Jonathan Ensor

University of York · Environment Department and Stockholm Environment Institute

Participatory approaches to innovation aim to address persistent failures of technology to respond to end-user needs and context. Here, we present the results of a transdisciplinary project aimed at co-developing new technologies for water quality monitoring in remote locations in developing countries. Drawing from critical social science, we devel...

This article responds to the general neglect of legal culture in the study of climate mobilities. It presents a case study of climate mobilities in an unplanned settlement in Maputo, Mozambique, exploring how legal culture influenced residents’ decision-making processes as they navigated climate-related risks in their daily lives. We demonstrate th...

In an era of rapid urbanisation, understanding how marginalised groups shape and are shaped by planning has never been more urgent. Here, we focus on the political capability of marginalised groups, centring analysis on the control (or lack of control) that they have over their livelihoods and environment. Focused on the politics of participatory p...

This paper examines the impact of rapid urbanisation on the production of unequal disaster risk in Khokana, peri-urban town in the Kathmandu Valley (KV), Nepal. It brings together scholarships in disaster risk creation and urban political ecology (UPE), asking: (1) what are the roots of Khokana’s specific urbanization trajectory; (2) how is this tr...

While climate change adaptation research has increasingly focused on aspects of culture, a systematic treatment of the role of legal culture in how communities respond to climate risk has yet to be produced. This is despite the fact that law and legal authority are implicated in most, if not all, of the ways in which actors seek to reduce the risks...

The systemic nature of risk is increasingly acknowledged within scholarship, policy and practice relating to disaster management. However, a number of conceptual and methodological challenges arise in advancing empirical inquiry in this regard. These challenges relate to how the boundaries of the system are determined both spatially and temporally,...

Food system resilience has multiple dimensions. We draw on food system and resilience concepts and review resilience framings of different communities. We present four questions to frame food system resilience (Resilience of what? Resilience to what? Resilience from whose perspective? Resilience for how long?) and three approaches to enhancing resi...

Food system resilience has multiple dimensions. We draw on food system and resilience concepts and review resilience framings of different communities. We present four questions to frame food system resilience (Resilience of what? Resilience to what? Resilience from whose perspective? Resilience for how long?) and three approaches to enhancing resi...

Haphazard urban expansion and poorly planned infrastructure development have increased and intensified disaster risks in the geologically fragile Himalaya. Against this backdrop, consolidating and interpreting the findings from four articles included in this special issue on “urbanisation and disaster risk in the Himalaya”, this paper analyses the...

In many parts of the world, traditional institutions are the backbone of village governance and service delivery. While the effects of introducing new institutional arrangements from outside have been widely studied, autonomous changes – that is, those that originate from within communities – are not well understood. Recognising that traditional in...

Social inclusion and poverty alleviation are central to the United Nations (UN) new urban agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially Goal 11 on sustainable cities and communities. In Nepal, the goal of the National Urban Agenda is to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, sustainable and smart to enhance the...

CONTEXT Farmer-led innovation brings farmers together with other stakeholders in a collaborative endeavour that recognises multiple forms of expertise. Critical engagement with mainstream models of agricultural science and technology (AST) development has drawn attention to the isolation of farmers as technology adopters within a compartmentalised...

This research is a part of the UKRI GCRF funded project Tomorrow’s Cities, which has the objective to encourage pro-poor risk-sensitive planning in Istanbul, Kathmandu, Nairobi and Quito. It contributes to the first of its four Work Packages (WPs). WP1, namely Understandings of Risk, broadly analyses how understandings of risks and of the root caus...

We – the Editors of Climate and Development – react in both delight and dismay to the ‘Hot List’ of 1000 influential scholars in climate change published by Reuters1 on 20 April 2021. Delight because the compilation of such a list demonstrates the critical importance of climate change as a major global challenge, celebrating climate change knowledg...

