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Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M "Action situations"-instances of decision-making and agency-have become central to studying social-ecological systems. This special feature collects research using the network of action situations (NAS) approach to structure the way these action situations are embedded into broader interdependent instances of decision-making in different policy or discursive realms, spatial and jurisdictional context, or at different institutional levels. In this editorial, we summarize the key themes that emerged throughout the collection of the 17 articles included in this special feature. The editorial emphasizes the value of NAS in appropriately and sensitively reconstructing relations while pursuing consistency in modes of analysis. It highlights as key themes the complementarity of and disconnects between situations, temporality of NAS, and how NAS can structure the analysis of power in SES. Going further, we suggest expanding on the relational turn, developing NAS archetypes, and studying polycentric governance theories and hypotheses using the NAS approach.

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M Altres ajuts: Open access funding provided by Institute for Advanced Studies Vienna. "Action situations"-events, venues, or physically interdependent instances of decision-making-have become a central unit of analysis in the social-environmental sciences, particularly among scholars interested in bridging the social with the biophysical or ecological side of interdependent decisions. A growing body of empirical studies in social-ecological systems research has recently used case and comparative studies to analyse multiple interdependent action situations, structured into networks. In this article, we take stock of this body of empirical research, synthesize the diverse approaches that scholars have taken to assess "networks of action situations", and identify fruitful paths forward. We conduct a systematic review of the empirical literature in the field, reviewing and summarizing the key characteristics of the empirical studies, including network features, topologies, methods, and data sources used in each case. We summarize and discuss the conceptualizations, methods, diagnostic procedures, and conclusions used in this body of work in a narrative framework synthesis. The review indicates that an increasingly coherent approach is taking shape, but a systematic, protocol-driven, or formalized approach is only partly emerging. We derive future research needs that could help accumulate knowledge from empirical research.

Oil palm landscapes are often characterised by land conflicts. Multi-stakeholder platforms (MSP) may be a promising means to contribute to conflict resolution. However, the merits of MSPs are limited in contexts with strong power imbalances and entrenched conflict histories. This study analyses an MSP from Myanmar. We developed an analytical framework based on literature on MSPs and social learning and used qualitative methods such as participatory observation and interviews. The study investigates how the MSP was designed and governed and whether it was effective in addressing the land conflicts around oil palm concessions. The study discusses several promising factors of the MSP for being effective, such as adequate inclusion of stakeholders, secured resources, or effective facilitation. However, the analysis also reveals how hindering factors such as lack of a clear mandate, goal, and decision-making competences of the MSP, insufficient communication, or lack of legal and land governance expertise contributed to only limited effectiveness of the MSP. Further, we discuss whether the MSP was a suitable approach in the given context of nontransparent land governance mechanisms, persisting power disparities, and longstanding conflict history. We conclude that designing and governing an MSP in such a context needs to be done very cautiously—if at all—and recommend paying special attention to ten specific points.

Archetype analysis is a promising approach in sustainability science to identify patterns and explain mechanisms shaping the sustainability of social-ecological systems. Although considerable efforts have been devoted to developing quality standards and methodological advances for archetype analysis, archetype validation remains a major challenge. Drawing on the insights from two international workshops on archetype analysis and on broader literature on validity, we propose a framework that identifies and describes six dimensions of validity: conceptual; construct; internal; external; empirical; and application validity. We first discuss the six dimensions in relation to different methodological approaches and purposes of archetype analysis. We then present an operational use of the framework for researchers to assess the validity of archetype analysis and to support sound archetype identification and policy-relevant applications. Finally, we apply our assessment to 18 published archetype analyses, which we use to describe the challenges and insights in validating the different dimensions and suggest ways to holistically improve the validity of identified archetypes. With this, we contribute to more rigorous archetype analyses, helping to develop the potential of the approach for guiding sustainability solutions.

Geographical Indications: Commons Dimensions as an Indication for Sustainable Regional Development?

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552 This article introduces the special issue on climate adaptation and institutions. Economic accounts of climate adaptation have stressed its collective action nature and the limitations of standard economic approaches to the matter. Governance accounts, on their part, have shown that adaptation does not always happen when it is expected. Against this background, institutional economics has the potential to shed light on those societal processes and collective mechanisms leading to and shaping adaptation (or the absence of it). The selection of articles contributing to this special issue shows that climate adaptation can indeed be explored successfully through institutional economics, and that doing so fits well within the institutional economics agenda. Some recommendations for future research are provided at the end.

