Improving the way we engage with vulnerability as a pathway to transformational adaptation

The Event

SWM is involved in the MACC Hub as an engagement partner covering the whole of England, and to support the development of non-academic outputs. Through the MACC Hub comes a monthly webinar series, of which this is the second webinar.

The session will explore the concept of vulnerability in climate adaptation. In climate discourse, “vulnerability” is a widely used term—appearing in research, policy, and institutional strategies. But what does it truly mean to be labelled vulnerable, and who has the authority to define it?

This session will interrogate how vulnerability is framed, the implications of these framings, and how we might move toward more inclusive, participatory, and justice-oriented approaches. If transformational adaptation is about challenging the systems and structures that produce climate risk and injustice, then we must also challenge how vulnerability is understood and operationalised.

Too often, framing people as vulnerable risks reinforcing stigma, erasing agency, and casting communities as passive recipients of aid rather than as active agents of change. This session aims to create space for reflection and dialogue on how to engage with vulnerability in more transformative ways.