Abstract
Rural coastal areas are highly vulnerable to climate change impacts. In the USA, much energy is devoted to conserving rural coastal ecosystems by promoting their adaptation to climate change. However, these areas are also home to vulnerable and underserved communities who can be challenging to engage in climate adaptation discussions. Churches—as trusted social institutions—may offer a structure through which government decision-makers and rural residents can engage to improve the resilience of these rural coastal regions. We employed collaborative learning to engage government decision-makers and rural church members on the topic of climate impacts on Maryland’s Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. We analyzed the collaborative learning process and its outcomes using ethnographic methods. In this paper, we present our approach and discuss the benefits and challenges of collaborative learning with rural churches. We found that this approach yielded major benefits including greater understanding of capacities and limitations in addressing environmental challenges, increased trust and social networks, expanded engagement with a greater diversity of stakeholders, increased opportunities for new conversations, new pathways toward interventions, and stakeholder empowerment. Collaborating with churches is not without challenges though; it requires considerable time and effort and presents difficulties in navigating social hierarchies and specialized language, identifying common goals, grappling with the newness of climate change, and overcoming institutional barriers. Despite these challenges, we conclude that collaborative learning with churches is a valuable approach for information exchange and network-building toward more resilient rural coasts.
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19 February 2020
The original article has been corrected. Unfortunately the article was initially published online with an incorrect title.
Notes
In this study, we define decision-makers as the elected officials and government staff who determine, carry out, and enforce adaptation policies.
For example, decision-makers typically rely on scientific knowledge while rural communities may rely more on experiential knowledge.
In compliance with University of Maryland Institutional Review Board policies, all interviews and collaborative learning activities were recorded in confidence and secured in order to protect the confidentiality of our participants.
To learn more about collaborative learning, please see Further Collaborative Learning Resources in our Supplementary Information.
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Acknowledgements
This research was financially supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coastal and Ocean Climate Application Program (grant no. NA17OAR4310248). The authors wish to thank all research participants and the project team for their contributions to this study.
Author attributions
CMH and MP designed the study and conducted interviews. CMH and LVD facilitated all workshops and analyzed data. LVD created all figures. CMH directed the project and wrote the manuscript with contributions from LVD and MP.
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The original article has been corrected. Unfortunately the article was initially published online with an incorrect title.
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Miller Hesed, C.D., Van Dolah, E.R. & Paolisso, M. Engaging faith-based communities for rural coastal resilience: lessons from collaborative learning on the Chesapeake Bay. Climatic Change 159, 37–57 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-019-02638-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-019-02638-9