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552 This article introduces the special issue on climate adaptation and institutions. Economic accounts of climate adaptation have stressed its collective action nature and the limitations of standard economic approaches to the matter. Governance accounts, on their part, have shown that adaptation does not always happen when it is expected. Against this background, institutional economics has the potential to shed light on those societal processes and collective mechanisms leading to and shaping adaptation (or the absence of it). The selection of articles contributing to this special issue shows that climate adaptation can indeed be explored successfully through institutional economics, and that doing so fits well within the institutional economics agenda. Some recommendations for future research are provided at the end.

International audience; Large-scale agricultural investments (LAIs) transform land use systems worldwide. There is, however, limited understanding about how the common global drivers of land use change induce different forms of agricultural investment and produce different impacts on the ground. This article provides a cross-country comparative analysis of how differences in business models, land use changes, and governance systems explain differences in socio-economic, food security, and environmental impacts of LAIs in Kenya, Madagascar, and Mozambique. It brings together results on these aspects generated in the AFGROLAND project that collected data in a multi-method approach via household surveys, business model surveys, semi-structured household interviews, life-cycle assessments of farm production, analysis of remote-sensing data, key informant interviews, and document analysis. For the present project synthesis, we combined a collaborative expert workshop with a comparative analysis of 16 LAIs. The results show that the LAIs follow four distinctive impact patterns, ranging from widespread adverse impacts to moderate impacts. Results demonstrate how the following conditions influence how the global drivers of land use change translate into different LAIs and different impacts on the ground: labor intensity, prior land use, utilization of land, farm size, type of production, experience in local agriculture, land tenure security, accountability of state and local elites, the mobilization capacity of civil society, expansion of resource frontiers, agricultural intensification, and indirect land use change. The results indicate that commercial agriculture can be a component in sustainable development strategies under certain conditions, but that these strategies will fail without substantial, sustained increases in the economic viability and inclusiveness of smallholder agriculture, land tenure security, agro-ecological land management, and support for broader patterns of endogenous agrarian transformation.

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552 A key challenge in addressing the global degradation of natural resources and the environment is to effectively transfer successful strategies across heterogeneous contexts. Archetype analysis is a particularly salient approach in this regard that helps researchers to understand and compare patterns of (un)sustainability in heterogeneous cases. Archetype analysis avoids traps of overgeneralization and ideography by identifying reappearing but nonuniversal patterns that hold for well-defined subsets of cases. It can be applied by researchers working in inter-or transdisciplinary settings to study sustainability issues from a broad range of theoretical and methodological standpoints. However, there is still an urgent need for quality standards to guide the design of theoretically rigorous and practically useful archetype analyses. To this end, we propose four quality criteria and corresponding research strategies to address them: (1) specify the domain of validity for each archetype, (2) ensure that archetypes can be combined to characterize single cases, (3) explicitly navigate levels of abstraction, and (4) obtain a fit between attribute configurations, theories, and empirical domains of validity. These criteria are based on a stocktaking of current methodological challenges in archetypes research, including: to demonstrate the validity of the analysis, delineate boundaries of archetypes, and select appropriate attributes to define them. We thus contribute to a better common understanding of the approach and to the improvement of the research design of future archetype analyses.

