What's New

Environmental hazards due to climate change and other anthropogenic processes are drivers of voluntary and forced migration, both cross-border and internally. These hazards include droughts, flooding, sea level rise, storms, salinization, land degradation, and deforestation, among others.

While human mobility can be an adaptive response to environmental change, a large part of migrants are considered displaced populations. In some regions, such as the Greater Horn of Africa, the scale of environmental forced displacement is substantial, posing a challenge for the displaced, host communities, aid organizations, and governments. The public health implications of environmental migration, however, are still not understood well.

This Special Issue welcomes original articles that address health issues related to environmental and climate-induced migration, in particular of people displaced by droughts and land degradation in low- and middle-income countries. Topics include but are not limited to:

• Slow onset events (droughts, salinization, soil erosion);
• Sudden onset events (floods, cyclones);
• Cross-border migration and forced displacement;
• Internally displaced people;
• Food and water safety, famine;
• Mortality and morbidity, including infant and child health;
• Disease outbreaks;
• Mental health;
• Gender-based violence;
• Violent conflicts;
• Availability and quality of health care services;
• Living conditions in refugee camps and informal settlements.

Guest Editor: Dr. Barbara Schumann

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2020

For more information, see https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph/special_issues/health_environmental_migration 

The Department of Sociology, University of Lagos invites researchers, government officials, officials of non-governmental organizations, students and all those interested in the improvement of society and the human condition through research to participate in its 2020 Annual Lecture and Conference.  The theme of the conference is ‘Nigeria’s data challenge’.

Submissions for abstract are invited as well as extended abstracts on any of the following sub-themes:

• Nigeria's census challenge
• Issues in national surveys in Nigeria
• Vital registration in Nigeria: Challenges and prospects
• Ethical issues in Population register management in Nigeria
• Data management and health policies and programmes in Nigeria
• Political issues and data management in Nigeria
• Cultural issues in the collection and management of data in Nigeria
• The political economy of data management and research funding in Nigeria
• Religion and the data challenge in Nigeria
• New technologies/ICT and Big data: challenges, prospects and opportunities for data collection in Nigeria
• Building capacity for data management and bridging the Data-policy gap in Nigeria.
• Insecurity and data collection in Nigeria
• The data challenge and doing business in Nigeria
• Exclusion of the often-neglected sub-populations – women, elderly, special populations

Submission guidelines:

• Only submissions in English will be accepted.
• Abstracts should not exceed 250 words while extended abstract should be between 1000 and 2500 words.
• Only Word documents (.doc or .docx) should be submitted.
• Submissions should be made by mail to: unilagsociology@ gmail.com; gamaike@ unilag.edu.ng; mkunnuji@ unilag.edu.ng

Important dates:

• 10 February 2020: Short abstract submission opening
• 1 May 2020: Deadline for submission of short abstracts
• 1 March 2020: Full paper or extended abstract submission opening
• 31 May 2020: Deadline for full paper or extended abstract submission
• 6 June 2020: Notification of acceptance of abstract
• 17 June 2020: Deadline for registration

Under the Researcher Links scheme offered within the Newton Fund (www.newtonfund.ac.uk), the British Council, in partnership with the São Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo), will be holding a four-day workshop on the above theme in the premises of the Transamérica Prime Hotel Guarujá, São Paulo, Brazil. 

The workshop is being coordinated by Dr Raymond Ward (University of Brighton, UK) and Dr. Celia Regina de Gouveia Souza (Institute of Geology-SIMA/SP and University of São Paulo) and will have contributions from leading researchers (mentors) from the UK (Dr Andrew Cooper, Dr Luciana Esteves) and Brazil (Dr Pedro Roberto Jacobi, Dr Chou Sin Chan).

Organizers are now inviting Early Career Researchers (please, see the rules for application below) from the UK and São Paulo to attend this workshop. All travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by the Newton Researcher Links programme.

Researchers from Brazil and the UK will meet to discuss how they can collaborate to support the development and implementation of strategies to adapt to climate change. This represents an important issue in the context of both the Brazilian and the State of São Paulo Climate Change Adaptation Plans, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (3, 9, 11, and especially 13, 14 and 15). Through inclusive and participatory activities, the workshop will promote an in-depth discussion of how improved and targeted adaptation strategies can help reduce habitat loss, environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources, thus enabling social and economic development. The workshop will stimulate the development of long-lasting UK-Brazil collaboration and government-research partnerships that combine the scientific and practical knowledge required to build the required research and technical capacity for adaptation strategy implementation.

