Dr. Harald Sterly
Dr. Harald Sterly
Senior Scientist
Contact
Department of Geography and Regional Research
Universitätsstraße 7/5, D512
1010 Wien
Tel.: +43-1-4277-48731
Email: harald.sterly@univie.ac.at
Teaching
Biography
As a human geographer, I focus on the spatial and social aspects of the intersection of climate and environmental change and different forms of mobility and migration. A specific interest lies on the outcomes of migration and translocal connectivities on the scope for people's agency and their vulnerability and resilience. At present, I am based as a Senior Scientist in the Department of Geography at the University of Vienna, from where I conduct empirical research with mixed methods approaches in Europe, Africa, as well as in Southeast, Central and South Asia. I have done my Diploma (MSc) in Geography at the University of Cologne and a postgraduate course in international development cooperation at the Humboldt-University Berlin. My PhD thesis focused on mobile communication and translocal social relations of rural-to-urban migrants in Bangladesh. In the past, I have coordinated research projects on mega-urban dynamics and informality in Bangladesh and China, and on the linkages between migration, translocal connections and social resilience in Thailand.
Research interests
Conceptual: spatiality of livelihoods, translocality, relational sociology, practice theories, science and technology studies, communication and digitalization
Thematic: migration, vulnerability, urbanization, rural-urban relations, development
Regional: South East Asia (Thailand), South Asia (Bangladesh), East Africa (Kenya, Somalia)
Publications
Mallick, B., Hunter, L. M., Ackerly, B., Priodarshini, R., Kelman, I., Boas, I., Castro, B., Czaika, M., Ahmed, B., Ahsan, M. N., Arboleda, M. F., Bailey, A., Bayrak, M. M., Best, K., Carrico, A., Draper, J., Etzold, B., Farbotko, C., Gain, A. K., ... van den Berg, J. (2025). Future-making beyond (im)mobility through tethered resilience. Nature Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02506-8
Sterly, H., Borderon, M., & Sakdapolrak, P. (2025). Dépasser le déterminisme environnemental: Recentrer le social dans les débats sur l’habitabilité et les migrations. mondes & migrations, 1351(4), 11-19. Article 2637. https://doi.org/10.4000/14ywp
Sterly, H. (2025). Klimaanpassungsstrategie in Moldau: Potenziale und Grenzen von Migration und Rücküberweisungen. Geographische Rundschau (GR), 9(2025), 16-21.
Boas, I., Sterly, H., Farbotko, C., Hulme, M., Benveniste, H., Schewel, K. D., Bettini, G., Borderon, M., Hoffmann, R., Geest, K. V. D., Durand-Delacre, D., Selby, J., Wrathall, D. J., Baldwin, A., Cortés, A. B., Bukari, K. N., Bunchuay-Peth, S., Capisani, S., Codjoe, S. N. A., ... Zickgraf, C. (2025). Climate-induced redistribution of people is not inevitable. Environmental Research Letters. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/adfdfd
International Organization for Migration (Ed.), & Sterly, H. (2025). Climate Change, Migration and Adaptation in the Republic of Moldova. Web publication https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/pub2025-027-r-climate_change-migration-moldova-en.pdf
Sterly, H., Borderon, M., Sakdapolrak, P., Adger, W. N., Ayanlade, A., Bah, A., Blocher, J., Blondin, S., Boly, S., Brochier, T., Brüning, L., Bunchuay-Peth, S. A., O'Byrne, D., Safra de Campos, R., Codjoe, S. N. A., Debève, F., Detges, A., Franco-Gavonel, M., Hathaway, C., ... Zickgraf, C. (2025). Habitability for a connected, unequal and changing world. Global Environmental Change, 90, Article 102953. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2024.102953
Garcia, C., Borderon, M., Sakdapolrak, P., Assefa, N., Bunchuay-Peth, S., Dheresa, M., Reboul, L., & Sterly, H. (2025). Unveiling invisible climate im/mobilities: mixed-methods case study of a drought-prone rural area of Kersa, Ethiopia. Regional Environmental Change, 25(1), Article 34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-025-02373-1
Tadee, R., Sakdapolrak, P., Sterly, H., & Pagogna, R. (2025). The Roles of Information Communication Technology in Translocal Embedding and Anchoring Among Thai Migrant Workers in South Korea. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie. https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.70008