Changes to the global agro-food-energy system (e.g. changing consumption patterns in the North (SNF, 2012), Europe's Climate and biofuel policies, etc.) over the past few years have led to a renewed interest in agriculture and a rush to acquire land (Cotula, 2012; Anseeuw et al, 2013). The impacts of this rush on sustainability are not always evident as its assessments focus on the short-term and generally remain at a case study level, without considering the broader agrarian and socio-economic transformations it entails (Borras et al. 2012). If a consensus emerges regarding the necessity of additional investment into agriculture (FAO, 2010), it is less evident whether large-scale agricultural investments (LAI) are a vector for broader agrarian and socio-economic transformations in a sustainable manner (Borras et al. 2012, Deininger and Byerlee 2011; Collier and Dercon 2014). Despite a growing literature (World Bank, 2010; White et al., 2012, Cotula 2014 etc.), most assessments of LAI impacts tend to remain local, in the form of specific case-studies, and are often short term without broader contextualization (Fairhead et al., 2012). Efforts to overcome these limitations through different types of meta-analyis have been undertaken (Oberlack et al., 2015, Schoneveld 2014, Schoneveld 2017, Dell'Angelo et al. (2017). However, a more empirical understanding of the diverse changes and impacts at various levels is necessary for reflecting on visions for the planetary land system. Against this backdrop, this paper presents the results of a study aiming, on one hand, at assessing the changes and impacts of LAIs at various (individual, household, regional) levels within target regions, and on the other hand, at a nuanced account of how and why LAIs subsequently induce diverse regional development trajectories in these regions. We focus on LAIs in Kenya, Madagascar and Mozambique. Specifically, this study provides a cross-national comparative analysis of business models, land-use changes, governance dynamics of LAIs and their socio-economic, food security, and environmental impacts in Kenya, Madagascar and Mozambique. It brings together the individual results on these aspects, which were generated in the Afgroland project (www.afgroland.net). The following research question guides this analysis: How do contextual and institutional nuances of large-scale agricultural investments impact on land-use changes, the organization of production and investment processes, socio-economic outcomes, food security, and the environment in LAI target regions in Kenya, Madagascar and Mozambique? Methodologically, this study utilizes a set-theoretic methodology for a case-based comparative analysis. It responds to calls for the use of robust empirical methodologies to provide reliable evidence on the impacts of LAIs and to expand the use of comparative methods to attribute LAI impacts to causal factors. Data were collected in six study areas in the three countries by means of household surveys with more than 1500 households, more than 200 key-informant and in-depth interviews with business managers, policymakers, households, development agencies, and NGOs; remotely sensed data between 2016 and 2018, and complemented with document analysis. Data analysis involved mixed qualitative and quantitative techniques. A first set of tentative results, more conceptual in nature, show that LAIs induce regional development trajectories with sustainability impact patterns that can be characterized as conflictual sustainability trade-offs; employment vs. land access and environment trade-offs; widespread hostility; or moderate impacts. The set-theoretic analysis shows that the operational farm size, labour intensity, experience in local agriculture or domestic origin of investors, and prior land uses have the most significant impact on land-use changes, evolution of business models and adaptation of governance systems:. These transformation patterns are described in detail in the paper. A second set of results shows how the same international drivers can have divergent impacts, with local-level outcomes which can differ significantly in terms of land use change, ecological impacts, food security, and livelihoods. These divergences are determined by national politics and policy frameworks, land tenure rights, business models, land and water resource endowments, and path-dependencies regarding investment and business practices. As such, in Kenya, and more particularly in the Nanyuki region characterised by longstanding LAIs, an agrarian normalisation process has established, based on labour intense production systems mainly in the flower and horticultural sectors. Better established labour rights, technology transfer and an agrarian sector that has developed over time leads presently to a relatively dynamic local economy with subsequent livelihood opportunities. In Mozambique, these regional dynamics are minimal however, albeit indirect through basic infrastructural and service development. On contrary, through land loss and increased land pressures, labour extensive crops and production models, and not well developed labour rights, major fractions of the local populations tend to be affected negatively. Lastly, in Madagascar, for the few investments that are still operational, they tend to function on an enclave model, with very little – if any – interactions and impacts on the regional economy and local populations. The paper concludes by repositioning these results in the broader framework of interactions among sustainable development goals (SDGs), representing a critical, but mostly overlooked aspect in the debate on LAIs. In policy debates, LAIs are frequently justified with the argument that LAIs would create new flows of investments to capital-poor regions; create new employment; enhance agricultural productivity. In other words, this narratives relates LAIs positively to SDG10.B and SDG17.3 (investment flows), SDG8.5 (employment), and SDG2.3 (agricultural productivity), among others. By contrast, a recent review finds that LAIs can affect 14 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in adverse ways. The results of this study and the analyses in terms of diverging development trajectories induced by LAIs allows to assess how LAIs shapes the interaction between multiple SDGs. These interactions among SDGs in the framework of LAIs can take the forms of trade-offs, co-benefits, and co-damage.

