A story with the Kenyan Digo of coastal social-ecological changes using an assemblage lens

This paper explores the social-ecological changes experienced by the Digo community of coastal Kenya, using an assemblage lens to present a composite narrative that captures the community’s complex interactions with modernisation, environmental change, and cultural adaptation. This relational research approach conceptualises social, ecological, and material elements as dynamically connected and continuously reconfigured wholes, emphasising uncertainty, heterogeneity, and processes of becoming over fixed structures. Through narratives gathered in the FoRel project, which employed participatory Forum Theatre, we offer a grounded perspective on how these coastal communities navigate tensions between traditional values and global forces. The presented assemblage, including researchers as active participants, highlights the layered dynamics of coastal life, from resource conflicts to intergenerational shifts in digital literacy and identity. The narrative reveals that the obstacles to climate change adaptations often stem from Digo social life, bringing together disparate topics and exemplifying why coastal communities like the Digo may be disempowered in the face of such environmental change(s). This study contributes to less fragmented understandings of environmental and climate change by focusing on the entangled, relational dimensions of human-nature interactions through research participants’ accounts of their daily practices and relations.Key policy highlightsClimate adaptation policies must account for the entangled social, cultural, and ecological realities of coastal communities. Interventions that overlook relational dynamics may reinforce disempowerment.Local narratives reveal that adaptation challenges are deeply embedded in everyday life. Participatory and arts-based methods can surface nuanced community perspectives often missed by top-down approaches.Efforts to improve coastal resilience must consider intergenerational tensions and digital transformations. These influence identity, values, and engagement with natural resource use.Policies must recognise informal and emotional infrastructures—like trust, religion, and kinship—as integral to how communities navigate change.Assemblage thinking offers a way to see beyond fragmented interventions, helping policymakers address multiple, interacting sources of vulnerability and potential