Doctoral Dissertation Research: Climate Change, Law, and Transnational Space: The Politics of Climate Justice Mobilization

最近的研究突出了气候变化对世界不同地区人民及其生计的不同影响。这些发现导致了在一系列背景下为“气候正义”进行广泛的政治动员。人权、法律论证和国际机构组织了几个政府和民间社会倡导者的这种努力，而许多非政府组织和社会运动则呼吁进行结构改革，组织各种政治层面的民众动员。这些团体采用的不同框架和战略影响着未来监管行动的方向，并最终影响到自然地理和社会地理的产生。然而，很少有学者研究这些政治，因为它们涉及不同位置的参与者，具有不同的资源、利益相关者和承诺。这篇博士论文项目通过对两种显著不同的“公正”气候调节动员努力的比较研究来探讨这些主题。该项目询问(1)各小组如何构建不平衡的气候变化问题和适当的应对措施；(2)对他们来说有什么政治机会结构，以及他们如何作出战略选择；(3)框架和机会结构如何相互影响，以及对结果的评估。对两项努力中的关键行为者的深入访谈、对《联合国气候变化框架公约》和欧洲联盟会议和行动的观察以及这两项努力产生的文本将为回答这些问题提供数据。调查结果将显示这两起案件的框架和政治机会的范围，动员的这两个决定性方面之间的关系，以及它们与区分案件的因素之间的联系，这些因素包括关键行为者的机构背景、专门知识的形式、行为者及其利益攸关方的意识形态承诺、参与的政治尺度以及法律与非法律战略。该项目将分析处于不同位置的行为者如何参与正式的政治进程和直接行动，以应对与气候变化相关的迫在眉睫和不均衡的环境影响。通过这样做，它将揭示这些努力所追求的对全球正义的不同概念，其中涉及法律规范和程序、关系联系以及以不同形式和程度进行再分配和补救的处方。它将研究新兴科学知识如何在跨越空间连接不同影响、社区和地点的政治努力的建设中发挥作用，以及这些努力如何在不同的政治地理尺度上进行战略性动员。它将表明行动者的处境对其参与全球治理和代议制政治进程的手段和能力的重要性。这项研究具有潜在的政策影响，因为它将有助于更好地理解宣传做法和参与当前气候政策的形成结构。它还可能有助于扩大对气候变化的政治层面及其与司法主题有关的监管的知识，这些重要问题已被列入下一份政府间气候变化专门委员会报告的缓解部分。这项研究有可能为政治地理学、政治生态学以及社会法律研究方面的知识做出贡献，并更好地整合这些文献。该项目将有助于培训一名年轻学者，并将把成果纳入教与学的机会。

Recent studies have highlighted the differential impact of climate change on people and their livelihoods in different parts of the world. Such findings have led to widespread political mobilization for "climate justice" in a range of contexts. Human rights, legal argument, and international institutions have structured such efforts by several government and civil society advocates, while many NGOs and social movements have called instead for structural change, organizing popular mobilization across political scales. The varied framings and strategies employed by these groups bear upon the direction of future regulatory action and, ultimately, the production of physical and social geographies. Little scholarship, however, has examined these politics as they involve differently positioned actors, with different resources, stakeholders, and commitments. This doctoral dissertation project explores these themes through a comparative study of two significantly differentiated mobilization efforts for "just" climate regulation. The project asks (1) how the groups frame the problem of uneven climate change and appropriate responses, (2) what political opportunity structures exist for them and how they make strategic choices, and (3) how framings and opportunity structures inform each other, and the assessment of outcomes. In-depth interviews with key actors in two efforts, observations of meetings and actions in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the European Union, and texts produced by the two efforts will provide data to answer these questions. The findings will demonstrate the range of framings and political opportunities that characterize the two cases, relationships between these two definitive aspects of mobilization, and links between them and the factors that differentiate the cases, which include the institutional affiliations of key actors; forms of expertise; the ideological commitments of actors and their stakeholders; political scales of engagement; and legal vs. non-legal strategies. The project will analyze how differently positioned actors engage in formal political processes and direct action in response to the imminent and uneven environmental impacts associated with climate change. In so doing, it will unpack the divergent conceptualizations of global justice that these efforts pursue, which involve legal norms and processes, relational connections, and prescription for redistribution and redress in varying forms and degrees. It will examine how emergent scientific knowledge plays a role in the construction of political efforts that cross space to link disparate impacts, communities, and places, and how such efforts mobilize strategically at different political geographic scales. It will demonstrate the importance of actors' situatedness for their means and abilities to participate in processes of global governance and representative politics. This research has potential policy implications because it will lead to better understanding of advocacy practices and participation in current climate policy formation structures. It may also contribute to expanding knowledge of the political dimensions of climate change and its regulation in relation to themes of justice, issues of importance that have been recognized by inclusion in the mitigation section of the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. The study holds potential to contribute to knowledge in political geography, political ecology, as well as socio-legal studies, and to better integrate these literatures. The project will contribute to the training of a young scholar, and will incorporate results into teaching and learning opportunities.