Many resource-rich countries face the paradoxical situation that their wealth in natural resources coincides with low economic and human development rates. To address this so-called resource curse, academics and practitioners turn their hopes to institutional quality. Yet whether, how and with what consequences institutional quality is transformed in resource curse contexts remains poorly understood, especially so at subnational levels. The most widely implemented initiative that seeks to address the resource curse through enhanced institutional quality is the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). This article analyses to what extent and how the EITI transforms institutional quality at national and subnational levels in Myanmar, focusing on transparency, civil society participation and accountability. We show that many transformations go beyond the official EITI process and report. While the EITI report itself is not heavily used by civil society organisations (CSOs), the EITI process motivated CSOs to gather data and organise themselves both around and beyond EITI-related issues at subnational levels. Such participatory processes of constituting transparency improved relations between the (regional) government, CSOs and private companies, but also created new forms of in- and exclusion among civil society. While avenues opened up for CSOs to demand accountability regarding the impacts of resource extraction, the extent to which they are able to trigger action of extractive industry actors in their region remains limited. In conclusion, we argue that transformations in institutional quality are not characterised by a linear trajectory from transparency in the form of the EITI report to accountability, facilitated by civil society participation in EITI multi-stakeholder groups, as the EITI standard posits. Rather, transformations in institutional quality are characterised by spin-offs, dynamic interlinkages, trade-offs, limitations and a reinforcing cycle between participation and transparency within and beyond the EITI.

Incoherent institutional regimes are among the most critical barriers to adapt water governance under climate change. However, it remains unclear how different governance processes can coordinate competing resource uses despite incoherence of institutional resource regimes. This paper examines how institutional resource regimes and polycentric governance processes are co-evolving and to what extent these processes coordinate competing resource uses in incoherent resource regimes. Empirically, we performed an embedded case study of the institutional resource regime and governance processes of three water reservoir projects with contrasting outcomes in the region of Oberhasli in the canton of Berne, Switzerland, covering a timeframe starting from the early 20th century. Data were collected through 21 semi-structured interviews, document analysis, participatory observation, and transect walks. Analytically, we demonstrate how the combination of the Institutional Resource Regime and polycentric governance frameworks provides an opportunity to analyze co-evolving resource regimes and governance processes. The results show that the institutional resource regime has become increasingly incoherent over the past decades, but the evolution of polycentric processes to govern competing water uses compensated for regime incoherence. Polycentric governance improved the coordination of water uses, if mutual adjustment, trust and activation of overarching rules between actors with similar and opposing interests were present. We conclude that institutional regime incoherence may constitute a critical barrier to climate change adaptation, but polycentric governance processes may alleviate critical challenges arising from regime incoherence.

Myanmar has experienced profound transformations of land use and land governance, often at the expense of smallholders. Empirical evidence on the agency of actors included and excluded in land use decision-making remains scarce. This study analyses who influences land use decision-making, how they do this, and under what circumstances smallholders are included. Comparing three land use trajectories in southern Myanmar, we analysed actors&rsquo, agency&mdash, conceived as the meanings and means behind (re)actions&mdash, in land use decision-making using data from focus groups and interviews. Results showed that uneven distribution of means can lead to unequal decision-making power, enabling actors with more means to exclude those with less means: smallholders. However, this only applies in the case of top-down interventions with mutually exclusive actor interests regarding use of the same land. Where interests are compatible or a mediator supports smallholders in negotiations, actors are likely to develop a collaboration despite unequal means, leading to smallholders&rsquo, inclusion in decision-making. Transformation of current land governance towards sustainable development could be promoted by providing mediators to actors with few means, ensuring equal access for all to formal land tenure, engaging with brokers in the land governance network, and improving access to knowledge and financial capital for actors with few means.

International audience

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552 This article introduces the special issue on climate adaptation and institutions. Economic accounts of climate adaptation have stressed its collective action nature and the limitations of standard economic approaches to the matter. Governance accounts, on their part, have shown that adaptation does not always happen when it is expected. Against this background, institutional economics has the potential to shed light on those societal processes and collective mechanisms leading to and shaping adaptation (or the absence of it). The selection of articles contributing to this special issue shows that climate adaptation can indeed be explored successfully through institutional economics, and that doing so fits well within the institutional economics agenda. Some recommendations for future research are provided at the end.

