UNESCO Chair Prof. Dr. Ratter
Welcome
... on the website of the UNESCO Chair in the Department of Integrative Geography.
The UNESCO Chair ‘Societal Climate Change Research and Resilience’, headed by Prof. Dr Beate Ratter at the University of Hamburg, aims to jointly address the global threat of climate change in cooperative networks through the implementation of concrete learning and experience formats. The focus is not on technical solutions, but rather on the consideration of socio-cultural, regional framework conditions and the realisation that we are not experiencing a lack of information about climate change, but rather a lack of action. In order to counteract this lack of action, shared experience and co-operative, activating forms of learning can contribute more than simply imparting information. Activating approaches are needed to unravel existing narratives on climate change, generate new practices and strengthen local communities.
The focus of this project is on small islands and island states that are considered to be particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Cooperation partners from four different islands, Prince Edward Island, Seychelles, Trinidad and the Marshall Islands, as well as partners from different disciplines have been recruited to support the project.
The chair links sustainability, climate adaptation and disaster prevention, connects natural and social scientists as well as actors and those affected in order to promote transformative insights in dealing with the effects of climate change. Collaboration with different cultural regions in the global South and North plays a central role in generating jointly applicable knowledge and putting it into practice. By setting up geographical living laboratories and training programmes for multipliers, climate change is made tangible and local communities are to be strengthened, their resilience increased and empowered to actively deal with climate change.
Anyone interested in finding out more about the work in this project or would like to get involved is cordially invited to have a look at our website: UNESCO University of Hamburg.
Prof. Dr. Beate MW Ratter
Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg and
Department of Human Dimensions in Coastal Areas, Institute of Coastal Systems Analysis and Modelling, Helmholtz-Zentrum hereon GmbH, Geesthacht
Alexandros Lingos, M.Sc.
UNESCO Chair Manager/ Research Associate
Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg