Social identity, perception and motivation in adaptation to climate risk in the coffee sector of Chiapas, Mexico

By E. Frank, Hallie C. Eakin, D. López‐Carr. 2011

235 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Most investigation into climate adaptation to date has focused on specific technological interventions and socio-economic aspects of adaptive capacity. New perspectives posit that socio-cognitive factors may be as or more important in motivating individuals to take adaptive actions. Recent research indicates that incorporating insights from motivation theory can enhance theorization of adaptive capacity. Yet unexplored, and what we propose here, is the addition of social identity to models of adaptive capacity and adaptation. To apply this conceptual framework, the first author undertook in-depth interviews with a sample of farmers who had participated in broader surveys the previous year to explore their perceptions of their social identity, climate-related information and its sources, and climate risk. These interviews elicited compelling evidence that social identity mediates between risk perception and adaptation through its influence on motivation. Interviews revealed significant links between social identity and perception of information, risk perception and adaptation, of which the most salient were the relative credibility and legitimacy of information sources (related to us vs. them social group differentiation); the role of coffee organizations; and ethnicity and geographic marginalization. Strong in-group identity and perceptions of potentially influential out-groups such as the scientific community appear to particularly influence perception and use of information. These findings have rich policy implications for adaptation management and merit further investigation to identify how, where and why social identity plays a role in climate-risk perception, motivation and adaptation in other geographic areas of vulnerability worldwide.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Global and Planetary Change, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d1678aa389e07eebf5f1accb07434d98c6ee7075

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Citations in the corpus

Explaining the 'hungry farmer paradox': Smallholders and fair trade cooperatives navigate seasonality and change in Nicaragua's corn and coffee markets (2014, background): “Coffee marketing cooperatives in Mexico also help farmers navigate market risks and vulnerability to climate events, such as drought (Frank et al., 2011).”
Adapting agriculture to climate change in Kenya: household strategies and determinants. (2013, background): “More recent studies have emphasized that risk perceptions and socio-cognitive processes of decisionmakers are also important for motivating adaptation decisions (Grothmann and Patt, 2005; Frank et al., 2011).”
Understanding attitudes toward energy security: Results of a cross-national survey (2013, background): “These findings suggest that social identity plays a role in climate-risk perception, motivation and adaptation (Frank et al., 2011).”
Climate change adaptation: factors influencing Chinese smallholder farmers’ perceived self-efficacy and adaptation intent (2016, background): “Market-related factors are frequently reported by smallholders to pose greater risk to their livelihoods than climate-related factors (Burnham et al. 2015; Frank et al. 2011; Gandure et al. 2013; Tucker et al. 2010).”
Perceptions and responses to climate policy risks among California farmers (2013, background): “Indeed, this study only considers climate change policies and economic impacts and does not consider many other potential socioeconomic aspects of climate change that could be assessed through additional studies (Frank et al., 2011).”
Ecosystem services by birds and bees to coffee in a changing climate: A review of coffee berry borer control and pollination (2019, background): “…production may not threaten food security per se, many farmers depend on this crop for their livelihoods (Lin et al., 2008; Schroth et al., 2009) and already report experiences with climate change and its impacts on production (e.g., Frank et al., 2011; Eakin et al., 2014; Harvey et al., 2018).”
Understanding livelihood vulnerability to climate change: Applying the livelihood vulnerability index in Trinidad and Tobago (2013, background): “Recent research also indicates that perceptions of social identity by communities play a strong role in climate risk perception and adaptive ability (Frank et al., 2011).”
Linking smallholder farmer climate change adaptation decisions to development (2016, background): “Frank, Eakin, and López-Carr (2011) showed that social identity was an important factor in determining the adaptive capacity of smallholder coffee growers, while Crane et al. (2011) and Mertz et al. (2011) reported social identity as both a contributing factor and a barrier to adaptation.”
Farmers intention to adopt sustainable agriculture hinges on climate awareness: The case of Vietnamese coffee (2021, methodology): “Social trust is considered an important driver toward adoption of sustainable practices (Azadi et al., 2019; Gifford, 2011) but is not usually empirically studied in the context of behavior change, as has been done in this study.”