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Paper short abstract

The paper examines questions of agency in climate-related mobility and the role of institutional and structural factors in the actions and decisions of individuals and households.

Paper long abstract

Research on climate-related mobility is generating a growing body of studies linking climate change to various types of mobility and immobility. The empirical material in these studies brings an increasingly diverse range of contexts - environmental, political, economic, institutional - to the discussions. However, common framings of climate-related mobility have tended to reduce its complexity, for example ‘climate refugees’ or ‘migration as adaptation.’ These framings reflect a limited conceptualization of the interplay between households’ and individuals’ agency and the structural factors that (1) shape how climate change is experienced locally and (2) enable or constrain households’ and individuals’ exercise of mobility in response. This risks underestimating the complex drivers at play in mobility decisions and practices. This paper seeks to raise and discuss this failing. Specifically, it seeks to unfold the role of governance and institutional factors in shaping agency in climate-related mobility.