La Estrategia de Adaptación al Cambio Climático de Quito como nueva perspectiva para Gubernamentalidad e Innovación Social

Abstract

The discussion about the implementation of the Convention on Climate Change is strongly determined by scientific and economic factors, particularly in the field of mitigation. While measures in the field of mitigation will certainly be necessary in the future, they should be considered alongside the field of adaptation. Contributions toward this from the social sciences are rare, but they would undoubtedly be necessary for achieving progress in the field of adaptation strategies. The concept of "governmentality" can be used to show the conceptual contradictions in the basic concepts of the Climate Change Convention, particularly in regard to implementation. These factors likely contribute to the unsatisfactory progress results that are addressed at every COP. The “Local Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change” of the Ecuadorian capital Quito shows how this conceptual design could be successfully improved. Based on such a snapshot, the approach presented in the "Comprehensive Social Innovation and Modernization of the Metropolitan District of Quito" presents possible scenarios on how or where local knowledge can be better integrated, how processes of social innovation can be triggered by combining existing knowledge, which actors are foreseeably involved in such a process, and where barriers to the implementation of such innovations exist. From this, a notable contribution presents itself, to not stop at the mere introduction of innovative individual projects for mitigation, where the diffusion of such pilot projects as regarded as an auto-matic given. An adaptation strategy can also be understood as diffusion of a comprehensive social innovation within in a space and its institutional actors, in which catalysts and barriers to such a pro-cess are identified, then strengthened or overcome. As such, it is an application-oriented use of social science knowledge. In addition, the perspective of complementary knowledge between Latin America and Europe is discussed in this context. The individual case-related positive experiences in Latin Ame-rica, and the theoretical conceptual progress in Europe are seen to complement each other in a meaningful way. This vision, of complementary knowledge and advances made possible by the applied geography approach, represents an important result, since climate change and territorial changes in metropolises are developing a growing momentum of their own, which requires local knowledge and institutional actors with the capacity to analyze and manage. What is needed is to identify key actors, barriers to the diffusion of social innovations and proposals to overcome them. In general, a basic objective of "social innovation" should be underlined; the composition of known fields of knowledge in a new context can also lead to important innovations. This paper presents proposals. An illustrative example is that localization policy considerations that do not meet the very classical characteristics of economic valuation, such as proximity to the world market, excellent universities with international reputation, high-tech research, could now be positioned and developed differently. Not economic factors of creative territory, intellectual capital of local governments, local urban knowledge could have a high influence on future policy of localization, if they are properly analyzed