While resilience has grown to become a well-established goal of policy and practice, assessing resilience remains an outstanding problem. To date, measurement has largely relied on the identification of proxy indicators, inevitably shaping what is measured in ways that reflect underlying assumptions, generalisations and approximations, and raising...

There are increasing calls for transformation to be considered as a means to address the effects of social, cultural and political conditions on vulnerability when resilience is applied in practice. Yet transformation does not necessarily lead to more equitable social conditions. Here, we draw on the analytical framework of political capabilities t...

The ‘planetary boundaries’ framework identifies Earth system processes that contribute to the stability and resilience of the planet (Rockström et al., 2009a), setting out the limits to changes the Earth can support for remaining in a Holocene-like state. A key question for global sustainable development that emerges from this framework is how to s...

Demand for animal sourced food is predicted to double in the upcoming 20 years in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is simultaneously a big opportunity in terms of poverty reduction and a significant threat to the environment. The objective of this paper is to present an approach to co-create a set of viable and acceptable development pathways for the lives...

Following critiques of the global environmental justice paradigm, a ‘critical’ environmental justice scholarship is emerging. This article contributes to this important field of inquiry by interrogating project evaluation through a critical recognition justice lens that draws on political ecology. We use an embedded case study of the official donor...

Attempts to structurally transform segments of the agri-food system inevitably involve trade-offs between the priorities of actors with different incentives, perspectives and values. Trade-offs are context-specific, reflecting different socio-economic and political realities. We investigate the potential of structured boundary objects to facilitate...

Adaptation research and practice too often overlooks the wider social context within which climate change is experienced. Mainstream approaches frame adaptation problems in terms of the consequences that flow from biophysical impacts and as a result, we argue, ask the wrong questions. A complementary approach gaining ground in the field, foreground...

In this article, we offer a contribution to the ongoing study of food by advancing a conceptual framework and interdisciplinary research agenda – what we term ‘food system resilience’. In recent years, the concept of resilience has been extensively used in a variety of fields, but not always consistently or holistically. Here we aim to theorise sys...

In this article, we offer a contribution to the ongoing study of food by advancing a conceptual framework and interdisciplinary research agenda – what we term “food system resilience”. In recent years, the concept of resilience has been extensively used in a variety of fields, but not always consistently or holistically. Here we aim to theorise sys...

Rationale: While the role of diet in influencing physical health is now well-established, some recent research suggests that increased consumption of fruits and vegetables could play a role in enhancing mental well-being. A limitation with much of this existing research is its reliance on cross-sectional correlations, convenience samples, and/or l...

Recent literature has recognised the value of food sovereignty and human rights frameworks in agrarian struggles. Relatively little attention has gone toward how agrarian movements develop and apply their own rights discourses to further demands for social justice. This study considers Brazil's landless movement (MST) between 1984 and 1995, reveali...

Resilience has attracted criticism for its failure to address social vulnerability and to engage with issues of equity and power. Here, we ask: what is equitable resilience? Our focus is on what resilience does on the ground in relation to development, adaptation and disaster management, and on identifying critical issues for engaging with equity i...

Marginalisation and exclusion are expressed in social conflict and are determinative in distributing risk and resilience. This paper builds on recent literature that has adopted a human rights lens to explore how resilience practice can better account for issues of equity and power. Using the illustrative case of Timor‐Leste, it presents an analysi...

This article focuses on the complex relationship between development and disaster risk. Development and disaster risk are closely linked as the people and assets exposed to risk, as well as their vulnerability and capacity, are largely determined by development processes. Transformation is key to moving from current development patterns that increa...

We explore the dynamics of expectations in international forest conservation and development programs, and the impacts and implications of (unfulfilled) expectations for actors involved. Early stages of new international conservation and development programs, often involving pilot projects designed to test intervention concepts at village level, ar...

Community-based approaches are pursued in recognition of the need for place-based responses to environmental change that integrate local understandings of risk and vulnerability. Yet the potential for fair adaptation is intimately linked to how variations in perceptions of environmental change and risk are treated. There is, however, little empiric...