Recent changes in the global agro–food–energy system, driven in part by consumption trends and climate change mitigation efforts, have led to renewed interest in investment in agriculture and a rush to acquire land among investors. The broader socio-economic and ecological impacts of these land use changes are not always clear and many assessments focus mainly on short-term effects at the local level, without relating them to the wider agrarian and socio-economic transformations that are now underway. Against this backdrop, the objective of the Belmont Forum supported AFGROLAND project is to analyze how large-scale investments in land and agriculture impact on natural resources, poverty, food security, rural economies and local policies in African countries. The project focuses on 3 countries that are, according to a decreasing level of experience in terms of large scale agricultural investments: Kenya, Mozambique and Madagascar. Based on political sciences, economy, sociology, geography and agronomy analytical grid, it adopts a mixed methods approach coupling GIS data, qualitative interviews and quantitative data production (households survey) to conduct within- and cross-country analyses of these dynamics of agricultural investments. The project comprises 3 main components. It tries to understand what drivers and rules of the game pull, push or regulate agricultural investments at the global and at the national level. It also deciphers the investors' strategies and studies how their business models evolve (or not) in relation to global drivers and national/local governance. It then evaluates how these agricultural investments impact on natural resources (soil, water and vegetation), poverty as well as food security at the national, local and household levels. By taking a cross-country comparative approach, looking at three country cases in the South-Eastern sub-region of Africa, we shed light on differences in the national contexts that reshape the influence of international drivers and shape the concrete outcomes and impact of these agricultural investments. Preliminary results of the project suggest that although the international drivers at work are the same, the outcomes at local levels in terms of land use change, ecological impacts, food security and livelihoods differ significantly due to differences in national policy frameworks, land tenure rights, business climate, resource endowments and path-dependencies regarding investment and business practices. In our presentation, we discuss those differences in terms of the business models applied, the success and failures of investments, as well as their impacts at local level, considering the three dimension of sustainable development. The presentation will contribute to a better understanding of how national contexts mediate the impacts of distant drivers on local-level land system outcomes. Furthermore, these results contribute to a better understanding of the multi-scale impacts of global agro-food-energy system changes, allowing for the identification of leverage points for managing sustainability trade-offs and synergies in the global land rush.

During the military regime of the past decades, the Myanmar government decided to become independent on palm oil imports. As a consequence, more than 700,000 ha of land in Tanintharyi Region in Southern Myanmar had been put under oil palm concessions, sometimes regardless of the population and their livelihoods. With the election of the recent government in 2015, the new Tanintharyi Chief Minister announced to redistribute the legally occupied but still unused oil palm lands to the local population. As a result, a multi-stakeholder platform has been established in 2016 to review the concessions. This research accompanies this platform asking: «How does social learning take place in the multi-stakeholder plat-form (dimensions of social learning)? And what framing conditions and outputs foster or hinder the social lear-ning process?»

Governance of food systems is a poorly understood determinant of food security. Much scholarship on food systems governance is non-empirical, while existing research is often case study-based and theoretically and methodologically incommensurable. This frustrates aggregation of evidence and generalisation. We undertook a systematic review of methods used in food systems governance research with a view to identifying a core set of indicators for future research. We gathered literature through a structured consultation and sampling from recent reviews. Indicators were identified and classified according to the levels and sectors they investigate. We found a concentration of indicators in food production at local to national levels and a sparseness in distribution and consumption. Unsurprisingly, many indicators of institutional structure were found, while agency-related indicators are moderately represented. We call for piloting and validation of these indicators and for methodological development to fill gaps identified. These efforts are expected to support a more consolidated future evidence base and eventual meta-analysis.

This study adopts Ostrom’s Social-Ecological Systems (SES) framework in empirical fieldwork to explain how local forestry institutions affect forest ecosystems and social equity in the community of Mawlyngbna in North-East India. Data was collected through 26 semi-structured interviews, participatory timeline development, policy documents, direct observation, periodicals, transect walks, and a concurrent forest-ecological study in the village. Results show that Mawlyngbna's forests provide important sources of livelihood benefits for the villagers. However, ecological disturbance and diversity varies among the different forest ownership types and forest-based livelihood benefits are inequitably distributed. Based on a bounded rationality approach, our analysis proposes a set of causal mechanisms that trace these observed social-ecological outcomes to the attributes of the resource system, resource units, actors and governance system. We analyse opportunities and constraints of interactions between the village, regional, and state levels. We discuss how Ostrom’s design principles for community-based resource governance inform the explanation of robustness but have a blind spot in explaining social equity. We report experiences made using the SES framework in empirical fieldwork. We conclude that mapping cross-level interactions in the SES framework needs conceptual refinement and that explaining social equity of forest governance needs theoretical advances.

