Univ.-Prof. Dr. Patrick Sakdapolrak

Head of the Working Group

Professor of Population Geography and Demography
Vice-Director of Doctoral Studies (SPL 45)

Contact

Department of Geography and Regional Research
Universitätsstraße 7/5, D518
1010 Vienna, Austria

Tel.: +43-1-4277-48730

Email: patrick.sakdapolrak@univie.ac.at


Hours: Tuesday, 13:15 to 14:15 (MS Teams)

Please register by Monday (10 h) at the latest. You will then receive an access link.

14.01.2025 | 21.01.2025 | 28.01.2025

Teaching

Course directory

Biography

My research field is at the interface of population dynamics, environmental change and development processes, with a focus on the topics of migration and displacement as well as health and disease. The central theme of my research is the question of how vulnerable groups live with risk. My Ph.D. thesis is based on field research in slum settlements in India, where the inhabitants have significant higher mortality and morbidity rates than the rest of the urban population. I have investigated how these poor urban groups cope with and adapt to environmental and social stresses. My current research on migration-environment relationships in Kenya and Thailand addresses the question how migration alters the way people at places of origin deal with the environment and climate change. I have the aim to pursue sound theoretical and empirical research which is relevant for wider society. I have studied Geography and Development Research in Heidelberg and Wollongong, Australia, and received my doctorate degree at Bonn University.

Research interests

Conceptual: vulnerability, resilience, livelihoods, translocality, Bourdieu's Practice-Theory

Thematic: human-environment-relations, migration and displacement, health and disease

Regional: South Asia (India), South-East Asia (Thailand), East Africa (Kenia)

Current research Projects

  • HABITABLE – Linking Climate Change, Habitability and Social Tipping Points: Scenarios for Climate Migration

Publications

Showing entries 1 - 20 out of 93
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. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2024.102953
Merschroth, S., Sterly, H., Sakdapolrak, P., Abu, M., & Janoth, J.-N. (2024). 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. https://doi.org/10.12854/erde-2023-655
Thongchaithanawut, M., Borderon, M., & Sakdapolrak, P. (2024). Regional evidence of environmental mobility in Southeast Asia: A systematic review of the empirical evidence. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 45(3), 533-562. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12562
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
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
Pagogna, R., & Sakdapolrak, P. (2023). How migration information campaigns shape local perceptions and discourses of migration in Harar city, Ethiopia. International Migration, 61(5), 142-155. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13112
Lemke, L. K.-G., Sakdapolrak, P., & Trippl, M. (2023). Unresolved issues in regional economic resilience: Conceptual ways forward. Progress in Human Geography, 47(5), 699-717. https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325231191242
Weldemariam, L. F., Sakdapolrak, P., & Ayanlade, A. (2023). Household food-security strategies and migration in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia: food-security strategies and migration. Scientific African, 21, Article e01801. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sciaf.2023.e01801
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
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
Groth, J., Seppelt, R., Sakdapolrak, P., Senbeta, F., & Hermans, K. (2023). Why smallholders stop engaging in forest activities: the role of in-migration in livelihood transitions in forested landscapes of southwestern Ethiopia. Ecology and Society, 28(1), Article 52. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-14022-280152
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
Lemke, L. K.-G., Trippl, M., & Sakdapolrak, P. (2023). Regional Economic Resilience Revisited: A capacity-based approach to deliberate system transformations. Paper presented at Global Conference on Economic Geography , Dublin, Ireland.
Ayanlade, A., Sergi, C. M., Sakdapolrak, P., Ayanlade, O. S., Carlo, P. D., Babatimehin, O. I., Weldemariam, L. F., & Jegede, M. O. (2022). Climate change engenders a better Early Warning System development across Sub-Saharan Africa: The malaria case. Resources, Environment and Sustainability, 10, Article 100080. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resenv.2022.100080
Ayanlade, A., Oluwaranti, A., Ayanlade , O. S., Borderon, M., Sterly, H., Sakdapolrak, P., Jegede, M. O., Weldemariam, L. F., & Ayinde, A. F. O. (2022). Extreme climate events in sub-Saharan Africa: A call for improving agricultural technology transfer to enhance adaptive capacity. Climate Services, 27, Article 100311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cliser.2022.100311
Sakdapolrak, P., Pagogna, R., & Diniega, R. (2022). Covid-19, Migration und Translokalität. Geographische Rundschau (GR), 74(5), 14-17.
Butsch, C., & Sakdapolrak, P. (2022). Gesundheit und Krankheit im Entwicklungskontext. In Geographien der Gesundheit: Beiträge zum 50-jährigen Bestehen des Arbeitskreises Medizinische Geographie und Geographische Gesundheitsforschung in der DGfG (Vol. 6, pp. 85-98)
Weldemariam, L. F., Sakdapolrak, P., & Ayanlade, A. (2022). The impact of migration on food security in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia: The role of migration patterns and remittances. Erdkunde: Archiv für wissenschaftliche Geographie, 76(4), 271-288. https://doi.org/10.3112/erdkunde.2022.04.03
Sakdapolrak, P., Stange, G., & Sterly, H. (2021). Bevölkerungsdynamiken im Kontext des globalen Umweltwandels. In B. Braun, I. Helbrecht, R. Schneider-Sliwa, & R. Wehrhahn (Eds.), Humangeographie (pp. 149-158). Westermann.
Showing entries 1 - 20 out of 93