Recognition of the complexity of challenges rooted in human-environment interactions has led to increased interest in methods that enable diverse stakeholders, from within and beyond the scientific establishment, to work together. Increasingly, agricultural innovation is understood in these terms, with calls for group learning processes that bring...

Growing recognition of the value of food sovereignty and the human rights frameworks in contemporary agrarian struggles offers new promise for advancing the rights of the rural poor globally. Relatively little has been written however about rights as locally generated movement processes, which may be grounded in particular ideologies. This study co...

A central claim of community-based adaptation (CBA) is that it increases resilience. Yet, the concept of resilience is treated inconsistently in CBA, obscuring discussion of the limitations and benefits of resilience thinking and undermining evaluation of resilience outcomes in target communities. This paper examines different participatory assessm...

This report draws on two weeks of fieldwork undertaken in November 2015. Discussions and interviews were held in communities with different histories of engagement with development organisations, exploring their experiences of Tropical Cyclone Pam and the on-going El Nino event. The findings reflect on themes found in the academic literature to syn...

Human rights are an established part of development discourse, yet attempts to bind human rights and development have encountered resistance or scepticism. We argue that concepts and framings in this field are diverse and contested, and that the ensuing debates shed light on the role of power in development and international politics. The chapter e...

Transforming the relationship between development and disaster risk: insights from a year of research This brief presents preliminary insights from the first phase of the SEI Initiative on Transforming Development and Disaster Risk (TDDR) from 2015 to 2016 (see SEI (2015) for an introduction to the initiative). The initiative seeks to integrate dis...

Participatory Planning for Climate Compatible Development in Maputo, Mozambique is a timely contribution to the growing literature on climate compatible development which argues for the centrality of participation in developing climate change strategies. Reporting on the experience of a pilot project in Maputo, Mozambique, the book documents the pr...

The report documents findings from fieldwork in Vanuatu undertaken during November 2014. The intention is to contextualise the resilience building work of the Vanuatu NGO Climate Change Adaptation Program within themes that have emerged within the academic literature on climate change adaptation and resilience, and on community-based adaptation in...

The potential for social learning to address complex, interconnected social and environmental challenges, such as climate change adaptation, is receiving increasing attention in research and practice. Social learning approaches vary, but commonly include cycles of knowledge sharing and joint action to co‐create knowledge, relationships, and practic...

This paper proposes a rights-based approach for participatory urban planning for climate change adaptation in urban areas. Participatory urban planning ties climate change adaptation to local development opportunities. Previous discussions suggest that participatory urban planning may help to understand structural inequalities, to gain, even if tem...

This paper considers the problem of applying eigenstracture assignment to parameter dependant systems. The concept of modal sensitivity is introduced, and a recently presented method for the assignment of reduced sensitivity eigenstracture is presented in this context. A new proof for this method is presented, allowing greater insight into the sens...

The authors examine partnerships as a policy strategy for climate change governance in cities in the Global South. Partnerships offer the opportunity to link the actions of diverse actors operating at different scales and, thus, they may be flexible enough to deal with uncertain futures and changing development demands. However, simultaneously, par...

Whilst it is increasingly recognised that socio-political contexts shape climate change adaptation decisions and actions at all scales, current modes of development typically fail to recognise or adequately challenge these contexts where they constrain capacity to adapt. To address this failing, we consider how a rights-based approach broadens unde...

Interest in the role that cities can play in climate change as sites of transformation has increased but research has been limited in its practical applications and there has been limited consideration of how policies and technologies play out. These challenges necessitate a re-thinking of existing notions of urban governance in order to account fo...

Rachel Berger is currently working independently on sustainability, climate change adaptation and community resilience issues. She worked for 11 years for Practical Action until 2012, latterly focusing on climate change adaptation, including community-based programmes and the development of international policy to support adaptation. She has writte...

