Coastal communities around the world are crucibles of change: shifting patterns of settlement and migration, new developments and new land uses, and climate change impacts such as sea level rise and weather extremes are reshaping place based risks and peoples' resilience. We wanted to understand peoples' perceptions of these changes, the risks posed by them, and their own capacities to respond and transform in response, through the lens of place. This paper presents findings from the MAGIC (Multi-scale Adaptation to Global change in Coastlines) project, where primary research using a mixed methods approach was undertaken at sites in Cornwall UK, Languedoc France, and the Garden Route in South Africa. We investigate the interactions between place meanings, place attachment, and perceptions of risk and resilience to coastal change. Place attachment and place meanings are highly diverse and articulated in many different ways, shaping attitudes to chronic and acute social ecological change. Our findings demonstrate that mobility is a key demographic process shaping community configurations of place attachment and is significant in how people experience certain changes and risks, in the adaptations they are likely to undertake, and in determining the possibilities for transformation. (Texte intégral)