Climate change demands urgent action, yet global climate governance is at an impasse, unable to inclusive, just, and nested adaptive strategies. TRACE pushes for a paradigm shift in climate governance. It aims to amplify grassroots forces and spearheading systematic transformations, focusing on Southeast Asia as a critical adaptation site.

TRACE addresses two major knowledge gaps in current climate discourse:

1. Multiple forces of change: Moving beyond climate change as the sole driver, TRACE recognizes that adaptation involves responding livelihoods, clientelist politics and capitalist intrusions.

2. Transdisciplinary ontologies: Challenging the conceptual separation of nature and society and the dominance of technical/expert ontologies, TRACE paves pathways to integrate diverse knowledge systems - including lived experience, memories, arts, and place-based knowledge - to enhance understanding of adaptation at the local level.

Building on the relational turn in socio-ecological systems and building on the interrelated ontologies of knowledge, culture, and agency. TRACE investigates how knowledge (re)production processes are rooted in and derived from symbiotic relations (or the lack thereof) between the different types and forms of knowledge, local institutional rules, arrangements, and the power dynamics that shape it. Tracing evolutionary pathways in grassroots adaptation in four distinct yet interrelated socio-ecological systems in Southeast Asia, it will:

1. Decipher past and inter-generational grassroots adaptation practices and connect them to present/future strategies.
2. Co-create knowledge with local communities and positioning them as frontrunners in adaptation.
3. Investigate how knowledge (re)production is shaped by local institutions, power dynamics, and socio-political-cultural (dis)continuities.
4. Combine archival research with oral history and ethnography.

This project is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant of EUR 2.5 million.

This competitive five-year grant is awarded by the European Commission to established, leading researchers with ground-breaking, ambitious projects. Read more.