300671 Climate Change and the New Apocalypse (LEH: Soziologie der globalen Welt - LF2) (LEH) (WiSe 2024/2025)

Climate degradation and environmental destruction are often accompanied by gentle denial – although the scientific evidence has been clear for more than four decades. However, activist opposition to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and unfettered economic growth has also been growing. This research class (Lehrforschung) considers various reactions to climate destruction, including exit (migration), in situ adjustment, silence, and voice (political opposition).
One area of particular relevance is exit in the form of migration and mobility. Mass media and research have often engaged in dire and apocalyptic projections of hundreds of millions or even billions of “climate refuges” by mid-century. Yet climate degradation viz. climate destruction is rarely the sole or exclusive mover of migration. As a rule, there are usually multiple causes, among them economic (e.g. economic crisis), political (e.g. violent conflicts), and ecological factors (e.g. environmental degradation). How ecological factors interact with other migration drivers is, however, often unclear. In other words, most research on migration and climate degradation does not sufficiently contextualize ecological factors interacting with the heterogeneities in the social world. While we already know a lot about the unequal production of climate degradation, we know less about the mechanisms resulting in migration and the politics around it.
This research training class takes into consideration the climate crisis and environmental destruction as a context in which to design projects exploring patterns exit (mobility and migration) but also voice, silence and in situ adjustment. Individual or collective student projects on all aspects relevant to the understanding of the climate crisis, responses and social inequalities are welcome. The methodological orientation is open: quantitative, qualitative and/or mixed methods.

Bibliography

Faist, Thomas (2020). Getting out of the Climate Migration Ghetto: Understanding Climate Degradation and Migration Processes of Social Inequalities. International Migration 58(6): 247-253. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12793