PhD defence by Sara Vigil - 200th ISS PhD

In her research, Sara Virgil uses a ‘variegated geopolitical ecology’ framework to examine the material and discursive interactions between environmental change, land grabbing, and migration.  Using a global ethnographic approach, the methodology involves a historical and multi-scalar analysis together with extensive comparative fieldwork conducted in two different socio-political settings: Senegal and Cambodia.

Research findings

Notwithstanding important context specificities, findings across cases show how environmental and migration narratives, linked to adaptation and security discourses, have been deployed – advertently or inadvertently – to justify land capture, leading to interventions that often increase, rather than alleviate, the very pressures that they intend to redress.

The research shows that despite intrinsically opposed assumptions behind the ‘migration as adaptation’ or ‘migration as security threat’ framings, they can both interact with environmental and climate change justifications in ways that create ‘self-fulfilling risks’ which make insecurity and maladaptation a reality – and well beyond the landscapes where land grabs unfold.

The thesis and this Public Defence are a result from a partnership agreement on joint supervision between the University of Liège and ISS-EUR

Doctoral board

Chair

Professor Inge Hutter 
 

Doctoral dissertation supervisor

Dr François Gemenne, University of Liège

Professor Jun Borras
 

Members of the Full Doctoral Committee

Professor Jesse Ribot, American University Washington

Professor Anja Nygren, University of Helsinki

Professor Annelies Zoomers, Utrecht University

Professor Philippe Lebailly, University of Liège

Professor Murat Arsel, ISS-EUR