), an area facing significant impacts from climate change. We tested two models through path analysis with latent structures. The first correlates respondents’ perceived costs and benefits with the level of public acceptability of the two policy options. In the second model, we introduce social capital variables, investigating the impacts on perceived social costs and benefits of the policy options, and the overall effect on the level of public acceptability. Our findings demonstrate: (1) perceived social costs and benefits of proposed policy options influence the level of public acceptability of these policies; (2) these social costs and benefits are connected with the level of public acceptability; and (3) specific social capital parameters (i.e. social trust, institutional trust, social networks and social reciprocity) influence perceived policy costs and benefits, and also have a significant impact on the level of public acceptability of proposed policy options.

Viewing alternatives

Metrics

Item Actions

Export

You can export this page using these formats Digital Object Identifier - DOI

About

• Item ORO ID
• 39747
• Item Type
• Journal Item
• ISSN
• 1573-1480
• Project Funding Details

• Funded Project Name	Project ID	Funding Body
  ESCALATE-Marie Curie IEF-University of Birmingham	Not Set	Not Set

• Academic Unit or School
• Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS)
• Research Group
• OpenSpace Research Centre (OSRC)
• Copyright Holders
• © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media
• Depositing User
• Nikoleta Jones