Spinning in circles? A systematic review on the role of theory in social vulnerability, resilience and adaptation research

Kuhlicke, C., Madruga de Brito, M., Bartkowski, B., Botzen, W., Doğulu, C., Han, S., Hudson, P., Nuray Karanci, A., Klassert, C.J., Otto, D., Scolobig, A., Moreno Soares, T., & Rufat, S. (2023). Spinning in circles? A systematic review on the role of theory in social vulnerability, resilience and adaptation research. Global Environmental Change 80 e102672. 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102672.

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Abstract

An increasing number of publications focus on social vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation (SVRA) towards natural hazards and climate change. Despite this proliferation of research, a systematic understanding of how these studies are theoretically grounded is lacking. Here, we systematically reviewed 4432 articles that address SVRA in various disciplinary fields (e.g. psychology, sociology, geography, mathematics) for various hazards, including floods, droughts, landslides, storm surges, wildfires, tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcano eruptions. We focus on the extent to which these studies explicate the frameworks, theoretical constructs or theories they rely on. Surprisingly, we found that about 90% of the reviewed studies do not explicitly refer to a theoretical underpinning. Overall, theories focusing on individuals’ SVRA were more frequently used than those focusing on systems, society, groups, and networks. Moreover, the uptake of theories varied according to the hazard investigated and field of knowledge, being more frequent in wildfire and flood studies and articles published in social science journals. Based on our analysis, we propose a reflexive handling of theories to foster more transparent, comparable, and robust empirical research on SVRA.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Natural hazards; Preparedness; Adaptive behaviour; Coping; Inductive research; Deductive research; Theorising
Research Programs:	Population and Just Societies (POPJUS) Population and Just Societies (POPJUS) > Equity and Justice (EQU)
Depositing User:	Michaela Rossini
Date Deposited:	04 May 2023 11:12
Last Modified:	04 May 2023 11:12
URI:	https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/18768

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