FACULTY OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY | Seminar
Migration seminar: All that is solid melts into Mobility

Welcome to the Migration Seminar!

Title

All that is solid melts into Mobility: Environmental Degradation and its Implications for Membership in Political Communities

Profile

Thomas Faist, Professor of Sociology of Transnationalization, Migration and Development, Bielefeld University

Abstract

The intersection of environmental degradation in general and climate change in particular is part of a larger socio-ecological transformation. The title draws inspiration from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' phrase "All that is solid melts into thin air” in the Communist Manifesto (1848), rephrasing it for the 21st century as "all that is solid melts into mobility." This reformulation reflects how climate change disrupts established social structures, leading to new patterns of mobility and displacement. Especially in its cross-border incarnation mobility is inextricably linked to membership in political communities. The most obvious case is that of Small Island States in the Pacific where sea level rise may lead to the disappearance of whole territories. Such a constellation raises fundamental questions with regard to how much citizenship depends on territorial demarcations, border control and access to membership in states of immigration. There is an argument to be made for socio-ecological opening which, in turn, depends on semi-permeable borders.

Attendance

This is a hybrid seminar, you are welcome to connect via Zoom or join us at MIM seminar room, floor 9, Niagara, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1. To attend on campus, please gather by the reception area at 13.05.

If you have any questions, send an email mim@mau.se

Zoom

Will be available closer to the seminar date.

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