Adaptation privilege and Voluntary Buyouts: Perspectives on ethnocentrism in sea level rise relocation and retreat policies in the US

The coast is a highly populated environment that is under increasing risk because of sea level rise (SLR) and climate change. Social science predicts that social and political systems will habitually privilege certain communities and disadvantage others under conditions of risk and disaster. This paper tests that supposition on a particular disaster policy in the United States. Voluntary buyouts are a policy tool in the US that has the potential to help communities adapt to SLR. While buyouts have been resisted in the past, there is some indication that they are becoming more politically popular. Despite increased popularity, communities in Alaska who need to relocate because of repetitive flooding and sea level rise do not meet the basic requirements of the buyout program in a way that makes this policy applicable to their situation. We find that notions of the market, property, and individualism are ideological assumptions inherent to the buyout policies, which ultimately serve to disadvantage tribal communities as they attempt to relocate as an adaptation strategy to climate change. This analysis suggests that adaptation policies to climate change themselves, can limit the inventory of possibilities that some communities have to choose from, and re-entrench inequity in the face of risk.