Institutions are one of the decisive factors for climate adaptation. Nevertheless, current understanding of the institutions-adaptation-nexus is fragmented across the scientific community; is often theoretically ad-hoc or eclectic and at times contradictory. Moreover, knowledge claims are typically raised either for specific cases or overly generic, whereas a diagnostic method may be most effective for cross-case learning about institutional deficits and success factors in climate adaptation. This study develops an institutional diagnostics approach to climate adaptation by means of a systematic meta-analysis of 52 studies comprising 120 cases from Europe. The results show that maladaptation, adaptation barriers and limits are rooted in institutional deficits that can be depicted as archetypical patterns of institutional attributes. Moreover, the results reveal success factors that enabled actors to prevent, alleviate or overcome specific institutional deficits in climate adaptation. Based on this, a set of diagnostic questions is provided for future in-depth institutional analyses of adaptation. Enhancing our capacities to diagnose causes of maladaptation, adaptation barriers and limits is crucial so as to device governance arrangements that match the features of specific adaptation problems.

Institutions are one of the decisive factors for climate adaptation. Nevertheless, current understanding of the institutions-adaptation-nexus is fragmented across the scientific community; is often theoretically ad-hoc or eclectic and at times contradictory. Moreover, knowledge claims are typically raised either for specific cases or overly generic, whereas a diagnostic method may be most effective for cross-case learning about institutional deficits and success factors in climate adaptation. This study develops an institutional diagnostics approach to climate adaptation by means of a systematic meta-analysis of 52 studies comprising 120 cases from Europe. The results show that maladaptation, adaptation barriers and limits are rooted in institutional deficits that can be depicted as archetypical patterns of institutional attributes. Moreover, the results reveal success factors that enabled actors to prevent, alleviate or overcome specific institutional deficits in climate adaptation. Based on this, a set of diagnostic questions is provided for future in-depth institutional analyses of adaptation. Enhancing our capacities to diagnose causes of maladaptation, adaptation barriers and limits is crucial so as to device governance arrangements that match the features of specific adaptation problems.

Economics has a key role to play for understanding vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. However, economic approaches to climate adaptation are rarely articulated and discussed at a framework level. This article first reviews and critically assesses welfare economics approaches to climate adaptation and, secondly, develops a novel institutional economics approach to climate adaptation. Concepts and tools of welfare economics have contributed to assessments of benefits and costs of adaptation; outlined strategies for adaptation; identified responsibilities of the public sector and described policy instruments for adaptation. However, the neoclassical framing of collective action based on the concept of market failure seems too narrow to do analytical justice to the multitude of governance challenges associated with adaptation. Adaptation economics seems underequipped with analytical tools to study the role of institutions for climate adaptation. Therefore, an institutional economics approach to climate adaptation is developed and illustrated. This approach contributes to integrated economic analyses of climate adaptation in three major ways: First, by broadening the scope of climate adaptation economics; second, by delivering a diagnostic framework of climate adaptation that enables the analyst to explain adaptation processes in a systematic manner, synthesizes findings from a large number of research efforts, places particular research questions, governance problems and results in a broader context, and can guide the design of theoretical and empirical inquiries of climate adaptation; third, by offering research strategies and methods for developing generalisable and valid insights in the face of pronounced heterogeneity and diversity of climate adaptation.

Economics has a key role to play for understanding vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. However, economic approaches to climate adaptation are rarely articulated and discussed at a framework level. This article first reviews and critically assesses welfare economics approaches to climate adaptation and, secondly, develops a novel institutional economics approach to climate adaptation. Concepts and tools of welfare economics have contributed to assessments of benefits and costs of adaptation; outlined strategies for adaptation; identified responsibilities of the public sector and described policy instruments for adaptation. However, the neoclassical framing of collective action based on the concept of market failure seems too narrow to do analytical justice to the multitude of governance challenges associated with adaptation. Adaptation economics seems underequipped with analytical tools to study the role of institutions for climate adaptation. Therefore, an institutional economics approach to climate adaptation is developed and illustrated. This approach contributes to integrated economic analyses of climate adaptation in three major ways: First, by broadening the scope of climate adaptation economics; second, by delivering a diagnostic framework of climate adaptation that enables the analyst to explain adaptation processes in a systematic manner, synthesizes findings from a large number of research efforts, places particular research questions, governance problems and results in a broader context, and can guide the design of theoretical and empirical inquiries of climate adaptation; third, by offering research strategies and methods for developing generalisable and valid insights in the face of pronounced heterogeneity and diversity of climate adaptation.