The aim of this report is to provide a detailed review of documented social learning processes for climate change and natural resource management as described in peer-reviewed literature. Particular focus is on identifying (1) lessons and principles, (2) tools and approaches, (3) evaluation of social learning, as well as (4) concrete examples of im...

The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS1) is challenging its own community of scientists and partners to understand the importance of co-created knowledge in finding solutions to local climate change issues. Local communities dealing with the daily realities of climate change risk, adaptation and mitigatio...

Communication on climate change research has long been dominated by top-down delivery of information aimed at informing on future climate scenarios and climate-related events. However, emphasis in this field is slowly shifting to more process-oriented approaches to communication, and the need to integrate learning is receiving increasing attention....

The dysfunctional food system that results in a billion hungry people and more than a billion obese people needs fundamental change. This includes a different governance structure and a model of production and consumption that at its centre has the provision of healthy food, produced sustainably and as locally as possible. The paper describes optio...

This paper applies a framework for understanding adaptation to an intervention in coastal Sri Lanka. Adaptation is described in terms of different components that, in combination, can address current vulnerability and the uncertainty inherent in climate predictions. In Sri Lanka, temperature increase, sea-level rise and the failure of irrigation sy...

This chapter explores the relationship between culture and adaptation in theory and practice. Our aim is to make clear the important role that culture plays in enabling adaptation, and to show how community-based adaptation is well placed to promote, rather than challenge, individual and shared concepts of well-being.

This book is an attempt to further understanding of the practice of communitybased adaptation. As such, the main body comprises a series of case studies of adaptation projects from some of the poorest regions of the world, placed between an introduction and conclusion that seek to clarify the meaning of adaptation and draw lessons for practitioners...

The general problem of assigning the eigenstructure of semi-proper systems, using state feedback, is first considered. Standard eigenstructure assignment algorithms invariably assume the direct transmission matrix to be null. Consequently, they are suitable only for strictly proper systems. Algorithms do exist for assigning the eigenstructure of se...

This paper presents a new method of output feedback eigenstructure assignment. A new, reduced orthogonality condition is derived which is less restrictive on the design degrees of freedom than others in the literature. From this a novel, general formulation for the gain matrix is admitted which utilizes a two stage design process. In the first stag...

A novel eigenstructure assignment method is presented which trades exact closed loop eigenvalue location against an improvement in the associated closed loop eigenvector match against membership of a desired set via either constrained or unconstrained optimizations. The polynomial approach removes the dependence of the cost functions on the closed...

The eigenstructure necessary to achieve a good short-term attitude command response in a generic single-rotor helicopter is presented. It achieves appropriate mode decoupling and is consistent with the physical relationships between the state variables. This eigenstructure translates exactly into ideal transfer functions for use with a variety of c...

Eigenstructure assignment has enjoyed considerable success in applications where both the modal response and mode distribution are important. However, a significant constraint on eigenvector selection is defined by an allowable subspace, the range of which varies both with model parameters and desired eigenvalue. This paper presents a technique tha...

Considers the problem of eigenstructure assignment in the presence of structured uncertainty. A previously developed method for extending the operating regime of controllers is considered to produce a methodology in which it is possible to both analyse and mitigate the impact of uncertainty on closed loop eigenmodes.

Adapting to climate change is a critical problem facing humanity. This involves reconsidering our lifestyles, and is linked to our actions as individuals, societies and governments. This book presents top science and social science research on whether the world can adapt to climate change. Written by experts, both academics and practitioners, it ex...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of York, 2000.

The presented technique addresses the problem of maintaining the powerful design simplicity and visibility of eigenstructure assignment, while reducing closed-loop eigenstructure sensitivity to dominant parameter variations. The method results from consideration of the allowable eigenvector subspace as a complete description of the eigenstructure a...

A modified LMS algorithm, for the echo control of speech signals in a conference environment, has been analysed. Initial results show that the algorithm can provide lower misadjustment and more uniform speech-band cancellation compared with the conventional LMS algorithm at equal convergence rates, with very little additional computation