Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102672
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Spinning in circles? A systematic review on the role of theory in social vulnerability, resilience and adaptation research
Author Kuhlicke, C.; de Brito, M.M.; Bartkowski, B.; Botzen, W.; Doğulu, C.; Han, S. ORCID logo ; Hudson, P.; Karanci, A.N.; Klassert, C.J.; Otto, D.; Scolobig, A.; Moreno Soares, T.; Rufat, S.
Source Titel Global Environmental Change
Year 2023
Department OEKON; SUSOZ
Volume 80
Page From art. 102672
Language englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Keywords Natural hazards; Preparedness; Adaptive behaviour; Coping; Inductive research; Deductive research; Theorising
Abstract An increasing number of publications focus on social vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation (SVRA) towards natural hazards and climate change. Despite this proliferation of research, a systematic understanding of how these studies are theoretically grounded is lacking. Here, we systematically reviewed 4432 articles that address SVRA in various disciplinary fields (e.g. psychology, sociology, geography, mathematics) for various hazards, including floods, droughts, landslides, storm surges, wildfires, tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcano eruptions. We focus on the extent to which these studies explicate the frameworks, theoretical constructs or theories they rely on. Surprisingly, we found that about 90% of the reviewed studies do not explicitly refer to a theoretical underpinning. Overall, theories focusing on individuals’ SVRA were more frequently used than those focusing on systems, society, groups, and networks. Moreover, the uptake of theories varied according to the hazard investigated and field of knowledge, being more frequent in wildfire and flood studies and articles published in social science journals. Based on our analysis, we propose a reflexive handling of theories to foster more transparent, comparable, and robust empirical research on SVRA.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=22696
Kuhlicke, C., de Brito, M.M., Bartkowski, B., Botzen, W., Doğulu, C., Han, S., Hudson, P., Karanci, A.N., Klassert, C.J., Otto, D., Scolobig, A., Moreno Soares, T., Rufat, S. (2023):
Spinning in circles? A systematic review on the role of theory in social vulnerability, resilience and adaptation research
Glob. Environ. Change 80 , art. 102672 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102672