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The effects of climate change are both acute and chronic, leaving many communities in a perpetual state of uncertainty. For others, there is no such uncertainty—their communities will soon be uninhabitable. Some levels of government have begun to recognize and slowly respond to communities facing the possibilities of relocation. This paper considers the impact of transdisciplinary thinking and collaborative moments in the planning phase of one of the few community‐scale managed retreat attempts in the United States. In January 2016, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded the state of Louisiana $48.3 million to plan, design, and implement a structured and scalable resettlement with former and current residents of Isle de Jean Charles. The paper uses data from surveys and interviews with the practitioner team, fieldnotes, review of published reports, and a sample of more than 400 media accounts. Our analysis highlights how developing a transdisciplinary process may render a new understanding to the tasks and meanings of planning resettlements in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decisions about climate change adaptation are informed by technical information, but they are also shaped by social and political factors and impacted communities. Given the realities of a changing climate, more research is needed to examine how technically trained practitioners and other actors describe their work in relation to social and political factors. This article contributes to knowledge on this topic by analyzing the narratives of 62 organizational actors in coastal Louisiana. Actors include scientists, engineers, modelers, planners, project administrators, government staff, and non‐profit employees working on climate adaptation and coastal risk reduction projects outlined in Louisiana's Coastal Master Plan. While scholars critique the Master Plan as overly technocratic, I show that people weave morals and values into narratives about science. However, I show how the motivations of acting boldly, morally, and urgently in the face of emergency clash with climate justice. Some individuals within these organizations do advocate for reforming or rethinking Master Plan projects to better serve coastal communities; however, these individuals also face resistance from colleagues who frame this work as secondary or outside of their organizational purview. To conclude, I argue that research connecting technical aspects of climate adaptation planning to power and social justice outcomes has the potential to bridge disciplinary divides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is currently confronting two water crises, a developmental crisis concerning populations who lack access to water and an environmental crisis regarding water scarcity and freshwater resource depletion. Are we as academics addressing the complexity of these issues? Using network analysis of over 5,000 articles that address water development and water scarcity, I generate a co‐citation network to identify the overlap between development and environmental water literatures in academic journals. The results suggest that the development literature only has a 6.28 percent overlap with the environmental literature and the environmental literature has a mere 1.92 percent overlap. Overall, this research suggests that there is an extreme lack of academic articles that address water scarcity and water development concurrently. Until we as an academic community become more nuanced in our studies of water, we will lack a full understanding of how to solve these seemingly contradictory problems. I conclude by drawing on critical Marxist and "Frankfurt School" perspectives to explain this apparent disconnect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on disenchantment, sociology undertheorizes wonder. Our analysis of 30 interviews is the first sociological study of Americans' wonder experiences. Contrary to Weber's theorization of disenchantment, this study shows people experience wonder that is transformative and try to cultivate states of mind open to wonder experiences. Our study shows wonder follows from particularity, difference, and encounters with the mysterious; wonder connects people to expansive concerns; people experience acute self‐awareness during wonder encounters; and people seek wonder experiences. Wonder communities influence wonder experiences, but stages of wonder experiences are similar outside communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional food initiatives often aim to increase food access through market‐based, needs‐driven models, leaving basic food requirements unmet for many in the current U.S. food system. Employing qualitative community‐based participatory methods, we examine the asset‐based developmental stages of a local‐level Food and Resource Center (FRC) in rural Stillwater, OK. We consider the ways that social capital can be activated as a community asset for development, articulating how social networks are used to identify, mobilize, and galvanize community support. How has the community identified and mobilized a "stock" of social capital to employ an asset‐based approach to developing a food resource center? How can the FRC enhance social capital for the community as a whole? We provide insight into how individual, agency, and institutional actors act as pivotal resources for community development, delineating the ways in which community social capital and asset‐based development can influence an organization's operational goals. Additionally, we explore strategies used to enhance linking and bonding forms of social capital as well as obstacles to bridging social capital in the broader community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]