Interdisciplinary Migration Research Seminar

Translocal Resilience. Environmental Change, Migration and Social Resilience in Rural Thailand

Thursday, 18 March 2021, 11.00-12.30

Patrick Sakdapolrak (Professor in population geography and demography, University of Vienna, Department of Geography and Regional Research)

Moderation: Albert Kraler (Danube University Krems)
The seminar will take place via zoom. Please register in advance to the meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 

Abstract

Climate change and migration are drawing increasing interest from researchers and policy makers, as well as from the general public. The paper offers a fresh perspective on the climate change-migration nexus. It starts from the assumption that, regardless of the accuracy of the projections of future environmental changes, migration is already occurring and will continue to be a major dynamic of global change. Migration is connecting people, transforming places, and facilitating flows of knowledge and resources, and thus creating networked and interconnected translocal spaces. This translocal connectedness has the potential to strengthen the social resilience of risk-exposed households. The paper will outline the conceptual approach and present empirical results from field research in rural North and Northeast Thailand

About the speaker

Patrick Sakdapolrak´s research field is at the interface of population dynamics, environmental change and development processes, with a focus on the topics of migration and displacement as well as health and disease. The central theme of his research is the question of how vulnerable groups live with risk. His Ph.D. thesis was based on field research in slum settlements in India, where the inhabitants have significant higher mortality and morbidity rates than the rest of the urban population and examined how these poor urban groups cope with and adapt to environmental and social stresses. His current research on migration-environment relationships in Kenya and Thailand addresses the question how migration alters the way people at places of origin deal with the environment and climate change. Patrick Sakdapolrak has studied Geography and Development Research in Heidelberg and Wollongong, Australia, and received his doctorate degree from Bonn University.

Overview series

Thursday, 22.4.2021, 11.00-12.30: Katie Kuschminder

Thursday, 20.5.2021, 11.00-12.30: Ludger Pries

Thursday, 18.6.2021, 11.-12.30: Stefan Rother