Inclusive development and coastal adaptiveness
Highlights •The problems of demographic concentration and climate change result in an appeal for new coastal governance strategies. •Much of the coastal zone management literature tends to take a technocratic, growth-oriented focus. •A technocratic, growth-oriented focus exacerbates the poor's relationship with ecosystem services in the developing world. •In the developed world it may lead to artificial ‘problem structuring’ and the ‘depoliticization’. •Only if both social and ecological issues are taken into account will coastal strategies be truly inclusive and sustainable.