Hermans, K., Djanibekov, N., Abdullaev, I., Abduvalieva, N., Assubayeva, A., Blondin, S., Bobojonov, I., Conrad, C., Herzfeld, T., Kansiime, J., Kimsanova, B., Laldjebaev, M., Mirkasimov, B., Murzakulova, A., Rajabova, S., Samakov, A., Schraven, B., Sterly, H., & Umirbekov, A. (2024). Future research directions for understanding the interconnections between climate change, water scarcity, and mobility in rural Central Asia. Climate and Development, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2024.2436090
The Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (Ed.), Banerjee, S., & Sterly, H. (2024). Technical guide on integrating human mobility and climate change linkages into relevant national climate change planning processes. United Nations Climate Change Secretariat. https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/WIM_ExCom_human-mobility_TFD_2024.pdf
Janoth, J.-N., Abu, M., Sakdapolrak, P., Sterly, H., & Merschroth, S. (2024). The impact of migration on culturally-embedded and subjective perceptions of habitability in a context of environmental change: A case study from Northern Ghana . Erdkunde: Archiv für wissenschaftliche Geographie, 78(1), 35-55. https://doi.org/10.3112/erdkunde.2024.01.02
Simpson, N. P., Mach, K. J., Tebboth, M. G. L., Gilmore, E. A., Siders, A. R., Holden, P., Anderson, B., Chandni, S., Sabour, S., Stringer, L. C., Sterly, H., Williams, P. A., Meyer, A. L. S., Cundill, G., Rosengaertner, S., Nunow, A., Amakrane, K., & Trisos, C. H. (2024). Research priorities for climate mobility. One Earth, 7(4), 589-607. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2024.02.002
Sakdapolrak, P., Sterly, H., Borderon, M., Bunchuay-Peth, S. A., Naruchaikusol, S., Ober, K., Porst, L., & Rockenbauch, T. (2024). Translocal social resilience dimensions of migration as adaptation to environmental change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 121(3), Article e2206185120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2206185120
Oakes, R., van der Geest, K., Schraven, B., Adaawen, S., Ayeb-Karlsson, S., de Sherbinin, A., Etzold, B., Groth, J., Hermans, K., Lakemann, S., Nawrotzki, R., Rademacher-Schulz, C., Romankiewicz, C., Serraglio, D. A., Sterly, H., Thalheimer, L., Wiederkehr, C., & Williams, D. (2023). A future agenda for research on climate change and human mobility. International Migration, 61(5), 116-125. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13169
Stange, G., Pagogna, R., Sterly, H., Sakdapolrak, P., Borderon, M., Schraven, B., & Serraglio, D. A. (2023). Impeded Migration as Adaptation: COVID-19 and Its Implications for Translocal Strategies of Environmental Risk Management. ASEAS - Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies, 16(1), 157-169. https://doi.org/10.14764/10.ASEAS-0093
Szaboova, L., Adger, W. N., Safra de Campos, R., Maharjan, A., Sakdapolrak, P., Sterly, H., Conway, D., Codjoe, S. N. A., & Abu, M. (2023). Evaluating migration as successful adaptation to climate change: Trade-offs in well-being, equity, and sustainability. One Earth, 6(6), 620-631. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2023.05.009
Ayanlade, A., Smucker, T., Nyasimi, M., Sterly, H., Weldemariam, L. F., & Simpson, N. P. (2023). Complex Climate Change Risk and Emerging Directions for Vulnerability Research in Africa. Climate Risk Management, 40, Article 100497. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2023.100497
Sakdapolrak, P., Borderon, M., & Sterly, H. (2023). The limits of migration as adaptation. A conceptual approach towards the role of immobility, disconnectedness and simultaneous exposure in translocal livelihoods systems. Climate and Development, 16(2), 87-96. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2023.2180318
Rockenbauch, T., Sakdapolrak, P., & Sterly, H. (2023). Do translocal networks matter for agricultural innovation? A case study on advice sharing in small-scale farming communities in Northeast Thailand: (Previously published in Agriculture and Human Values Volume 36, Issue 4, December 2019). In R. Bezner Kerr, T. L. Pendergrast, B. J. Smith II, & J. Liebert (Eds.), Rethinking Food System Transformation (pp. 35-52). Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-019-09935-0
Merschroth, S., Sterly, H., Sakdapolrak, P., Abu, M., & Janoth, J.-N. (2023). Subjectivity and Social Positions Shape Habitability in the Context of Environmental Change: a Qualitative Case Study in Northern Ghana. Die Erde: Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin - Forum für Erdsystem- und Erdraumforschung, 154(4), 123-144. https://doi.org/10.12854/erde-2023-655