About the conference
The conference will address the intersection of pressing issues for rural development in Southeast Asia, with a special emphasis on migration and climate change. Climate change is already influencing rural livelihoods in South East Asia – at the same time, demographic change and rural out-migration are creating additional challenges for agricultural and rural societies and beyond. On the other hand, rural places are strongly connected to outside places such as cities and other destination countries of migrants who significantly contribute to rural livelihoods, for example, through financial and social remittances. This perspective is reflected in the emerging notion of “migration as adaptation”, which has opened a more nuanced view of migration in the face of climate change, recognizing migrants’ agency and potential contribution to adaptation to environmental risks. While there are strong and active communities researching environment/climate change, agriculture, development and adaptation, on the one hand, and migration and demography on the other; there is little exchange between the two scientific communities.
This conference creates a forum for 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, governance research, etc.).
The topics include the interlinkages between social-ecological systems and migration, causal linkages between environmental change and migration, theoretical, empirical, and methodological aspects of the linkages of migration, environmental change and resilience; migration in adaptation policies; critical reflections on the limits of migration as adaptation option; and the linkages of migration and changes in socio-ecological systems.
