Dr. Harald Sterly
Dr. Harald Sterly
Senior Scientist
Kontakt
Department of Geography and Regional Research
Universitätsstraße 7/5, D512
1010 Wien
Tel.: +43-1-4277-48731
Email: harald.sterly@univie.ac.at
Lehrveranstaltungen
Biography
As a human geographer, I focus on the spatial and social aspects of the intersection of climate and environmental change and different forms of mobility and migration. A specific interest lies on the outcomes of migration and translocal connectivities on the scope for people's agency and their vulnerability and resilience. At present, I am based as a Senior Scientist in the Department of Geography at the University of Vienna, from where I conduct empirical research with mixed methods approaches in Europe, Africa, as well as in Southeast, Central and South Asia. I have done my Diploma (MSc) in Geography at the University of Cologne and a postgraduate course in international development cooperation at the Humboldt-University Berlin. My PhD thesis focused on mobile communication and translocal social relations of rural-to-urban migrants in Bangladesh. In the past, I have coordinated research projects on mega-urban dynamics and informality in Bangladesh and China, and on the linkages between migration, translocal connections and social resilience in Thailand.
Research interests
Conceptual: spatiality of livelihoods, translocality, relational sociology, practice theories, science and technology studies, communication and digitalization
Thematic: migration, vulnerability, urbanization, rural-urban relations, development
Regional: South East Asia (Thailand), South Asia (Bangladesh), East Africa (Kenya, Somalia)
Current Research Projects
- AGRUMIG – "Leaving something behind" – Migration governance and agricultural and rural change in "home" communities: comparative experience from Europe, Asia and Africa
- HABITABLE – Linking Climate Change, Habitability and Social Tipping Points: Scenarios for Climate Migration
- Migration Moldova – Mainstreaming the Migration and Climate Change Perspective into the National Adaptation Plan-2 and Agriculture Sectoral Adaptation Plan on Climate Change
Publications
Hermans, K., Djanibekov, N., Abdullaev, I., Abduvalieva, N., Assubayeva, A., Blondin, S., Bobojonov, I., Conrad, C., Herzfeld, T., Kansiime, J., Kimsanova, B., Laldjebaev, M., Mirkasimov, B., Murzakulova, A., Rajabova, S., Samakov, A., Schraven, B., Sterly, H., & Umirbekov, A. (2024). Future research directions for understanding the interconnections between climate change, water scarcity, and mobility in rural Central Asia. Climate and Development, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2024.2436090
Sterly, H., Borderon, M., Sakdapolrak, P., Adger, W. N., Ayanlade, A., Bah, A., Blocher, J., Blondin, S., Boly, S., Brochier, T., Brüning, L., Bunchuay-Peth, S. A., O'Byrne, D., Safra de Campos, R., Codjoe, S. N. A., Debève, F., Detges, A., Franco-Gavonel, M., Hathaway, C., ... Zickgraf, C. (2025). Habitability for a connected, unequal and changing world. Global Environmental Change, 90, Article 102953. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2024.102953
The Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (Ed.), Banerjee, S., & Sterly, H. (2024). Technical guide on integrating human mobility and climate change linkages into relevant national climate change planning processes. United Nations Climate Change Secretariat. https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/WIM_ExCom_human-mobility_TFD_2024.pdf
Merschroth, S., Sterly, H., Sakdapolrak, P., Abu, M., & Janoth, J.-N. (2024). Subjectivity and Social Positions Shape Habitability in the Context of Environmental Change: a Qualitative Case Study in Northern Ghana. Die Erde: Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin - Forum für Erdsystem- und Erdraumforschung. https://doi.org/10.12854/erde-2023-655
Janoth, J.-N., Abu, M., Sakdapolrak, P., Sterly, H., & Merschroth, S. (2024). The impact of migration on culturally-embedded and subjective perceptions of habitability in a context of environmental change: A case study from Northern Ghana . Erdkunde: Archiv für wissenschaftliche Geographie, 78(1), 35-55. https://doi.org/10.3112/erdkunde.2024.01.02
Simpson, N. P., Mach, K. J., Tebboth, M. G. L., Gilmore, E. A., Siders, A. R., Holden, P., Anderson, B., Chandni, S., Sabour, S., Stringer, L. C., Sterly, H., Williams, P. A., Meyer, A. L. S., Cundill, G., Rosengaertner, S., Nunow, A., Amakrane, K., & Trisos, C. H. (2024). Research priorities for climate mobility. One Earth, 7(4), 589-607. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2024.02.002
