Paper short abstract:

This paper asks how coastal communities in Britain have understood and responded to risks relating to storms and coastal change in the past, and what this can tell us about localised responses to shoreline policies today.

Paper long abstract:

This paper how coastal communities in Britain have responded to - and contributed to - risk and coastal change in the past, and how far this history continues to shape responses to shoreline policies today, from 'holding the line' to 'managed retreat'. Rising sea levels and global warming have focused popular and official attention on the dangers of coastal change, but storm damage and erosion have long been with us. What can a long-term survey and case study approach to these processes tell us about localised responses to current national and EU policies? Existing literature on storms and coastal change focuses on debates at national level about causes, blame and remedies (e.g. Carlsson-Hyslop 2009, 2010); by contrast this paper considers how people living and working on the coast have understood risk and how this has shaped their daily lives, tactics for resilience, and expectations for the future. In the light of literature on risk (Douglas and Wildavsky 1982; Giddens 2009; Lübken and Mauch 2011) and place attachment (Altman and Irwin 1992), it asks how coastal storms and flooding have affected localised risk assessments, responses to official shoreline policies, and expectations for the longevity or sustainability of communities over this period.

Alongside current policy documents, the paper draws on late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century journal literature on storm events and coastal change. It explores in particular one storm in November 1897 which affected much of the British Isles, using archival records for Sea Breach Commissioners and local authorities, and contemporary press reports.