How Global Governance of Sea Level Rise May Obscure Colonial Drivers of Climate Vulnerability
By
Steig, Florian
Summary
This article analyzes how sea level rise (SLR) is being reframed as a global political problem through the institutionalization of debates within UN climate governance and the creation of the Ocean Rise & Coastal Resilience Coalition (ORCRC). Using a poststructuralist governmentality framework, the author examines how SLR is rendered governable globally, arguing that the dominant framing as a biophysical challenge for humanity risks obscuring the socioeconomic and colonial drivers of climate vulnerability. The analysis traces how this globalized vision of coastal resilience privileges transnational knowledge infrastructures, embeds adaptation in cost-benefit logics, and opens coastal cities to investment, potentially undermining the transformative potential of the SLR agenda.
Source
bskyHow Global Governance of Sea Level Rise May Obscure Colonial Drivers of Climate Vulnerabilitydirect.mit.eduKey quotes
· 3 pulledSea level rise (SLR) is increasingly reframed as a global political problem, no longer confined to local adaptation needs or the struggles of atoll nations.
I argue that the dominant problematization of SLR as a biophysical challenge for humankind risks obscuring the socioeconomic and colonial drivers of climate vulnerability, which could undermine the transformative potential of the SLR agenda.
Through a globalized vision of (coastal) resilience, this governmentality privileges the rollout of transnational knowledge infrastructures, embeds adaptation in cost–benefit logics, and opens coastal cities to investment.
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