Published in December 2022 by Transcript Verlag, the volume “Kleinstadtforschung. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven“ (English: Small Town Research. Interdisciplinary Perspectives) highlights the heterogeneity of small towns and shows the potential of interdisciplinary research on small towns. With their contribution "Zukunftsfähige Kleinstadt durch kollaborative Klimaanpassung?” (English: Future-proof Small Towns through Collaborative Climate Adaptation?) Nicole Mitchell, Beatrice John, and Klaus Jacob expand the debate on the governance of climate change adaptation in small towns. Climate change poses unique challenges to small towns that have received little attention from researchers and policymakers, so far. Often, small town administrations lack resources to systematically address these challenges. However, many small towns have the potential to pursue a resilient future by taking alternative paths to those developed by and for larger cities. The authors present the governance approach for community-based climate change adaptation developed in the BMBF joint project "GoingVis". Intermediary governance platforms were created in the small town of Boizenburg/Elbe and the municipality of Liebenwerda. Their goal is to support citizens and urban actors to jointly implement locally developed adaptation projects. In addition to a description of how these platforms were designed locally, their activities are presented and the potentials and challenges of the approach for small-town urban development are evaluated.