Dr. Harald Sterly
Dr. Harald Sterly
Senior Scientist
Contact
Department of Geography and Regional Research
Universitätsstraße 7/5, D512
1010 Wien
Tel.: +43-1-4277-48731
Email: harald.sterly@univie.ac.at
Teaching
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)
Publications
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
Merschroth, S., Sterly, H., Sakdapolrak, P., Abu, M., & Janoth, J.-N. (2023). 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, 154(4), 123-144. https://doi.org/10.12854/erde-2023-655
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.
Hermans, K., Berger, E., Biber-Freudenberg, L., Bossenbroek, L., Ebeler, L., Groth, J., Hack, J., Hanspach, J., Soekardjo Hintz, K., Kimengsi, J. N., Kwong, Y. M., Oakes, R., Pagogna, R., Plieninger, T., Sterly, H., van der Geest, K., van Vliet, J., & Wiederkehr, C. (2021). Crisis-induced disruptions in place-based social-ecological research – an opportunity for redirection. GAIA - Ökologische Perspektiven in Natur-, Geistes- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften, 30(2), 72-76. https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.30.2.3
Sterly, H. (2021). Changing Climate, Changing Migration: The Benefits of Climate Migration. Multimedia output, Migration Policy Institute. https://migrationpolicy.podbean.com/e/changing-climate-changing-migration-the-benefits-of-climate-migration/
Sakdapolrak, P., & Sterly, H. (2020). Building Climate Resilience through Migration in Thailand. Migration Information Source, Special Issue. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/building-climate-resilience-through-migration-thailand
Oliver, N., Lepri, B., Sterly, H., Lambiotte, R., Delataille, S., De Nadai, M., Letouzé, E., Ali Salah, A., Benjamins, R., Cattuto, C., Colizza, V., de Cordes, N., Fraiberger, S. P., Koebe, T., Lehmann, S., Murillo, J., Pentland, A., N Pham, P., Pivetta, F., ... Vinck, P. (2020). Mobile phone data for informing public health actions across the COVID-19 pandemic life cycle. Science Advances, 6(23), Article eabc0764. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc0764
Nicol, A., Abdoubaetova, A., Wolters, A., Kharel, A., Murzakolova, A., Gebreyesus, A., Lucasenco, E., Chen, F., Sugden, F., Sterly, H., Kuznetsova, I., Masotti, M., Vittuari, M., Dessalegn, M., Aderghal, M., Phalkey, N., Sakdapolrak, P., Mollinga, P., & Mogilevskii, R. (2020). Between a rock and a hard place: early experience of migration challenges under the Covid-19 pandemic. (pp. 1-13). International Water Management Institute (IWMI). IWMI Working Papers Vol. 2020 No. 195 https://doi.org/10.5337/2020.216
Stange, G., Sterly, H., Sakdapolrak, P., Borderon, M., Schraven, B., Serraglio, D. A., & Aleksandrova, M. (2020). Impeded migration as adaptation: COVID-19 and its implications for translocal strategies of environmental risk management. Web publication https://environmentalmigration.iom.int/blogs/impeded-migration-adaptation-covid-19-and-its-implications-translocal-strategies-environmental
Sterly, H., & Sakdapolrak, P. (2020). Multiple Dimensions of Mediatised Translocal Social Practices. A Cast Study of Domestic Migrants in Bangladesh. Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Geographischen Gesellschaft, 162, 369-395. https://doi.org/10.1553/moegg162s369
Rockenbauch, T., Sakdapolrak, P., & Sterly, H. (2019). Beyond the local – Exploring the socio-spatial patterns of translocal network capital and its role in household resilience in Northeast Thailand. Geoforum, 107, 154-167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.09.009
Boas, I., Farbotko, C., Adams, H., Sterly, H., Bush, S., Van der Geest, K., Wiegel, H., Ashraf, H., Baldwin, A., Bettini, G., Blondin, S., de Bruijn, M., Durand-Delacre, D., Fröhlich, C., Gioli, G., Guaita, L., Hut, E., Jarawura, F. X., Lamers, M., ... Hulme, M. (2019). Climate migration myths. Nature Climate Change, 9(12), 901-903. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0633-3
Rockenbauch, T., Sakdapolrak, P., & Sterly, H. (2019). Do translocal networks matter for agricultural innovation? A case study on advice sharing in small‑scale farming communities in Northeast Thailand. Agriculture and Human Values, 36, 685-702. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-019-09935-0
Sterly, H., Etzold, B., Wirkus, L., Sakdapolrak, P., Schewe, J., Schleussner, C.-F., & Hennig, B. (2019). AROMACoDa: Assessing Refugees' Onward Mobility through the Analysis of Communication Data. In A. A. Salah, A. Pentland, B. Lepri, E. Letouzé, Y.-A. de Montjoye, X. Dong, & P. Vinck (Eds.), Your Voice, Your Data, Your Future (pp. 70-82) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330999866_AROMA_CoDa_Assessing_Refugees'_Onward_Mobility_through_the_Analysis_of_Communication_Data