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Ways of handling climate change vary worldwide. Differences can be observed in the perception of potential threats and opportunities as well as in the appraisal of adequate coping strategies. Collective efforts often fail not because of technical restrictions, but as a result of social and cultural differences between the actors involved. Consequently, there is a need to explore in greater depth those zones of cultural friction which emerge when actors deal with climate change. This book examines how cultural differences in the handling of climate change can be described and explained. The work develops the concept of culture as relational space, elaborates explanatory approaches, and investigates them by surveying more than 800 actors responsible for spatial development of the European coastal regions in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Poland. In doing so, this book engages with debates on cultural globalisation, in which the attachment of culture to place is increasingly being questioned. Adopting the approach of culture as relational space allows possible cultural formations to be examined across diverse fields of application from the local to the global scale. In addition, the book investigates how far different value orientations, beliefs, and identities can explain diverse perceptions of problems and opportunities right up to preferences for climate-mitigation and adaptation measures. Providing comprehensive insights into the diverse zones of cultural friction which scholars and practitioners face when handling climate change locally and globally, this book will be of great interest to those studying climate change, environmental sociology, and sustainable planning.

Danksagung -- Inhaltsverzeichnis -- Abbildungsverzeichnis -- Tabellenverzeichnis -- Abkürzungen -- 1 Einleitung: Kulturräumliche Unterschiede im Umgang mit Klimawandel? -- 2 Klimakulturen und Raum: Theoretische Grundlagen -- 2.1 Kultur -- 2.1.1 Kultur in der sozialwissenschaftlichen Klimaforschung -- 2.1.2 Kulturverständnis I: Kollektiv geteiltes Wissen -- 2.1.3 Kulturverständnis II: Sozialkonstruktivistischer Wissensbegriff -- 2.1.4 "Klimakulturen" als kollektiv geteilte Vulnerabilitäts- und Resilienzkonstruktionen -- 2.2 Raum

Thorsten Heimann geht der Frage nach, wie sich kulturelle Unterschiede im Umgang mit Klimawandel an europäischen Küsten beschreiben und erklären lassen. Dazu entwickelt er das Konzept des relationalen Kulturraums, erarbeitet umweltsoziologische Erklärungsansätze und prüft diese anhand einer Befragung von 830 Akteuren der Raumentwicklung europäischer Küstenstaaten. Er antwortet damit auf raumtheoretische Debatten zur kulturellen Globalisierung, in denen die Gebundenheit von Kulturen an Orte zunehmend in Frage gestellt wird. Mit dem relationalen Kulturraumansatz können kulturelle Formationen zukünftig in vielfältigen sozialwissenschaftlichen Anwendungsfeldern untersucht werden. Der Inhalt Beschreibung und Erklärung kultureller Unterschiede im Umgang mit Klimawandel Kulturraum als relationaler Raum Klimaschutz- und Klimaanpassungspraktiken der Raumentwicklung Kommunikation zu Klimawandel Problemwahrnehmungen und Maßnahmenpräferenzen in Deutschland, den Niederlanden, Dänemark und Polen Die Zielgruppen Dozierende und Studierende der Soziologie, Geografie sowie Kultur-, Umwelt- und Planungswissenschaften Stadt- und Regionalplaner; Verantwortliche aus Politik, Verwaltung, Unternehmen und Nichtregierungsorganisationen Der Autor Thorsten Heimann ist Kulturwissenschaftler und Soziologe. Er arbeitet als wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Leibniz-Institut für Raumbezogene Sozialforschung

The value of human capital critically depends on two factors: the person's skills and the economic environment, both of which are exposed to a substantial risk of future deterioration. In particular, changes in the economic environment are uninsurable. An individual takes the risk that, after having made substantial human capital investments in an occupation, the overall earnings level in that occupation performs significantly worse than in others. This decline in earnings capabilities reduces the value of the occupation-specific human capital. Dispersing this kind of risk would be desirable for various reasons. Generally speaking, hedging instruments could be designed by offering insurance contracts or financial derivatives on an appropriately defined occupational earnings index. People could then swap their individual income streams for less volatile cash flows. However, the existence of such markets requires the corresponding income risks to be priced. This work is a step into that direction: it specifies the occupational earnings risk and then proposes a procedure to quantify it. For this purpose, an adequate stochastic earnings model is developed, which combines average occupational earnings with individual occupational changes. The model is formulated in continuous time, additionally making a contribution to the literature on earnings dynamics. A Monte Carlo simulation then allows to approximate the future earnings distribution of a person with a specific initial occupation. It turns out that the whole earnings distribution changes its shape over time, reflecting the rise in uncertainty about future earnings for longer time intervals. The simulated earnings distribution can be used as a basis to ultimately price financial instruments aiming at the occupational earnings risk, i.e. to determine insurance or option premiums. The actual pricing is yet beyond the scope of this work.

