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Dissertationen

Laufende Dissertationen:

    In the context of adaptation to climate change, the concept of “barriers to adaptation” refers to factors and conditions that negatively influence the process of successful adaptation to climate change. The aim of this PhD project is to analyze the barriers to adaptation in the Maldives from a complexity theory perspective with a particular focus on institutional and political barriers. There is a need to recognize that adaptation strategies and measures are embedded strongly into politics and are influenced by political and institutional structures on the local, national and international levels. The importance of including the political sphere in the analysis of a social-ecological system will be empirically revealed by analyzing barriers to adaptation. As a result, by expanding the theory of social-ecological systems, this thesis aims to contribute to a more comprehensive approach to sustainability issues.
    Small islands can be perceived as complex social-ecological systems. Many Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face a number of global climate change risks which threaten a sustainable development process. Conceptually based on complexity theory and resilience perspective, the project’s objectives are to analyze how social agents respond to natural pressures and stressors, and how risk and environmental knowledge are produced, integrated and employed to strengthen adaptability and social-ecological resilience. For this purpose, it is necessary to examine knowledge exchange processes across various scales from global to local. Specifically, focus will be put on the interrelations of trans-local expert knowledge and local lay knowledge as well as on the role that hybrid forms of knowledge play in specific contexts. Furthermore, particular emphasis will be laid on the modes of communication and learning processes which influence an adaptive environmental and risk management. In a final step it is aimed to utilize the results for the improvement of adaptive and participatory modes of social-ecological systems governance.
    The present work investigates the prospects of sustainable community-based adaptation in a small island context. By means of an integrated framework, local adaptive capacity as a component of social vulnerability will be assessed. In particular, focus is given to assessing the adaptive capacity of vulnerable groups to climate variability and climate change. In line with the principles of action research with its typical iterative, cyclical learning dimensions, the present work thus utilizes vulnerability theory, complemented with insights from learning theories, to assess and explain the adaptive potential of distinctive vulnerable groups on small islands.
    Operationally, the case study focuses on farmer and fishery producer groups in St Lucia, a Caribbean SIDS, and examines their adaptive capacity and resulting social vulnerability to a changing environment, attributable, at least partly, to climate variability and climate change. At the heart of this work is a qualitative investigation into how climate change and climate variability are perceived by these agents, how they receive, process and disseminate related information and knowledge, and the capacity-building they anticipate or may subsequently take.

    Abgeschlossene Dissertationen:

    • Birgit Gerkensmeier, Hamburg 04/2018: "Governing Risks in a Social Process - Risk Management in the Multi Risk, Multi Scale and Multi-Stakeholder Environment of the Trilateral Wadden Sea Region"

    • Vera Köpsel, Hamburg 11/2017: "New Spaces for Climate Change - The Societal Construction of Landscapes in Times of a Changing Climate"

    • Daniela Siedschlag, Hamburg 06/2017: "Das Konzept Emotionale Vulnerabilität: Ein Beitrag zur Hazardforschung am Beispiel der Insel Pellworm"

    • Corinna de Guttry, Hamburg 01/2017: "Crossing the borders of climate change: An analysis of cultural framings of climate change among migrants in Hamburg"

    • Nicole Kruse, Hamburg 12/2016: "Zusammenhänge des regionalen Geohazards Sturmflut mit mentalen Modellen und Risikobewertungen über Klimawandel – Ein Vergleich zwischen Expert*innen und Bürger*innen der Stadt Hamburg"

    For current dissertation projects please have a look here

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