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Adaptation and Development — Issues, Evidence and Policy Relevance

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Adaptation, Poverty and Development

Part of the book series: Rethinking International Development Series ((RID))

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Abstract

Adaptation is an elusive concept that has been defined in many different overlapping and competing ways. It has also been associated with a range of empirical phenomena. Discussions and analyses of adaptation have taken place across the social sciences, humanities and other disciplines (most notably, biology). According to Frederick and Loewenstein (1999, p. 302) ‘[a]daptation, in its broadest sense, refers to any action, process or mechanism that reduces the effects (perceptual, physiological, attentional, motivational, hedonic, and so on) of a constant repeated stimulus’ (see also Section 1.2). While the study of adaptation is inevitably trans-disciplinary, many of the ensuing debates have occurred in relative isolation from one another – typically because they have taken place within the confines of established intellectual disciplines or sub-disciplines. Thus, prominent discussions of adaptation can be found in social psychology, mainstream economics, political economy, sociology and moral philosophy.

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Clark, D.A. (2012). Adaptation and Development — Issues, Evidence and Policy Relevance. In: Clark, D.A. (eds) Adaptation, Poverty and Development. Rethinking International Development Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137002778_1

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