Call for papers
The international symposium “The Migration and Climate Nexus ” will take place at Campus Condorcet (Paris-Aubervilliers), on December 5 and 6, 2024.
Organised by the CLIMIG project team of the Institut Convergences Migrations, in partnership with the Campus Condorcet, the Centre d’histoire sociale des mondes contemporains, Géographie-cités, ART-Dev, the University of Paris-1 PanthéonSorbonne, the Paris School of Economics and the Oxford Climate Migration Network, the conference aims to promote crossdisciplinary conversations around the climate and migration.
The conference organizers are inviting proposals for papers on the intersection of climate and migration from one or more disciplines, within the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, medical sciences and the arts.
Arguments
In its latest report, the IPCC acknowledged that migration, particularly internal migration, is one of the available strategies for adapting to climate change.
Meanwhile, it emphasized the complexity of the relationship between vulnerability to climate change and migration, as well as the importance of socio-economic characteristics. Human and social sciences are essential to shed light on these issues, in particular from a social and environmental justice standpoint.
One also needs to question the relevance of the “climate migration” category itself, by deconstructing the institutional agenda of which this category is a part, and exploring its little4 known dimensions. For example, the impact of displacements linked to climate issues on the repopulation of rural areas.
The complementary nature of qualitative and quantitative approaches can be used to gain a better understanding of the multiple spatial and temporal scales of these flows, which still largely escape statistical systems.
More broadly, the growing institutional recognition of environment-related population movements must be able to draw on robust academic expertise, be it the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the multi-stakeholder Platform that follows on from the Nansen Initiative launched in 2012, the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration ratified in 2018 or the working group on climate and migration set up in 2021 by C40 Cities and the MMC Global Mayors Task Force. Lastly, this conference is an opportunity to encourage greater interaction between the climate sciences on the one hand, and the humanities and social sciences on the other; such interaction is critical for working on this cross-disciplinary subject.
The conference organizers are inviting proposals for papers on the intersection of climate and migration from one or more disciplines, within the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, medical sciences and the arts. Historical depth, geographical diversity, prospective thinking and reflexiveness are all encouraged.
The conference will strive to place particular emphasis on the links between internal and international migration, the combination of different spatial and temporal scales of migration, the effects of the different scales of analysis available to researchers (micro, meso, macro, global) and the different scales of action of players involved in public policy. Proposals addressing one or several of the following themes will be particularly welcome:
1. Habitability: interdisciplinary discussion of changes in the habitability of territories (habitability threshold, criteria, perception, mitigation of risks to guarantee habitability, changes in the habitability of territories over time in relation to climate upheaval);
2. Public and institutional action: inclusion of the migration-climate issue in public policies, particularly in the European context; design and implementation of public policies, support in the field by humanitarian actors, international coordination issues, legal issues related to the international and internal protection of displaced persons following climate upheavals;
3. Health: health issues related to the displacement of populations in the context of environmental and climate change; psychological issues linked to displacement;
4. (De-)colonialism: colonial legacies, racialization, borders, demands for social rights, social movements, the entanglement of environmental and social movements linked to migration, indigenous perspectives on borders, migration governance and adaptation challenges, the environmental impact of migration policies on local border populations;
5. Gender: impact of gender in terms of vulnerability and capacity to respond to environmental challenges, access to mobility, perception of risks, adaptation strategies, gendered distribution of roles in migration practices;
6. Agency: capacity for action in migration or non-migration, obstacles and means, awareness or lack of awareness of the environment-based factors involved in migration, chosen/coerced/forced/suffered migration, autonomy of migration.
Young researchers, artists and practitioners who deal with issues of migration and climate in their work (in particular community activists, legal and health professionals) are warmly encouraged to submit.
Paper presentations will be limited to 20 minutes.
Papers must be in French or English.
Speakers may choose to use images (photographs, drawings, sketches, paintings), videos, audio content or maps. These graphic materials, together with their captions, may be exhibited at the Centre des Colloques on the Campus Condorcet during the two days of the event. It should be noted that it is possible to submit a graphic production on the theme of migration and climate alone, without submitting a proposal for an oral presentation.
Travel and accommodation costs for the speaker can possibly be covered, subject to prior justification, for researchers who are not supported by their home institution.
Lunch for speakers will be provided by the conference organizers for both days.
Documents to be supplied
The following documents must be submitted:
- short biographical note: 1 page maximum
- title and long abstract of the paper:
- 2 pages maximum the language of the paper: French or English
- if applicable: detailed request to cover travel and accommodation costs.
To be considered, proposals must be sent to: migrationsclimats2024@gmail.com before 23:59 on 15 June 2024.
Organising committee
– Fabrice Langrognet, CHS (Paris-1/CNRS) et faculté d’histoire, Oxford
– Clara Jullien, Géographies-cités, ART-Dev (Paris-1)
– Marine Denis, docteure en droit public (Sorbonne Paris Nord)
– Maëlys de la Rupelle, THEMA (Cergy Paris)
– Florian Bonnefoi, MIGRINTER, LAVUE, CEDEJ (Poitiers)
– Lio Ando-Bourguet, CESSMA (Paris-Cité)
– Jean-Marc Goudet, CEPED (IRD)
– Katrin Millock, PSE/CNRS
Information
If you have any questions, please write to migrationsclimats2024@gmail.com.
