Researchers Ebba Brink, Ana Maria Vargas Falla and Emily Boyd examine how socio-legal processes shape climate vulnerability and resistance, with a focus on marginalized communities in Cartagena, Colombia.
Their study challenges key assumptions in climate adaptation debates: that laws and policies are neutral tools for managing climate risks. Rather, it shows how these laws often exacerbate inequalities, benefiting wealthier communities while displacing the poorest. Using the concept of legal pluralism, Brink, Vargas and Boyd uncover how residents of informal settlements resist exclusionary laws by creating their own legal systems. This resistance isn’t just defiance – it’s an assertion of survival and justice in the face of a changing climate.
Residents claim land in flood risk zones land using informal systems
Through interviews and fieldwork in Cartagena, the researchers document the experiences of residents like Mabel, community activist and social leader, living in a flood-prone settlement. In defiance of the city’s flood-risk maps and relocation policies, Mabel claimed land using an informal system of rules called the law of the four poles. This local and customary 'law' allows residents to stake land claims and build homes in flood zones, filling plots with garbage to raise the ground level. While this practice exposes them to significant risks, it also represents their only pathway to housing security in a city marked by extreme inequality and stalled adaptation policies.
– Studying resistance through the lens of socio-legal theory has given me a whole new outlook on climate adaptation, says Ebba Brink, affiliated researcher at LUCSUS, whose background is in climate and risk science.
– It explains why people resist interventions that, on the surface, are supposed to help them – and how adaptation measures can unintentionally deepen inequalities.
Ana Maria Vargas, a scholar of sociology of law at the Department of Sociology of Law at Lund University and affiliated researcher at LUCSUS, was struck by how adaptation policies often assume an outdated view of legality.
– In my field, it's well understood that law can be a tool for domination by elites, she explains. Yet in climate adaptation, the legal system is too often treated as if it operates impartially, overlooking how laws play out in marginalized communities' everyday lives.
Study addresses gaps in the academic literature
The study is important because it addresses critical gaps in the climate and socio-legal literature, the researchers emphasise. It highlights the urgent need to rethink how climate adaptation laws impact marginalized communities, particularly in the Global South. It also underscores the interplay between material climate impacts, formal laws and grassroots resistance, demonstrating how climate adaptation interventions can unintentionally perpetuate injustice.
– We need to move beyond a narrow focus on high-profile climate litigation to examine how everyday legal struggles shape climate adaptation, says Ebba Brink.
The study is a wake-up call for policymakers, urban planners, and legal scholars, they say.
– Just and equitable climate regulation must recognize that not all groups experience climate impacts – or laws – the same way, says Ana Maria Vargas Falla.
– For anyone invested in climate justice, this research shines a light on the need for adaptation laws and policies that empower vulnerable communities, rather than displacing them. It’s a vivid reminder that in the fight against climate change, the voices of those on the frontlines must be heard.
