ImmobiliTy in a cHAnging ClimAte (ITHACA)

The global climate change crisis presents uncertainty, where more people living in precarious situations are and will be exposed to climatic hazards. Flooding, heatwaves and sea level rise are pushing more vulnerable societies towards limits. ITHACA, is about those that stay.

Those that choose to stay, return after leaving, or cannot leave despite wanting to, are captured under the term immobility.

While there is significant research on migration in relation to climate, less attention has been paid to immobility as a potential mechanism for adaptation.

ITHACA will focus research on five coastal urban sites with experience of significant climate hazards Malmö / Falsterbo (Sweden), Hope Town (Bahamas), Belém (Brazil), Cape Coast (Ghana), and Beira (Mozambique).

Through examination of the lived experience of voluntary or involuntary populations, ITHACA will increase transdisciplinary understandings of immobility, empower communities, and contribute towards new policy frameworks that can help tackle losses and damages associated with climate change.There are four project objectives: 1) develop a detailed and more critical model for immobility; 2) advance understanding of immobility, local factors, and mooring in social life; 3) establish a new governance focus on immobile populations; and 4) mainstream intersectionality dimensions of vulnerability in the project to enhance capabilities for communities that want or have to stay where they live despite climate change risks.