The completed application form can be accessed from this link here and it should be submitted to r.d.ward@ brighton.ac.uk before the deadline on 1 April 2020. The successful applicants will be notified by the end of April 2020.

For further information, please visit http://www.bedhair.co.uk/researcher-links/ and https://www.britishcouncil.org.br/newton-fund/researcher-links/workshops-confap-fapesp-2019-20 for information in Portuguese.

The Scientific Program Committee (SPC) invites you to take an active part in organizing the scientific program of the conference. The OSM program will be comprised of plenary, parallel and poster sessions. The plenary sessions will host keynote talks intended to stimulate discussions on the role of past global change science by providing information about strategies for a sustainable world, on the engagement of stakeholders in active cutting-edge research, and on the added value of interdisciplinary approaches. The parallel and associated poster sessions will accommodate top-level ongoing research.

The SPC will prepare the program based upon your input, aiming for a fair balance between the topics. Please note that the SPC could merge sessions with similar topics (before abstract submission) or with a small number of abstracts (after abstract submission).

Scientists from African institutions are strongly encouraged to submit session proposals. Please inform your colleagues about this opportunity.

Scientists are invited to suggest sessions until 1 April 2020. Please send an email to pages@ pages.unibe.ch (clickable link with correct subject line) and include a provisional title, potential conveners, and a brief description of the session.

The VYPR is an open-access journal that has been published annually by the Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences since 2003. It is addressing population trends as well as a broad range of theoretical and methodological issues in population research. 

• Examples of topics for the Special Issue include: 
• Life expectancy based indicators of wellbeing
• (Economic) wellbeing over the life course and over time
• Demographic differentials/inequalities in wellbeing
• Wellbeing and intergenerational support
• Feedbacks from environmental change to human wellbeing

Deadline for submissions: 31 March 2020.

Further details concerning submissions can be found here: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/fileadmin/subsites/Institute/VID/PDF/Publications/VYPR/Guidelines_for_Authors.pdf 

General information on the VYPR as well as on the current call: www.viennayearbook.org 

Digital Geography and Society is an open access journal publishing interdisciplinary social science and humanities research offering critical perspectives on the complexities and interconnected nature of geographies relating to the digital.

Digital Geography and Society is calling for papers on the following themes:

• Digital geographies beyond the Global North
• Digital inflections of the anthropocene
• Difference and the digital/ digital geographies of difference
• Methods of/for digital geographies
• Platform politics and urbanism
• The promise and problematic of automation

For more information, see https://www.journals.elsevier.com/digital-geography-and-society/call-for-papers/digital-geography-and-society-is-calling-for-papers

This three-day event brings together theorists, practitioners, methodologists, and applied researchers from across the social sciences and beyond in order to stimulate discussion of best practices and new proposals for how to communicate uncertainty in various settings, and the application of these insights in demography and population studies.

The application should be a single PDF-file including (1) a paragraph describing a problem you want to advance by participating in the Retreat (related to visualizing uncertainty) and (optionally) (2) a visualization of your own that contains an aspect of uncertainty, with a paragraph describing it (or critiquing it). 

Applicants should have received a PhD, or should be enrolled in a PhD program. Please get in touch if this does not apply to you but you are interested in participating. Participants will verbally present their research with the aid of a poster.

For students or junior scientists with financial limitations there will be a limited number of travel stipends, covering travel and accommodation. Please state in your application if you also want to apply for a travel stipend.

A course on visualization in R will take place directly before the Retreat at the Max Planck Institute. If you also plan to apply to this course, please mention so in your Retreat application.

Questions or Suggestions? Feel free to contact the organizing committee by rostock-retreat@ demogr.mpg.de – anytime from anywhere.

Deadline for submissions: 10 April 2020

All applications should be uploaded via www.demogr.mpg.de/go/rostockretreatsubmission 

INED is recruiting 3 doctoral students on three-year contracts starting 1 October 2020. Applicants must fulfil the following three criteria:

• Applicants must hold, or complete during the current academic year (2019-2020), a Master’s degree (M2) or equivalent in a discipline related to the population sciences and qualifying them for admission to a PhD programme in a French or foreign university.
• Applicants must be enrolled (first enrollment) in a doctoral programme in a French or foreign university for the academic year 2020-2021.
• The thesis director or the co-director of the thesis must be a researcher of INED. Candidates are called upon to directly solicit a researcher from INED in relation to their research theme.

