Disrupting the knowledge-power politics of human mobility in the context of climate change: Questioning established categories

Abstract

Established categories used to describe different kinds of human mobility, based on a distinction between forced and more-or-less voluntary forms of movement, dominate the discourse on human mobility in the context of climate change. In particular, the phrase "displacement, migration and planned relocation" anchored in the Cancun Adaptation Framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has become prominent. Despite being portrayed as objective representations of the world, these categories are not neutral, with terminology being value-laden and taking on different connotations in different contexts. The categories used to describe human mobility in the context of climate change therefore do not necessarily impart knowledge about the realities of human mobilities, but rather say more about the speakers using these categories. This essay provides an impulse to look beyond established categories from policymaking, to strengthen critique of these categories in academic work, and to move beyond policy-relevant research.