Under which conditions can shocks stimulate transformative recovery: the Strategy Shock Implementation Reaction (SSIR) framework

Future shocks from climate change impacts will likely overstretch current individual coping capacities. Integrated policy strategies could foster sustainable and resilient reactions of households and businesses by rebuilding for transformative recovery instead of bouncing back to the pre-shock status. We present the Strategy Shock Implementation Reaction (SSIR) framework as a conceptual framework for bridging the design of policy strategies to their implementation after a shock and the following reactions of the affected households and businesses. We illustrate the SSIR framework using examples of climate resilience pathways that integrate climate change adaptation and mitigation policy: planned relocation and building renovation. The framework details how a shock converts a strategy and how this conversion influences the strategy’s effect on individual reactions. It thus re-conceptualizes shocks from mere policy windows to policy filters. We discuss how the framework may be operationalized in research on how policy strategies evolve and function over time.