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, 14:00 to 15:00 (MS Teams)

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

Book an appointment > 02.12.2025 | 16.12.2025 | 13.01.2026 | 27.01.2026

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 61 - 80 out of 102
Sakdapolrak, P., & Etzold, B. (2016). Socio-spatialities of vulnerability: towards a polymorphic perspective in vulnerability research. Die Erde: Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin - Forum für Erdsystem- und Erdraumforschung, 147(4), 53-70. https://doi.org/10.12854/erde-147-21
Lang, B., & Sakdapolrak, P. (2015). Violent place making: How Kenya’s post-election violence transforms a worker’s settlement at Lake Naivasha. Political Geography, 45, 67-78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2014.09.005
Sakdapolrak, P., Greiner, C., & Bunchuay-Peth, S. A. (2015). Deciphering migration in the age of climate change: Towards an understanding of translocal relations in social-ecological systems. TransRe (Translocal Resilience Project), Department of Geography, University of Bonn. Working Paper Series by the University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna No. 2 https://doi.org/10.13140/2.1.4402.9765
Sakdapolrak, P., Ergler, R. C., Bohle, H.-G., & Kearns, R. (2015). From Effective Cure to Affective Care: Access Barriers and Entitlements to Health Care Among Urban Poor in Chennai, India. In Geographies of Development and Health (pp. 93-114). Ashgate.
Sakdapolrak, P., Afifi, T., Milan, A., Etzold, B., Schraven, B., Rademacher-Schulz, C., Reif, A., Van der Geest, K., & Warner, K. (2015). Human mobility in response to rainfall variability: opportunities for migration as a successful adaptation strategy in eight case studies. Migration and Development, 5(2), 254-274. https://doi.org/10.1080/21632324.2015.1022974
Sakdapolrak, P., & Greiner, C. (2015). Migration, Environment and Inequality: Perspectives of a Political Ecology of Translocal Relations. In R. McLeman, J. Schade, & T. Faist (Eds.), Environmental Migration and Social Inequality (pp. 151-163). Springer.
Wrathall, D. J., Oliver-Smith, A., Fekete, A., Gencer, E., Reyes, M. L., & Sakdapolrak, P. (2015). Problematising loss and damage. International Journal of Global Warming, 8(2), 274-294. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJGW.2015.071962
Sakdapolrak, P., & Britta, L. (2014). Belonging and recognition after the post-election violence: A case study on labour migrants in Naivasha, Kenya. Erdkunde: Archiv für wissenschaftliche Geographie, 68(3), 185-196. https://doi.org/10.3112/erdkunde.2014.03.03
Sakdapolrak, P., Peth, S., & Greiner, C. (2014). Deciphering migration in the age of climate change. Towards an understanding of translocal relations in social-ecological systems. Artec-Paper, (200), 23-33.
Sakdapolrak, P. (2014). Livelihoods as social practices – re-energising livelihoods research with Bourdieu's theory of practice. Geographica Helvetica: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Laender- und Voelkerkunde, 69, 19-28.
Sakdapolrak, P., & Fekete, A. (2014). Loss and Damage as an Alternative to Resilience and Vulnerability? Preliminary Reflections on an Emerging Climate Change Adaptation Discourse. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 5(1), 88-93. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13753-014-0012-7
Sakdapolrak, P., Deffner, V., Haferburg, C., Eichholz, M., Etzold, B., & Michel, B. (2014). Relational denken, Ungleichheiten reflektieren – Bourdieus Theorie der Praxis in der deutschsprachigen Geographischen Entwicklungsforschung. Geographica Helvetica: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Laender- und Voelkerkunde, 69(1), 3-6. https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-69-3-2014
Sakdapolrak, P., Seyler, T., & Ergler, C. (2013). Burdens of direct and indirect costs of illness: Empirical findings from slum settlements in Chennai, South India. Progress in Development Studies, 13(2), 135-151. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1464993412466506
Sakdapolrak, P., & Etzold, B. (2013). Globale Arbeit – lokale Verwundbarkeit: Internationale Arbeitsmigration aus der Perspektive der geographischen Verwundbarkeitsforschung. In Migration und Entwicklung aus geographischer Perspektive (42/2012 ed., pp. 131-163). Institut für Migrationsforschung und Interkulturelle Studien (IMIS).
Sakdapolrak, P., & Greiner, C. (2013). Rural-urban migration, agricultural change and the environment in Kenya: A critical review of the literature. Population and Environment, 34(4), 524-553. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-012-0178-0
Sakdapolrak, P., & Greiner, C. (2013). Translocality: Concepts, applications and emerging research perspectives. Geography Compass, 7(5), 373-384. https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12048
Sakdapolrak, P., & Keck, M. (2013). What is social resilience? Lessons learned and ways forward. Erdkunde: Archiv für wissenschaftliche Geographie, 67(1), 5-19. https://doi.org/10.3112/erdkunde.2013.01.02
Sakdapolrak, P., Promburom, P., & Reif, A. (2013). Why successful in-situ adaptation with environmental stress does not prevent people from migrating? Empirical evidence from Northern Thailand. Climate and Development, 6(1), 38-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2013.826129
Sakdapolrak, P., Seyler, T., Prasad, S. S., & Dhanraj, R. (2012). A Chikungunya outbreak in the metropolis of Chennai, India, 2006. Journal of Environmental Health, 74(6), 8-13. https://europepmc.org/article/MED/22329203
Sakdapolrak, P., Raupp, S., & Fabian, T. (2012). Armut, Nahrung und Gesundheit. Alltägliche Herausforderungen verwundbarer Gruppen in Indiens Städten. In China und Indien im 21. Jahrhundert (pp. 109-125). Selbstverlag Fach Geographie der Universität Passau.
Showing entries 61 - 80 out of 102