Lindsay Ratcliffe, in fulfilling the requirements of the PhD in Environmental Studies at Antioch University’s New England Campus, has written and published a dissertation titled Speaking of Transformation: Discourse, Values, and Climate Adaptation Planning in San Antonio, Texas.
Adaptation planning and policy must respond to both problems as climate change accelerates and social inequity grows. Adaptation scholars increasingly call for transformative solutions that address the problems with the status quo but articulate ethical commitments to justice and equity. Though the City Climate Action and Adaptation Plans (CAAPs) have started to center these commitments, little is known about how responses become articulated and change as CAAPs are developed and passed.
Ratcliffe’s dissertation is a critical case study of San Antonio’s first CAAP, SA Climate Ready, which addresses this gap by focusing on changes to the discourse of climate equity during the planning and drafting phases. Combining critical discourse analysis and rhetorical analysis methodologies, the study examined claims about climate equity and climate action, as well as the value resonances conveyed by these claims. Ratcliffe’s research included transcripts of 45 planning meetings in 2018 and three CAAP drafts published in 2019. Findings suggest that climate equity discourse was backgrounded, and economic arguments for climate action were foregrounded to appeal to decision-makers’ values and priorities. Identifying four rhetorical constraints contributing to these changes and four recommendations for mitigating these constraints, this study has implications for transformative climate planning and policymaking in other contexts.
Read and download Ratcliffe’s dissertation, Speaking of Transformation: Discourse, Values, and Climate Adaptation Planning in San Antonio, Texas.