Sakdapolrak, P., Sterly, H., Borderon, M., Bunchuay-Peth, S. A., Naruchaikusol, S., Ober, K., Porst, L., & Rockenbauch, T. (2024). Translocal social resilience dimensions of migration as adaptation to environmental change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 121(3), Article e2206185120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2206185120
Oakes, R., van der Geest, K., Schraven, B., Adaawen, S., Ayeb-Karlsson, S., de Sherbinin, A., Etzold, B., Groth, J., Hermans, K., Lakemann, S., Nawrotzki, R., Rademacher-Schulz, C., Romankiewicz, C., Serraglio, D. A., Sterly, H., Thalheimer, L., Wiederkehr, C., & Williams, D. (2023). A future agenda for research on climate change and human mobility. International Migration, 61(5), 116-125. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13169
Stange, G., Pagogna, R., Sterly, H., Sakdapolrak, P., Borderon, M., Schraven, B., & Serraglio, D. A. (2023). Impeded Migration as Adaptation: COVID-19 and Its Implications for Translocal Strategies of Environmental Risk Management. ASEAS - Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies, 16(1), 157-169. https://doi.org/10.14764/10.ASEAS-0093
Szaboova, L., Adger, W. N., Safra de Campos, R., Maharjan, A., Sakdapolrak, P., Sterly, H., Conway, D., Codjoe, S. N. A., & Abu, M. (2023). Evaluating migration as successful adaptation to climate change: Trade-offs in well-being, equity, and sustainability. One Earth, 6(6), 620-631. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2023.05.009
Ayanlade, A., Smucker, T., Nyasimi, M., Sterly, H., Weldemariam, L. F., & Simpson, N. P. (2023). Complex Climate Change Risk and Emerging Directions for Vulnerability Research in Africa. Climate Risk Management, 40, Article 100497. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2023.100497
Sakdapolrak, P., Borderon, M., & Sterly, H. (2023). The limits of migration as adaptation. A conceptual approach towards the role of immobility, disconnectedness and simultaneous exposure in translocal livelihoods systems. Climate and Development, 16(2), 87-96. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2023.2180318
Rockenbauch, T., Sakdapolrak, P., & Sterly, H. (2023). Do translocal networks matter for agricultural innovation? A case study on advice sharing in small-scale farming communities in Northeast Thailand: (Previously published in Agriculture and Human Values Volume 36, Issue 4, December 2019). In R. Bezner Kerr, T. L. Pendergrast, B. J. Smith II, & J. Liebert (Eds.), Rethinking Food System Transformation (pp. 35-52). Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-019-09935-0
Sterly, H., & Wirkus, L. (2022). Analysing refugees’ secondary mobility using mobile phone Call Detail Records (CDR). In A. A. Salah, E. E. Korkmaz, & T. Bircan (Eds.), Data Science for Migration and Mobility (pp. 99-120). Oxford University Press.
Ayanlade, A., Oluwaranti, A., Ayanlade , O. S., Borderon, M., Sterly, H., Sakdapolrak, P., Jegede, M. O., Weldemariam, L. F., & Ayinde, A. F. O. (2022). Extreme climate events in sub-Saharan Africa: A call for improving agricultural technology transfer to enhance adaptive capacity. Climate Services, 27, Article 100311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cliser.2022.100311
Zander, K., Garnett, S., Sterly, H., Ayeb-Karlsson, S., Šedová, B., Lotze-Campen, H., Richerzhagen, C., & Baggen, H. (2022). Topic modelling exposes disciplinary divergence in research on the nexus between human mobility and the environment. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 9(1), Article 34. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01038-2
Sterly, H. (2022). Translocal Social Constellations and Mediated Communication in Bangladesh. https://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/54961/7/Dissertation%20STERLY%202022%20Translocal%20Social%20Constellations%20and%20Mediated%20Communication%20in%20Bangladesh.pdf
Sakdapolrak, P., Stange, G., & Sterly, H. (2021). Bevölkerungsdynamiken im Kontext des globalen Umweltwandels. In B. Braun, I. Helbrecht, R. Schneider-Sliwa, & R. Wehrhahn (Eds.), Humangeographie (pp. 149-158). Westermann.
Durand-Delacre, D., Bettini, G., Nash, S. L., Sterly, H., Gioli, G., Hut, E., Boas, I., Farbotko, C., Sakdapolrak, P., de Bruijn, M., Furlong, B. T., van der Geest, K., Lietaer, S., & Hulme, M. (2021). Climate Migration is About People, not Numbers. In S. Böhm, & S. Sullivan (Eds.), Negotiating Climate Change in Crisis (pp. 63-81). Open Book Publishers. https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0265.06.pdf
Sterly, H., & Wirkus, L. (2021). Mobilfunkdaten: Forschungsethische Probleme bei der Arbeit mit Mobilfunkdaten in Kontexten von Migration und Flucht. In T. Bork-Hüffer, H. Füller, & T. Straube (Eds.), Handbuch Digitale Geographien: Welt - Wissen - Werkzeuge (pp. 343-353). UTB.