Symposium abstract:
In a world facing high magnitude global changes (e.g. climate change) and extreme natural (e.g. heat/cold waves; disease outbreaks) and man-made (e.g. air pollution; terrorism) events, research focused on a better understanding of citizens’ adaptation strategies has gained a worldwide priority (e.g. Clayton et al, 2015; WHO, 2015). Despite evidence that people can reduce their susceptibility to these changes/events and adapt overtime (Arbuthnott, Hajat, Heaviside, & Vardoulakis, 2016) by using various individual coping strategies (e.g. Homberg, Stolberg & Wagner, 2007) and community level actions (e.g. Demski et al, 2016), a better understanding of how these adaptation processes take place is needed. Given this need, the proposed symposium will focus on presenting methodological/theoretical approaches and empirical studies that address it. Particular examples such as disease outbreaks/epidemics, extreme weather events (heat waves) and coastal changes will be addressed.