This study examines by which design properties international cooperation can effectively facilitate specific climate adaptation processes at the local level. First, a qualitative meta-analysis of empirical evidence from 23 cases is conducted to identify archetypal patterns of barriers and change factors for climate adaptation in urban squatter settlements and in municipal public sectors in low- and middleincome countries. Second, five modes of international cooperation for climate adaptation are characterized based on UNFCCC documents, process observation and literature review. Third, these results are combined to derive testable propositions about how selected design properties of international cooperation can facilitate local efforts to overcome barriers to urban adaptation in lowand middle-income countries. Findings indicate, first, that a major step to tackle adaptation barriers in squatter settlements is improvements of the status of urban poor in the public sector. Second, national or regional centres of competence are means to foster endogenous dynamics in municipal public sectors. Third, national adaptation policies are arrangements to enable and incentivise municipal adaptation. Fourth, flexible indicators of adaptation benefits are instruments to target international decision making and monitoring systems to local needs. It is finally discussed how these insights and methods can be used to advance the study of international cooperation, barriers and success factors for climate change adaptation.

This study examines by which design properties international cooperation can effectively facilitate specific climate adaptation processes at the local level. First, a qualitative meta-analysis of empirical evidence from 23 cases is conducted to identify archetypal patterns of barriers and change factors for climate adaptation in urban squatter settlements and in municipal public sectors in low- and middleincome countries. Second, five modes of international cooperation for climate adaptation are characterized based on UNFCCC documents, process observation and literature review. Third, these results are combined to derive testable propositions about how selected design properties of international cooperation can facilitate local efforts to overcome barriers to urban adaptation in lowand middle-income countries. Findings indicate, first, that a major step to tackle adaptation barriers in squatter settlements is improvements of the status of urban poor in the public sector. Second, national or regional centres of competence are means to foster endogenous dynamics in municipal public sectors. Third, national adaptation policies are arrangements to enable and incentivise municipal adaptation. Fourth, flexible indicators of adaptation benefits are instruments to target international decision making and monitoring systems to local needs. It is finally discussed how these insights and methods can be used to advance the study of international cooperation, barriers and success factors for climate change adaptation.

Adaptation to the consequences of climate change has attracted increasing interest as a necessary complement to greenhouse gas mitigation. Economic approaches to climate adaptation are rarely articulated and discussed explicitly despite many benefits of such a framework-level discourse. Therefore, this article investigates how climate adaptation is framed and approached in economics and attempts to contribute to the development of economic frameworks of climate adaptation. First, the paper identifies and critically reviews four major strands of current adaptation economics: estimation of adaptation benefits and costs, strategies for adaptation, the role of markets and governments, and policy instruments for adaptation. While having their merits, serious methodical difficulties prevail. Moreover, the applied neoclassical framing seems too narrow to capture the plethora of governance challenges and normative criteria revealed in adaptation policy discourses and in the multidisciplinary adaptation literature. The second part of this article outlines an institutional economics approach to climate adaptation that addresses caveats in the current state-of-the-art and offers additional concepts to study climate adaptation. Moreover, promising methods and strategies for adaptation research are presented and future research directions suggested. Finally, the paper assesses the normative foundations of climate adaptation economics and their implications for positive adaptation research.

