Global Shifts: Urbanization, Migration, and Climate Change
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Penny Abeywardena, New York City's Commissioner for International Affairs, in conversation with PWH Visiting Fellows Henri-Paul Normandin and Mauricio Rodas at an event about the growing global role of cities
Today, tens of millions of people move and are regularly displaced around the world through a combination of forces – environmental, societal, political, and security. Human movement and adaptation in response to ever changing catalysts has always been a salient feature of the global landscape.
Whether due to protracted conflict or political unrest, climate change or demographic shifts, human movement is often essential for communities to survive and thrive. Simultaneously, rapid urbanization has made cities home to 70 percent of the world’s population, resulting in a trend toward cities playing increasingly important roles on the world stage and being in the vanguard for global solutions.
At a moment when the world is seeing the greatest level of displacement since World War II, and the climate emergency grows more acute by the day, these complex and intersecting global phenomena – urbanization, migration, and climate change – demand sophisticated and coordinated action from researchers and policymakers working in concert.
The Global Shifts research theme examines these phenomena, highlights the specific challenges their intersections produce, and charts a path that allows for the best global policy responses to emerge.
Workshop: Climate Change and Geopolitics
Held on June 24, 2021, this gathering aimed to foster greater dialogue between scholars of international relations, security, and geopolitics, and scholars of climate change and the environment, both within their respective communities and with each other.
This workshop, held from April 15 to 16, 2021, convened academics, policymakers, and women refugee activists from around the world to generate new understandings of how urban refugee women have experienced the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and how to improve women refugees’ access to dignified life.
2021 Global Shifts Colloquium: Locked Down: Global Mobility and COVID-19
On March 23 to 24 and 26, 2021, Perry World House's Global Shifts Colloquium, "Locked Down: COVID-19 and Global Mobility", brought together academics and policymakers from across the globe to analyze how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected global mobility and how to mitigate its negative consequences.
2020 Global Shifts Colloquium: Seeking Refuge in the Climate Emergency
On September 14-16 and 23, 2020, Perry World House convened our Global Shifts Colloquium, "Seeking Refuge in the Climate Emergency." Experts from around the world met over four days to examine the underlying challenges, debates, and global policy solutions to prepare for and respond to climate-induced human displacement.
2020 Global Shifts Colloquium Report
Climate change threatens to displace millions of people around the world as sea levels rise and extreme weather events become increasingly common. How can the international community respond to this immense challenge? Our new report, "Seeking Refuge in the Climate Emergency" explores key debates, challenges, and issues around how climate change will impact human migration.
2020 Global Shifts Colloquium Thought Pieces
The scholars and policy practitioners who attended the Colloquium have also produced a series of thought pieces exploring critical issues surrounding the issue of climate-induced human displacement.
Borders and Boundaries Project
Do international political borders matter in the modern world, and, if so, in what ways? The Borders and Boundaries Project at Perry World House is researching how political life both affects and is affected by international borders and border security policies. This interdisciplinary, multi-method effort is directed by Professor Beth Simmons and is composed of research teams studying border politics across a variety of different research areas.
Great Powers and Urbanization Project
Over the course of the early twenty-first century, cities have increasingly moved into the international arena, taking on a growing role in global issues. Great power politics and urbanization are not separate phenomena. Peace, power, and prosperity in the twenty-first century will require urban expertise, as will solving global problems around climate change, migration, and equitable development. The Great Powers and Urbanization Project, or GPUP, is a collaboration of global leaders in international and urban affairs: the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House, the University of Melbourne’s Connected Cities Lab, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and the Argentine Council for International Relations (Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales).
