Climate adaptation is a growing imperative across all scales and sectors of governance. This often requires changes in institutions, which can be difficult to realize. Explicitly process‐oriented approaches explaining how and why institutional change occurs are lacking. Overcoming this gap is vital to move beyond either input‐oriented (e.g., capacity) or output‐oriented (e.g., assessment) approaches, to understand how changes actually occur for addressing complex and contested governance issues. This paper analyses causal conditions and mechanisms by which institutions develop in climate adaptation governance. It focuses on urban climate governance through an in‐depth case study of Santiago, Chile, over a 12‐year period (2005–2017), drawing on primary and secondary data, including 26 semistructured interviews with policy, academic, and civil society actors. It identifies and explains a variety of institutional developments across multiple levels (i.e., programmatic, legislative, and constitutional), through a theory‐centric process tracing methodology. This reveals a multiple‐response pattern, involving several causal mechanisms and coexisting institutional logics. Findings suggest that although adaptation may be inherently protracted, institutions can nevertheless develop in both related and novel directions. Overall, the paper argues for a new research agenda on process‐oriented theorizing and analysis in climate and environmental governance.

中文翻译：

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投入和产出之外：气候适应治理中体制变化的面向过程的解释

在所有规模和治理领域，适应气候变化都变得越来越重要。这通常需要更改机构，而这可能很难实现。缺乏以过程为导向的方法来解释制度变化的方式和原因。克服这一差距对于超越以投入为导向（例如，能力）或以产出为导向（例如，评估）的方法，了解如何实际发生变化以解决复杂且有争议的治理问题至关重要。本文分析了气候适应治理中制度发展的因果条件和机制。通过对智利圣地亚哥的12年期（2005-2017年）的深入案例研究，重点研究城市气候治理，并利用主要和次要数据，包括26次半结构化访谈，对政策，学术，和民间社会参与者。它通过以理论为中心的过程跟踪方法，识别并解释了跨多个级别（即程序性，立法性和宪法性）的各种制度发展。这揭示了一种多重响应模式，涉及多种因果机制和共存的制度逻辑。研究结果表明，尽管适应性可能会长期存在，但制度仍可以在相关和新颖的方向上发展。总体而言，本文主张针对气候和环境治理中以过程为导向的理论和分析提出新的研究议程。这揭示了一种多重响应模式，涉及多种因果机制和共存的制度逻辑。研究结果表明，尽管适应性可能会长期存在，但制度仍可以在相关和新颖的方向上发展。总体而言，本文主张针对气候和环境治理中以过程为导向的理论和分析提出新的研究议程。这揭示了一种多重响应模式，涉及多种因果机制和共存的制度逻辑。研究结果表明，尽管适应性可能会长期存在，但制度仍可以在相关和新颖的方向上发展。总体而言，本文主张针对气候和环境治理中以过程为导向的理论和分析提出新的研究议程。