Adaptation to the consequences of climate change has attracted increasing interest as a necessary complement to greenhouse gas mitigation. Economic approaches to climate adaptation are rarely articulated and discussed explicitly despite many benefits of such a framework-level discourse. Therefore, this article investigates how climate adaptation is framed and approached in economics and attempts to contribute to the development of economic frameworks of climate adaptation. First, the paper identifies and critically reviews four major strands of current adaptation economics: estimation of adaptation benefits and costs, strategies for adaptation, the role of markets and governments, and policy instruments for adaptation. While having their merits, serious methodical difficulties prevail. Moreover, the applied neoclassical framing seems too narrow to capture the plethora of governance challenges and normative criteria revealed in adaptation policy discourses and in the multidisciplinary adaptation literature. The second part of this article outlines an institutional economics approach to climate adaptation that addresses caveats in the current state-of-the-art and offers additional concepts to study climate adaptation. Moreover, promising methods and strategies for adaptation research are presented and future research directions suggested. Finally, the paper assesses the normative foundations of climate adaptation economics and their implications for positive adaptation research.

It has been well established that institutions are decisive for the capacity of society to adapt to climate change. But it is largely subject of debate, how in detail institutions in interaction with the available resources and the characteristics of the actors involved foster or impede the adaptive capacity in multi-level governance systems. Therefore, synthesizing the diverse findings of empirical case studies on this question in a methodologically coherent and integrative manner may provide theoretical foundations for answers on how to organize enhanced adaptive capacity to climate change within and across governance levels.

It has been well established that institutions are decisive for the capacity of society to adapt to climate change. But it is largely subject of debate, how in detail institutions in interaction with the available resources and the characteristics of the actors involved foster or impede the adaptive capacity in multi-level governance systems. Therefore, synthesizing the diverse findings of empirical case studies on this question in a methodologically coherent and integrative manner may provide theoretical foundations for answers on how to organize enhanced adaptive capacity to climate change within and across governance levels.

Background: Current literature about climate change adaptation provides a broad range of factors influencing the adaptive capacity. Furthermore, a frequent tenor is that “scale matters”. However, the effects of institutional interplay across governance levels on adaptive capacity and the effects of the interaction of institutions with other variables such as technology and information remain largely subject of debate. Therefore synthesizing the diverse findings of empirical studies in a methodologically coherent and integrative manner may provide theoretical foundations for answers on how to organize enhanced adaptive capacity within and across governance levels. Method: 1\. Against this background we develop a comprehensive multi-tier framework of variables that systematically influence adaptive capacity. This is done by adopting the conceptual groundwork of the Institutional Analysis and Development framework (Ostrom 1990; Ostrom/Gardner/Walker 1994; Ostrom 2005) and with special focus on cross-level variable interactions. 2\. We apply this framework of variables to the case of urban areas and conduct a model-centered meta-analysis of empirical studies in order to identify patterns in which urban adaptive capacity is determined by institutional interplay and variable interactions within and across governance levels. Results: The main results are: 1\. The study provides a comprehensive and coherent multi-tier framework of variables determining adaptive capacity. 2\. The analysis of urban adaptive capacity indicates that the level of urban adaptive capacity is attributable to the congruence of multiple variables. 3\. Specific patterns of conjoint causation are identified for financial, informational, and institutional multi-level-interactions of determinants of urban adaptive capacity. Conclusions: This multi-tier framework seems to be very promising for a better understanding of adaptive capacity and thereby for influencing vulnerability to climate change. It provides a meaningful background for future studies and may foster cumulative research on adaptive capacity. Moreover, it offers a tool for further investigations of level- and cross-level-dynamics.

Archetypes are increasingly used as a methodological approach to understand recurrent patterns in variables and processes that shape the sustainability of social-ecological systems. The rapid growth and diversification of archetype analyses has generated variations, inconsistencies, and confusion about the meanings, potential, and limitations of archetypes. Based on a systematic review, a survey, and a workshop series, we provide a consolidated perspective on the core features and diverse meanings of archetype analysis in sustainability research, the motivations behind it, and its policy relevance. We identify three core features of archetype analysis: recurrent patterns, multiple models, and intermediate abstraction. Two gradients help to apprehend the variety of meanings of archetype analysis that sustainability researchers have developed: (1) understanding archetypes as building blocks or as case typologies and (2) using archetypes for pattern recognition, diagnosis, or scenario development. We demonstrate how archetype analysis has been used to synthesize results from case studies, bridge the gap between global narratives and local realities, foster methodological interplay, and transfer knowledge about sustainability strategies across cases. We also critically examine the potential and limitations of archetype analysis in supporting evidence-based policy making through context-sensitive generalizations with case-level empirical validity. Finally, we identify future priorities, with a view to leveraging the full potential of archetype analysis for supporting sustainable development.