Value-based adaptation to climate change and divergent developmentalisms in Turkish agriculture

- Values of policy actors are central to preferences on climate change adaptation.
- This study enquires the values in climate change adaptation policy in Turkey.
- Four discourses on adaptation policy are identified using Q-methodology.
- Results hint at the prevalence of developmentalism albeit in divergent forms.

There is an increased recognition and attention on human values with respect to their role in shaping climate change adaptation policies. Furthermore, as the recent literature suggests, values held by policy actors are centrally located in the debates linking adaptation to development. However, different values tend to give way to diverging adaptation policy preferences, which often appear as a dichotomy of adjustment (incremental change) versus transformation. This study enquires the assumptions and values in adaptation policy by using Q-methodology and advances value-based approach to adaptation policy with an empirical case from Turkey, a developing country with key vulnerabilities in its agricultural system. By exploring the narratives of 29 policy actors who participated in the making of Turkey's climate change adaptation strategy, the analysis suggests that assumptions regarding an economic growth-driven development agenda often shape adaptation concerns. Further analysis of the 4 emerging discourses (productivism, techno-managerialism, eco-localism, and authoritarianism) suggests that while discourses agree that the ultimate goal of adaptation is safeguarding a developmentalist vision in agriculture, they differ on the means and agents for reaching this goal. I argue that this divergence can enhance the transformative potential of adaptation by bringing “how,” “for whom,” and “why” questions back to policymaking.