Development by Adaptation? 'Climate Change is Real' They Say
Peter Lindner
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt
The times when climate change was a highly disputed topic are gone. Or to be more precise, a second strand of thinking accompanying the debates about scenarios for the global rise of average temperatures is now well established. This new understanding regards climate change as a market transition (Janković/Bowman 2013), seeing it as ‘real’ in a different sense and reframing the opportunities for economic development independent of the ongoing debates among natural scientists. The production of this new reality depends on a highly sophisticated assemblage of heterogeneous elements, three of which will be discussed in the presentation: laboratory-like natural experiments to create climate-development-knowledge, global networks to circulate this knowledge, and markets to translate it into a means of governance. The intention of the talk is twofold: The examples should offer some insights into the production of climate change as a powerful truth regime while at the same time providing a heuristic framework for a better understanding of why and how this truth regime has become so relevant for development studies.
December 17, 2014