There are no criteria in terms of age or nationality. 

Full information is available at: https://www.ined.fr/en/research/PhD-students/call-applications/ 

Toutes les informations sont disponibles sur la page suivante: https://www.ined.fr/fr/recherche/accueil-doctoral/appel-candidature/

Application deadline: 29 May 2020 at 12:00 PM (noon, Paris time) 

The European Doctoral School of Demography (EDSD) invites applications for school year 2020-2021.

The EDSD is an eleven-month sponsored program that is offered every year aiming to provide students with an appropriate high-level education in demography to pursue their doctoral studies. Students will acquire a solid knowledge base on the causes and consequences of demographic change, population data, statistical and mathematical demography, as well as modeling, simulation, and forecasting. The School’s courses are structured in such a way that the students work on the precise formulation of a thesis topic and early steps of their dissertations. Many of the School’s courses concentrate on strengthening the quantitative and programming skills of the students. The language of the School is English.  

In the 2020/21 academic year, the School will be held at two different locations. The preparatory courses (from early September to late October 2020) will be offered at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany. The core courses (from November until the end of July 2021) will be held at the Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics, in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain.

European Master’s Degree in Demography: upon successful completion of the program and presentation of a thesis, the students enrolled in the EDSD will attain an official European Master in Demography from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.  

Deadline for applications: 15 April 2020

For more information, see https://ced.uab.cat/en/courses/edsd/ or contact at edsd@ ced.uab.es. 

Become part of Europe’s “Festival of Ideas”! Every year, over 650 students from almost 100 nationalities participate as scholarship holders in the European Forum Alpbach. Join smart minds from around the world in a charming Alpine village, immersing yourself in an environment bursting with novel ideas, new ways of thinking and opportunities for making great contacts.

With the Alpbach Scholarship Programme, young people under 30 (or under 35 for African scholarship holders) can attend this leading interdisciplinary conference and a variety of academic and artistic seminars. 

Applications for the Scholarship Programme will be open between 17 February and 31 March 2020.

For more information, see https://www.alpbach.org/en/scholarships/

The International Society for Urban Health seeks a dynamic and experienced Executive Director to provide leadership in the next phase of its development as the only global non-governmental organization solely focused on addressing the broad determinants of urban health and health inequity.

Reporting to the Board of Directors, the Executive Director will be responsible for leading the development and implementation of a strategic plan and setting and implementing priorities to build a strong, effective and sustainable organization that can work across sectors to bring evidence to advocacy for changes that advance the health of cities worldwide. Competitive candidates will have demonstrated experience in leading the successful growth and development of an organization and a track record of securing successful funding from diverse sources.

The International Society for Urban Health (ISUH) was founded by The New York Academy of Medicine in 2002. It has become the only global non-governmental organization solely focused on advancing urban health and health equity by addressing the broader determinants of health.

Deadlie for applications: 31 March 2020

For more information, see https://www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit-job/f0428bfc38514356a4ae7d18c365051c-executive-director-international-society-for-urban-health-isuh-new-york

Overview:  Wildfires are the biggest problem in the wildland urban interface (WUI), i.e., the area where houses and wildland vegetation mix or intermingle.  SILVIS Lab research group has spearheaded efforts to map the WUI and its growth, to find ways to minimize fire risk to people, and to identify where prescribe fires can be used for restoration.  The group is offering two new positions, one postdoc and one PhD student, to study wildfires in the WUI.  The projects are part of a collaboration between UW-Madison (V. Radeloff), the US Geological Survey (T. Hawbaker), and the US Forest Service (M. Mockrin). 

Both positions will be based in the SILVIS lab (http://silvis.forest.wisc.edu/), and supervised by V. Radeloff.  The SILVIS lab is part of the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  The university has a long history of excellence in ecology, conservation biology, remote sensing and geography.

Positions: The postdoctoral position is offered for two years.  The appointment will be as a research associate.  Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience and health benefits are included.  The position is available immediately, and we seek to fill it by June 1st 2020, but a later start date is negotiable.

