Are global efforts to mitigate climate displacement hindered by the international system? An analysis of recent social constructions surrounding global governance within academia
(2025) SIMZ11 20251Graduate School
- Abstract
- The impacts of climate change upon the globe entail the increase in displacement due to environmental disasters, known as climate displacement. This issue has an intrinsic global dimension due to climate change involving global emissions as a cause, environmental disasters often spanning nation-state borders, and displacement often involving cross-border movement. As a result, global response efforts have been advocated for to mitigate climate displacement, such advocacy often residing in academic literature. Yet there are prevalent notions of mitigation efforts being hindered by the structure of global governance. Such a structure is de-centralized, with nation-states being key actors within decision-making, international law enforcement,... (More)
- The impacts of climate change upon the globe entail the increase in displacement due to environmental disasters, known as climate displacement. This issue has an intrinsic global dimension due to climate change involving global emissions as a cause, environmental disasters often spanning nation-state borders, and displacement often involving cross-border movement. As a result, global response efforts have been advocated for to mitigate climate displacement, such advocacy often residing in academic literature. Yet there are prevalent notions of mitigation efforts being hindered by the structure of global governance. Such a structure is de-centralized, with nation-states being key actors within decision-making, international law enforcement, and responsibility assigning. The struggle between nation-state interests and interests of the globe are frequently attributed to the struggles to enact sufficient climate change mitigation efforts.
This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach, using a sociological lens to understand an environmental and humanitarian issue through the theoretical constructions surrounding global international relations. A systematic review of academic literature surrounding climate displacement and global governance is taken. Using a social constructionist theoretical framework to understand how nation-state dynamics manifest, the data is analyzed for key insights of perspective on de-centralized global governance. This is to answer the research question—To what extent does academic literature in the 21st century socially construct global efforts to mitigate climate displacement as being limited by the de-centralized structure of global governance?
The results focus on Global North and South dynamics, legal struggles, and international agreements as key areas where nation-state interests clash with mitigation efforts. Throughout the results there is the problem of responsibility assignment. This thesis discusses how global responsibility cannot be created through global governance, but built upon regarding nation-state interests. As such, the thesis posits that not only do social constructions reveal differences of perspective, but also entail strategies to sway nation-state interests through the construction of global responsibility through social discourse. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9195695
- author
- Hopkins, William Fredrik LU
- supervisor
-
- Gökhan Kaya LU
- organization
- course
- SIMZ11 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Climate Displacement, Global Governance, Social Constructionism, Westphalian System
- language
- English
- id
- 9195695
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-27 12:47:13
- date last changed
- 2025-06-27 12:47:13
@misc{9195695,
abstract = {{The impacts of climate change upon the globe entail the increase in displacement due to environmental disasters, known as climate displacement. This issue has an intrinsic global dimension due to climate change involving global emissions as a cause, environmental disasters often spanning nation-state borders, and displacement often involving cross-border movement. As a result, global response efforts have been advocated for to mitigate climate displacement, such advocacy often residing in academic literature. Yet there are prevalent notions of mitigation efforts being hindered by the structure of global governance. Such a structure is de-centralized, with nation-states being key actors within decision-making, international law enforcement, and responsibility assigning. The struggle between nation-state interests and interests of the globe are frequently attributed to the struggles to enact sufficient climate change mitigation efforts.
This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach, using a sociological lens to understand an environmental and humanitarian issue through the theoretical constructions surrounding global international relations. A systematic review of academic literature surrounding climate displacement and global governance is taken. Using a social constructionist theoretical framework to understand how nation-state dynamics manifest, the data is analyzed for key insights of perspective on de-centralized global governance. This is to answer the research question—To what extent does academic literature in the 21st century socially construct global efforts to mitigate climate displacement as being limited by the de-centralized structure of global governance?
The results focus on Global North and South dynamics, legal struggles, and international agreements as key areas where nation-state interests clash with mitigation efforts. Throughout the results there is the problem of responsibility assignment. This thesis discusses how global responsibility cannot be created through global governance, but built upon regarding nation-state interests. As such, the thesis posits that not only do social constructions reveal differences of perspective, but also entail strategies to sway nation-state interests through the construction of global responsibility through social discourse.}},
author = {{Hopkins, William Fredrik}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Are global efforts to mitigate climate displacement hindered by the international system? An analysis of recent social constructions surrounding global governance within academia}},
year = {{2025}},
}