Abstract

This article explores how different forms of adaptation governance in Costa Rica shape subjectivities and adaptation capacities in smallholder farms. The country presently has a neoliberal-welfare state structure that stems from the progressive transition of its welfare state to neoliberalism. Drawing on literature on environmentality and based on field work through three localities in Costa Rica, it is argued that the country's neoliberal-welfare state structure has resulted in some localities displaying an adaptation governance aligned with neoliberal environmentality, while others align with welfare environmentality. Based on in-depth interviews with farmers and their families, it discusses how the capacity of smallholder farms to adapt to climate change tends to vary, as each form of adaptation governance possesses a particular rationality and uses different technologies of governance, resulting in different framings of adaptation and available resources and services, such as financial aid for adaptation, climate change information, and training. Moreover, drawing on Feminist Political Ecology, the article analyses how these forms of governance seek to produce subjectivities and how farmers respond to these efforts through their engagement with adaptation. The article concludes that the lessons learned from these different scenarios can serve policymakers and political leaders in other similar development contexts to have a better sense of the direction their climate adaptation policies should take so they can promote climate justice.

Keywords: environmentality, climate change, adaptation, smallholder farms, gender

How to Cite:

Castillo, C., (2025) “Environmentalities, subjectivities, and adaptation capacities in Costa Rican smallholder farms”, Journal of Political Ecology 32(1): 7082. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.7082