The Practical Paradoxes of a More Inclusive Approach to Climate Change Adaptation

ABSTRACT

We conducted semi‐structured interviews with climate change adaptation (CCA) practitioners in Canada and Vietnam (purposive sampling, n  = 26) to examine their views on inclusiveness in CCA and explore pathways to enhance inclusivity in CCA policies and practices. Applying thematic analysis both deductively and inductively on NVivo, the study reveals four key paradoxes that practitioners from both countries face in their pursuit of inclusivity: (a) paradox of sense‐making: They hold diverging understandings while striving for a shared goal; (b) paradox of organizing: They need pragmatic tools for aspirational policies; (c) paradox of resources: They have limited resources for costly processes; (d) paradox of results: They only control small steps but need big impact. The study contributes to adaptation scholarship by reframing inclusiveness as a set of interdependent paradoxes that must be continuously managed rather than fully resolved. We argue that bottom‐up approaches, grounded in practitioners' optimism and solidarity, must be reinforced by national laws and regulations to institutionalize diverse forms of inclusivity, manage trade‐offs between inclusiveness and other priorities, and leverage transformative changes that lead to genuinely inclusive CCA policies and practices.