Mobile Worlds: Choice at the Intersection of Demographic and Environmental Change

Abstract

Research on environmental change has often focused on changes in population as a significant driver of unsustainability and environmental degradation. Demographic pessimism and limited engagement with demographic realities underpin many arguments concerning limits to growth, environmental refugees, and environment-related conflicts. Re-engagement between demographic and environmental sciences has led to greater understanding of the interactions between the size, composition, and distribution of populations and exposure to environmental risks and contributions to environmental burdens. We review the results of this renewed and far more nuanced research frontier, focusing in particular on the way demographic trends affect exposure, sensitivity, and adaptation to environmental change. New research has explained how migration systems interact with environmental challenges in individual decisions and in globally aggregate flows. Here we integrate analysis on demographic and environmental risks that often share a root cause in limited social freedoms and opportunities. We argue for a capabilities approach to promoting sustainable solutions for a more mobile world.

The effects of climate change on the geography and timing of human mobility

“…The examples discussed in this paper suggest people will adapt best when given choices about mobility, and that these choices are enabled by rights, for example to land, to migrate, to equal and fair treatment as workers, and to citizenship. Policies informed by the principle of enhancing choices can efficiently leverage mobility practices and intentions to promote climate change adaptation (Barnett and Adger 2018).…”

Mobility endowment and entitlements mediate resilience in rural livelihood systems

“…Choice has been extensively addressed in research that explores migration ranging from the neoclassical approaches (that model the choices individuals make as rationale beings seeking to maximise returns on investment) through to more psychological and behavioural approaches (that focus on the cognitive processes through which people elect to move or not) as demonstrated in Table 1. In the specific arena of the role of environmental risk in migration, constraints on choice have been posited as mediating factors in the impact of environmental change on decisions to migrate, predominantly from areas at risk of, or experiencing, environmental shocks or stresses (Barnett & Adger 2018).…”

“…2009). Migration is a widespread social phenomenon, more fundamentally, an adaptive response to all social, political, cultural and environmental signals and an important means to reduce vulnerability (Tacoli 2009; Barnett & Adger 2018) . By contrast, in policy discourses, migration is often described as a failure to adapt, and a problem to be addressed through practices that encourage people to stay in their locations of residence (Geiger & Pécoud 2013).…”

Sustainability Science: Toward a Synthesis

“…Multiple programs of relevant research have been active over the past decade, most with a focus on specific resources. Examples include transformations in forest use (201), demography (202), environmental justice (203), industry (29,204) and, more broadly, sociotechnical systems (205). We cannot cover in detail the rich findings of this research.…”