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Land and Environmental Conflicts

Climate change and the destruction it causes are creating new lines of conflict and increasingly puts the environmental dimension of existing international conflicts into the spotlight. Climate activists have attracted a lot of attention in recent years with various, sometimes spectacular, protest tactics. However, land and environmental conflicts already have a long history and affect many areas of life, especially those of disadvantaged groups who are exponentially more affected by environmental degradation, land grabbing and resource scarcity. Environmental conflicts are often affect several policy areas simultaneously. For example, local conflicts such as land grabbing, pollution, resettlement and the destruction of habitats and livelihoods arise in connection with the production methods of the extractive industry at the project site, which in turn can lead to subsequent distributional conflicts and cause food crises and migration pressures. Social movements Studies are increasingly revealing the enormous mobilization dynamics of transnational movements for climate justice, for example by examining their collective action at international climate summits and in national/local arenas in the global South and North. In recent years, these movements and their legitimating narratives have increasingly converged, for example in the frequent forest occupations against infrastructure projects.

The aim of our research on land and environmental conflicts is to investigate the interconnectedness of socio-ecological conflicts and to explore what we need to know about the environmental context in order to understand disputes, protests and conflict potentials in connection with climate change, resource and environmental conflicts. The focus is on long-term empirical research, in particular field research that is close to the communities involved and learns to understand their everyday views. We build on the research traditions of  social and cultural anthropology , the sociology of globalisation  and political science protest and movement research . In this field of research, the focus is mostly on rural areas. On the one hand, the aim is to understand the constellations of actors and political movements in the countryside. On the other hand, ontological conflicts based on different conceptualizations and understandings of the environment, water, forest, landscape, etc. also are an important issue.

This research focus is also reflected in our teaching. For example in seminars on "Anthropology of Social Climate Change Consequences" (Prof. Halbmayer), "Anthropology of Climate Change" (Dr Michaela Meurer), “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Water Conflicts” (Daniela Triml-Chifflard) or "Environmental and Climate Conflicts", "Conflicts over Land and Food" (Prof. Anderl) or Critical Agrarian Studies (Prof. Anderl and Sibt'ul Hassan).