Julia Teebken

Princeton University | PU

This book compares how the social consequences of climate change are similarly unevenly distributed within China and the United States, despite different political systems. Focusing on the cases of Atlanta, USA, and Jinhua, China, this book explores a set of path-dependent factors (lock-ins), which hamper the pursuit of climate adaptation by local...

The state of Georgia is known for its skepticism toward climate policy. Yet, some local policy practitioners have adjusted their practices to accommodate its adversarial political environment. The chapter examines the coping strategies they developed. It builds upon 31 qualitative interviews and participant observation during the first two Georgia...

In 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction were adopted, linked by a common emphasis on reducing vulnerabilities. This report on the concept of Sustainable ⁠Adaptation⁠ Pathways (SAPs) is intended to support stakeholders involved in the implementation processes to...

Climate change adaptation planning and implementation have proliferated over the past years. However, we still lack an understanding of how society adapts itself outside of policy sectors and as part of what some refer to as “autonomous adaptation”. The way people respond to risk without deliberate interventions of public actors is not well-underst...

“Vulnerable populations” are making a comeback in climate change adaptation research and practice despite longstanding critiques. Adaptation planning is increasingly expected to restore past inequalities and address systemic injustices. Yet, we know little about the role local environmental agencies, bureaucrats, and policy practitioners (can) play...

To date, processes to implement the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and international climate change mitigation and adaptation obligations are largely disconnected in most countries. This creates administrative overlaps, costs and hampers the development of effective problem solutions. Against this background, the report presents the st...

The UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, three international and ‘transformative’ agendas adopted in 2015, have some overlap and interdependencies. How can their implementation at domestic level be integrated, so as to tap synergies and prevent trad...

Because the empirical cases both identified lock-ins at the interface of knowledge and political institutions, this chapter discusses the findings in the newly emerging field of research on political epistemology. First, vulnerability as an inherent characteristic of two different political systems is presented. The findings demonstrate the deeply...

This chapter goes back to the main research question which guided the study: What lock-ins can explain adaptation deficits that are particularly apparent in high uneven vulnerability to climate change? What factors can explain why vulnerability is such a deeply rooted phenomenon across two different political systems and adaptation occurring only i...

This chapter provides some background information on the evolution of adaptation and vulnerability planning in China and the United States. The chapter examines how climate adaptation planning has unfolded in both countries and how this corresponds with the current state of adaptation governance more broadly. It considers problems of low local capa...

This chapter provides the theoretical underpinnings of adaptation research, adaptation areas and the main analytical framework. Various explanatory attempts exist for assessing adaptation deficits. Reasons why there may be adaptation deficits are considered, including various barriers: structural, social, natural, human and informational. A critiqu...

This chapter revisits some of the central concepts related to vulnerability thinking. It provides a brief background on the evolution of vulnerability conceptualizations and presents social vulnerability as a bottom-up perspective that is regaining traction as of late. The different understandings of vulnerability often correspond with different pr...

This chapter provides background information on the broader developments of the political economy in both countries and local sociopolitical factors. It examines the high degrees of inequality in China (despite improvements in poverty reduction) and persistent and rising inequality in the United States. It also begins the discussion of infrastructu...

This chapter discusses some of the theoretical implications for discourses on transformative adaptation. Before it does so, the chapter first presents why adaptation is an inherently political concept. This section also reflects upon the need for self-critical adaptation studies. Because the empirical cases reveal the significance of education and...

This chapter examines how local decision-makers in Atlanta and Jinhua perceive of vulnerable populations to climate change, and whether they are generally aware that climate impacts are unevenly distributed. In both countries, sociodemographic and economic factors (percentage of minorities, occupation, lower economic prosperity and educational atta...

At international climate conferences, the European Union (EU) and its member states both are negotiating partners. The EU signs the treaties to protect the climate, the member states ratify and translate them into national policy. Based on the literature on actorness, we identify different dimensions in which the EU’s actor quality is articulated....

Die Transformationswerkstatt ist ein Weiterbildungsformat für Mitarbeitende öffentlicher Verwaltungen. Es soll ihre Kompetenzen bei der Gestaltung gesellschaftlicher Transformationen stärken. Das Format wurde 2020/21 im Umweltressort erprobt. Es kombiniert praxisorientiert die Vermittlung von Grundlagenwissen und methodischen Fähigkeiten. Der vorli...

Zusammenfassung Diese Handreichung beschreibt den aktuellen Stand in der Entwicklung des Weiterbildungsformats "Transformationswerkstatt" (TrafoWerk). Ziel dieser Weiterbildung ist es, Mitarbeitende aller Hierarchieebenen und Verantwortungsbereiche öffentlicher Verwaltungen darin zu stärken, gesellschaftlichen Transformationen zu gestalten. Transfo...

Public administrations are designed towards efficient and effective problem solving. A division of work along the various issues of public policy-making is constitutive for most administrations. With the recent demands to develop comprehensive transformative environmental policies, new tasks and requirements arise, both for individual officers as w...

Although research on sustainability transitions has addressed transnational linkages, little attention has yet been paid to the international diffusion and transfer of public policies. Transitions studies and research on policy transfer have had sparse interaction thus far. This viewpoint argues that the two fields can enrich each other through new...

Climate change has far-reaching effects on human and ecological systems, requiring collaboration across sectors and disciplines to determine effective responses. To inform regional responses to climate change, decision-makers need credible and relevant information representing a wide swath of knowledge and perspectives. The southeastern U. S. State...

Climate change has far-reaching effects on human and ecological systems, requiring collaboration across sectors and disciplines to determine effective responses. To inform regional responses to climate change, decision-makers need credible and relevant information representing a wide swath of knowledge and perspectives. The southeastern U. S. State...

The future of the transatlantic relationship is rarely out of the headlines in Europe or North America. Despite the closeness, the relationship faces – as it has always done – new and familiar challenges. This report offers views on the future of transatlantic relations from scholars who are at the start of their careers, with European and US pers...