Conference: Adaptation in Motion Linking Climate Change, Migration and Resilience

Date: 05.-07.09. 2018
Call for Papers: 15.05.2018
Deadline for Registration: 10.08.2018
Venue: Geozentrum, Meckenheimer Allee 176, 53115 Bonn (Germany)

Background:

Climate change is already influencing migration and population movements – and will do so in future. Two perspectives on the nexus of migration and climate change have emerged: On the one hand, much policy and research attention is directed to climate change as a cause for migration, and for potential conflicts and humanitarian crises that may result. On the other hand, the notion of “migration as adaptation” has opened up a more positive view, recognizing migrants’ agency and potential contribution to adaptation to environmental risks. Migration, climate change, vulnerability, and resilience are linked in multi-causal and multi-directional ways. Acknowledging this complexity and the diversity of perspectives allows us to address important questions, for example how migration can contribute to the reduction of vulnerability in general, and to climate change adaptation in particular; or to the conditions and reasons why migration has adverse consequences, in social and ecological terms; or how climate change and development policy can possibly benefit from an integration of the topic of migration; or to broader issues of human rights, climate equity, and justice. Given the increasing uptake of such topics in science and policy discourses, it seems that the whole debate around “migration as adaptation” is in motion.

The Conference:

This conference aims at creating a forum for scientific exchange on the nexus of environment, migration, and resilience, bringing together scholars from different disciplines and fields of research (risk and vulnerability studies, migration studies, climate change adaptation, etc.). It will include discussing the findings of the Trans|Re project (www.transre.org) and putting them into the context of current discourses of climate, migration, and adaptation/resilience. The conference will be comprised of papers selected through an open call. Attention will be given to interactive formats for critically evaluating and discussing the findings and presentations. This includes a forum for poster presentations and a policy panel. We call for the submission of contributions addressing one or several of the following topics and/or questions:

Topics:

• the relevance of migration (and translocality) for adaptation to climate change;
• the linkages of climate and environmental change, vulnerability, and migration;
• the role of translocal social practices for adaptation and social resilience;
• translocal social networks and their role for coping, adaptation, and transformation for rural areas;
• migration and adaptation in local, national, and international governance contexts;
• conceptualizing and empirically operationalizing the relationships of migration, social resilience, and climate change adaptation;
• empirical contributions on the relations between environmental change, migration, and transformation in rural areas.

Flyer (PDF)