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ALCCAR: Anticipatory Learning for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience

Multiple Authors

Learning to graph climate data from local monitoring

(Funding: National Science Foundation – Decision-Making, Risk, and Uncertainty, #0826941)

We hypothesize that cyclical (loop) learning strengthens people’s anticipatory capacity in decision-making with respect to climatic and other livelihood stressors. At the core of this research is a resilience-enhancing approach that emphasizes an iterative way of analyzing and learning about changes and uncertainties in the past, present, and future. By focusing explicitly on learning processes and decision-support tools, the aim of the project is to reverse the deterministic notion of presumably vulnerable groups as passive victims of climate change by highlighting people’s skills, knowledges, strategic responses, anticipatory capacity, and agency for adaptation planning. We hope that our project will foster people’s capacity to influence their future through iterative planning rather than learning by shock.

The ALCCAR project involved numerous research methods and learning activities in eight communities, four in Ghana and four in Tanzania. Participants and ALCCAR team members learned together through memory of the past, understanding and monitoring the present, and imagining the future. These innovative methods and learning activities culminated in the development of a learning tool for planning for a future under climate change.

Research occurred in collaboration with partners from the University of Ghana (Geography and Performing Arts), the Afram Plains Development Organization (a Ghanaian NGO), the University of Dar-es-Salaam (Institute of Resource Assessment), and the Tanzania Red Cross. Tschakert (PI), Tamminga, Crane, Hooper, Prins, Asiedu, Asiama, Yanda, and Liwenga (Co-PIs).

For more information about the project, see the ALCCAR website and ALCCAR posters and documents.

ALCCAR: Anticipatory Learning for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience

ALCCAR Posters and Documents

See Also

Penn State University

External Links

ALCCAR: Anticipatory Learning for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience

Department of Geography, The Pennsylvania State University

Dr. Petra Tschakert, The Pennsylvania State University

National Science Foundation

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