The offering for the PhD graduate assistantship is for three years.  The student will be appointed as a research assistant with a stipend of $24,816 per year plus health benefits and tuition remission.  The PhD student is expected to start September 1st 2020 at the latest, and an earlier start date is negotiable.

Qualifications: The group seek candidates who work well in a collaborative setting and have excellent communication and writing skills. Good English writing and verbal communication skills, as well as the ability to work in a team, are essential.  Candidates should have demonstrated skills in the processing and handling of large datasets, statistics, and GIS.  Knowledge of remote sensing, fire ecology and/or human demographics is a plus.

Applicants for the post-doc position must have completed their Ph.D. at the time of appointment and have published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.  Applicants for the PhD student position must have a completed a BS.  A MS by the time of appointment is desirable, but candidates with equivalent experience will be considered.

To apply:  Please submit your application here:  uwmadison.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6P4NjL8PSpNhJ7n

Submitting an application includes filling out a small survey, and takes approximately 15 minutes.  It requires contact information for three references, and to upload (in one file in PDF format):

• a 2-page cover letter summarizing research interests and experiences
• a Curriculum Vitae
• unofficial transcripts (both undergraduate and graduate, compiled into one file)

After reviewing all applicants, reference letters and official transcripts will be required for shortlisted candidates.

The position is open to both U.S. citizens, and international citizens.  UW-Madison will assist with visa applications as necessary once offers are made.

Review of applicants will begin immediately, but the positions will remain open until a suitable candidate is found.  Applications received by 30 March 2020 are guaranteed consideration.

This book discusses how gender, as a power relationship, influences climate change related strategies.  It also explores the additional pressures that climate change brings to uneven gender relations and considers the ways in which men and women experience the impacts of these in different economic contexts.

In this book,Dasgupta provides tentative answers to two fundamental questions: What level of economic activity can our planet support over the long run; and what does the answer say about optimum population numbers? 

In this paper, the authors provide direction and initiates scientific dialog on the potential role of mobility in adapting to natural and social changes in coastal environments.  They also identified four key research areas on information needed to develop coastal management actions and policies that support and recognize socio-ecological coupling in coastal areas. 

Using a combination of climate, air quality, and epidemiological models to assess future air pollution deaths in a changing climate under Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 (RCP4.5), the study found that future climate change is likely to exacerbate air pollution mortality, largely influenced by the more intense extreme events such as stagnation events and heat waves

Using both primary and secondary data sources drawn from key informant interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs), this study aims to examine the competing and conflicting interests from the political economy perspective of peri-urban land use conversion and development through a case study of Bahir Dar City and its peri-urban areas. 

The authors outline the key extensions of the National Research Council's People and Pixels foundation since 1998.  The article highlight several breakthroughs in research on human–environment interactions. It also identify pressing research problems—disaster, famine, drought, war, poverty, climate change—and explore how interdisciplinary approaches integrating people and pixels are being used to address them.

In this article, the authors present a conceptual framework of illicit land transactions and a two-pronged approach using remotely sensed data to spatially link illicit activities to land uses.

To study the impact of the urban evolution on the environment, this paper establishes a simple core–periphery model with monocentric cities, which comprises key forces that shape the structure and interrelation of cities.

In this article, the authors use geolocated child nutrition data from 53 developing countries to show that minor to severe droughts as well as severe periods of extreme rainfall are related to child stunting.

The article explores the role of migration and commuting in addressing livelihood vulnerability along a rural–urban continuum in Karnataka, India by drawing on life history interviews with migrant and non‐migrant families.  

In this paper,  the dominant hypotheses and findings about the connection between famine and migration is surveyed. It then delineates key questions that an inter-disciplinary and case-based study of the subject should address, highlighting gaps in the literature’s attention to population-level analyses.

Using a comprehensive data set from surveys carried out over the period 2004–2010 in the region of Kagera in Tanzania, the article examines whether households whose members had migrated to a unimodal region of the country experienced a reduction in their vulnerability to expected poverty (VEP) relative to households whose members had migrated to a bimodal region, which was affected by the drought.

The pre‐ and post‐dam differences in per capita land holdings, annual incomes, expenditures, and social capital of those resettled were analysed based on household‐level data collected from the resettlement communities using semi‐structured interviews and in‐depth questionnaires, at a household level using the sustainable livelihoods framework.