Mittwoch, 8. November 2017, 16:00 Uhr
Institut für Geographie und Regionalforschung
Universität Wien, Universitätsstr. 7/5, 1010 Wien, Konferenzraum
Livelihoods in rural areas in countries of the Global South have undergone considerable change over the past decades. Climate change plays a crucial role in this context. Its increasing impact strikes those households in particular whose livelihoods are based on small-scale agriculture. At the same time, migration can be considered a major driver of change, also in rural areas. Both policy makers and scholars in the fields of rural livelihoods, development and climate change have conceived of migration as a common strategy of households to spread risks, improve living standards and respond to climate-related risks. Given this emphasis on the potential of migration, this talk will address the circumstances under which migration can contribute to the social resilience of households in rural areas where environmental stress is pronounced. Attention will mainly be drawn to everyday practices of migrating and non-migrating household members and how their connectedness shapes livelihood resilience in the face of climate change and to the factors that influence the potential of translocal relations to enhance the social resilience of households. Special emphasis will be placed on domestic migration which is - despite its high prevalence, also compared to international migration - all too often neglected in environment-migration research. Thailand as a middle-income country where, nonetheless, agriculture is a major source of livelihoods and which faces climate-related risks will serve as an empirical example in this analysis.
Luise Porst is a PhD candidate and research associate with the TRANS|RE project at the Department of Geography at Bonn University. In her scientific work, she focuses on rural-urban migration in Thailand and its influence on households in rural sending areas in the context of climate-related risks. After graduating from Karlsruhe University where she did a master's programme in Area Studies/Spatial Planning (M.Sc.) with a special focus on developing and transition countries, she joint the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) as a Junior Development Advisor in Lesotho. Within the bilateral Decentralization Programme, she supported the implementation of land use and settlement planning processes through capacity building on national and district level. Luise also holds a degree in Human Geography (B.Sc.) from Leipzig University.
