Harald Sterly

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

Course directory

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

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, 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

Sterly, H., & Wirkus, L. (2022). Analysing refugees’ secondary mobility using mobile phone Call Detail Records (CDR). In A. A. Salah, E. E. Korkmaz, & T. Bircan (Eds.), Data Science for Migration and Mobility (pp. 99-120). Oxford University Press.