300670  "The Socio-ecological Question: Migration and Mobility in a Burning World" (LEH: Soziologie der globalen Welt - LF1) (LEH) (WiSe 2026/2027)

A narrative prevalent in mass media and public debate suggests that the climate crisis is resulting in unforeseen population movements. However, not only people migrate — the planet itself is in motion. How does human migration change when the planet itself begins to move? With the planet on the move, there is a double movement. Under the circumstances, sharp inequalities abound: Those who contributed least to the burning of the planet tend to suffer the most. In the context of environmental degradation in general and climate change in particular migration and immobility reflect politicized social inequalities, the socio‑ecological question.

In the Anthropocene, the age in which humans have become a geological force, climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution do not directly cause migration and forced immobility, but rather interact with entrenched social, economic, and political inequalities in shaping who moves, who stays, and under what conditions. Focusing on the climate crisis and drawing on migration studies, social theory, and socio‑ecological perspectives, we discuss and critically appraise alarmist and deterministic narratives of ‘mass climate migration.’ We highlight selective mobility and widespread immobility, particularly in and from the Global South. We situate climate‑related migration and immobility within the double exploitation of people and nature, and longer histories of unequal exchange and colonialism; foregrounding migrant agency alongside vulnerability. We analyse competing discourses of socio‑ecological closure and opening, assess the limits of existing local, regional and global policy frameworks, and outline a future‑oriented planetary approach. We explore climate‑related migration as a key lens for rethinking global climate justice. in this case, we consider ecology not as a static background but as a dynamic interface to be taken into account when trying to understand the socio-ecological question.

Requirements for participation, required level

No prior knowledge required.

Bibliography

Faist, Thomas. 2027. The Climate Crisis, Migration and Global Inequality. Oxford: OUP.