In social-science based research, it is still an open question how cities cope with the multi-faceted challenges of climate change. Via the example of the German coastal cities of Lübeck and Rostock and on the basis of a discourse analysis (of news articles and expert interviews), this paper contributes to this research question by asking how cities actually perceive their vulnerability and resilience related to climate impacts. The study reveals that perceptions in the two cities differ considerably and are idiosyncratic when compared to each other. This is remarkable because both cities share similar geographic conditions as well as climate forecasts. Furthermore, they both have in common a long history as Hanseatic cities. What makes Rostock special, however, is that it was part of the former German Democratic Republic and that, after the German reunification in 1990, it suffered from socio-economic problems and marginalization. The paper's findings raise the question of how divergent local knowledge about climate-related vulnerability and resilience can be conceptualized. It is also imperative to consider how local experiences of economic problems and social marginalization influence local knowledge regarding climate change. Consequently, the authors suggest a theoretical approach which is mainly based on social constructionism. Furthermore, they highlight the role that locally shared experiences— such as of social marginalization—play in the emergence of climate change constructions.

Most models of income dynamics are set in a discrete-time framework with an arbitrarily chosen accounting period. This article introduces a continuous-time stochastic model of income flows, without the need to define an accounting period. Our model can be estimated using unbalanced panel data with arbitrarily spaced observations. Although our model describes the stochastic properties of income flows, estimation is based on observed incomes accruing during time intervals of possibly varying length. Our model of income dynamics is close in spirit to the discrete-time two-stage models prevalent in the literature. We impose a parsimoniously parameterized continuous-time stochastic process (possibly containing a unit root) to model the deviation from a traditional earnings function. We illustrate our approach by estimating a simplified model using microeconomic data from the German social security agency from 1975 to 1995.

Abstract
Climate change adaptation planning and implementation have proliferated over the past years. However, we still lack an understanding of how society adapts itself outside of policy sectors and as part of what some refer to as "autonomous adaptation." The way people respond to risk without deliberate interventions of public actors is not well understood. Given the increasing occurrence of climatic changes that affect our daily lives, the topic is regaining attention with an emphasis on behavioral adaptation. This angle, however, does little to enhance our understanding of how society adapts collectively and which practices and routines groups choose to adopt. This study investigates autonomous heat-stress adaptation efforts in two small towns in Germany. Autonomous heat-stress adaptation is approached through a lens of (social) adaptation practices. Small towns are understudied in adaptation research and have played only a minor role when it comes to public adaptation planning due to their lack of formal resources to develop public adaptation strategies. Based on empirical data, consisting of qualitative problem-centered interviews and a quantitative survey, concrete examples of (social) adaptation practices are identified and classified. The presented classification of practices goes beyond earlier attempts by generating insights on the role politics can play in providing a fruitful ground for enabling autonomous adaptation. The paper emphasizes the need for researchers and decision-makers to take a closer look at the wide variety of social adaptation practices already in place. This discloses insights on public–private adaptation mixes, which could ultimately also lift autonomous adaptation from its ad hoc and reactive nature.

Significance Statement
Social adaptation practices are not yet at the center of research and decision-making. We believe that adding practice-based approaches to adaptation governance widens the debate on who is vulnerable and possible coping mechanisms from within society. It shows that vulnerability and adaptation lie in people's everyday actions. We provide a first classification of heat-health adaptation practices according to their heat-health target, the involved individuals and actors, the degree of coordination involved, and the spatial and temporal scales. This classification draws attention to potential governance leverage points to initiate heat-adaptation practices. Focusing more strongly on already-in-use and possible heat-health adaptation practices puts citizens' wants and needs at the center of adaptation governance by including them directly in the adaptation process. This can be of special interest for small towns that want to introduce citizen-based approaches to heat-risk adaptation.

The sociology of knowledge approach to discourse assumes that cultural knowledge—and thus cultural spaces—are generated and shared through discourse. Actors' shared perceptions of vulnerability and practices to create resilience should be interrelated with knowledge provided by the relevant discourses of local and historical influence. However, these assumptions have not been thoroughly examined. This study compares river-related knowledge (concerning human–river relationships: ecocentric and anthropocentric perspectives) in the German and Polish literary canons, with knowledge provided in the relevant public media and the shared knowledge of local populations in flood-prone city districts along the Odra River. It concludes that actors' river-related knowledge interrelates with the knowledge produced by national and regional discourses and that culturally shared ideas of vulnerability and resilience are discursively embedded.