George Adamson
My research is situated at the boundary between environmental history, natural disasters management and responses, human-environment interactions and climatology, with a particular focus on South Asia. My research is focussed on climate-society interactions and climate reconstruction; this comprises of several aspects: extension of the climatic record using documentary proxies, explorations of climatic vulnerability and adaptability, particularly at the institutional level, analyses narratives of climatic knowledge through time.
My work contributes to an understanding of the drivers of climatic vulnerability in a wider context, particularly under non-democratic governance systems. Particularly, my research on acclimatisation discourse is adding to a growing body of research on cultural narratives of climate, exemplified by the recent AHRC-funded network "Cultural Spaces of Climate". My quantitative research is shedding light on the relationship between tropical rainfall and El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on multi-decadal timescales. At the moment I am also particularly interested in the ways that historical analysis can inform disaster management and climate adaptation policy, particularly the constructive intersections of socio-ecological systems theory, vulnerability approaches and historical political ecology. Recently I have been working on the monograph 'El Nino and Human History' based partly on the unfinished writings of Richard Grove, which has opened up a new interest in the cultural politics of the El Nino Southern Oscillation.
Previously, I have undertaken work on death and disease burden in South Asia related to the consumption of arsenic-contaminated groundwater.
I currently a Lecturer in Geography at King'c College London, having previously worked at the Universities of Brighton and Sussex. I am also an affiliate of the Centre for World Environmental History at the University of Sussex. I am co-coordinator or the new MA Climate Change: History, Culture, Society at King's College London.
My work contributes to an understanding of the drivers of climatic vulnerability in a wider context, particularly under non-democratic governance systems. Particularly, my research on acclimatisation discourse is adding to a growing body of research on cultural narratives of climate, exemplified by the recent AHRC-funded network "Cultural Spaces of Climate". My quantitative research is shedding light on the relationship between tropical rainfall and El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on multi-decadal timescales. At the moment I am also particularly interested in the ways that historical analysis can inform disaster management and climate adaptation policy, particularly the constructive intersections of socio-ecological systems theory, vulnerability approaches and historical political ecology. Recently I have been working on the monograph 'El Nino and Human History' based partly on the unfinished writings of Richard Grove, which has opened up a new interest in the cultural politics of the El Nino Southern Oscillation.
Previously, I have undertaken work on death and disease burden in South Asia related to the consumption of arsenic-contaminated groundwater.
I currently a Lecturer in Geography at King'c College London, having previously worked at the Universities of Brighton and Sussex. I am also an affiliate of the Centre for World Environmental History at the University of Sussex. I am co-coordinator or the new MA Climate Change: History, Culture, Society at King's College London.
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Papers by George Adamson
contemporary climate change adaptation research. It arises from a proposition, shared by the
participants, that the past has much to contribute to present-day policy debates. Preliminary work by the
participants suggests important contributions from historical research in ‘decolonising' adaptation
debates; in ‘downscaling’ and particularising the question of adaptation to climate change; in examining
path dependencies; and in exploring cultural and institutional memory. This workshop answers to a
growing call for culturally and societally-informed climate change adaptation research and will circulate
around the question how historical research may be integrated into this field beyond its use as a mere
analog.
There is a growing recognition that adaptation to climate change requires an understanding of social processes that unfold across extended temporal trajectories. Yet, despite a move to reconceptualise adaptation as ‘pathways of change and response’ with a deeper temporal dimension, the past generally remains poorly integrated into adaptation studies. This is related to a disavowal of environmental determinism within the academic field of history, which has caused the past to be addressed from other disciplinary perspectives within climate change literature, leading to accusations of over-simplification and neo-determinism. Conversely, whilst a relatively small amount of research within the subdiscipline of historical climatology has engaged with theories from mainstream adaptation to understand societies in the past, there has been little influence in the other direction.
Building on a comprehensive review and critique of existing approaches to historical climate-society research, we argue for three important areas where historians should engage with climate change adaptation. The first area we call particularizing adaptation; this is the development of long-term empirical studies that uncover societal relations to climate in a particular place – including climate’s cultural dimensions – which can provide a baseline and contextualisation for climate change adaptation options. The second, institutional path dependency and memory, argues for a focus on the evolution of formal institutions with a responsibility for adaptation, to understand how historical events and decisions inform and constrain practices today. Our third argument is for an appreciation of the history of ideas and concepts that underpin climate change adaptation. We call for a second-order observation – observation of the observers – within climate change research, to ensure that adaptation does not perpetuate historically-grown power structures.