Climate change, migration, and the crisis of humanism

Baldwin, W.A.

doi:10.1002/wcc.460

Climate change, migration, and the crisis of humanism

Baldwin, W.A.

Authors

Professor Andrew Baldwin w.a.baldwin@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

Climate change is more and more said to be a problem of migration. The common refrain is that climate change will bear in some way on patterns of human mobility, resulting in either insecurity, humanitarian crises, or all manner of inventive adaptive responses. The inherent challenge in such claims is, however, that of causality: the degree to which climate change influences migration alongside the myriad social, political, and economic reasons people migrate. This challenge is far from being settled. Importantly, the unsettled question of causality exposes how the crisis of humanism is central to the construction of the climate migrant or climate refugee. Coming to terms with this crisis means having to confront how issues of power and knowledge shape how we understand the relationship between climate change and migration. But even more importantly it means having to ask probing questions about what it means to be human today. The study develops these arguments through an engagement with the concept of the monster and with Timothy Morton's concept of the hyperobject.

Citation

Baldwin, W. (2017). Climate change, migration, and the crisis of humanism. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 8(3), Article e460. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.460

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Dec 19, 2016
Online Publication Date	Feb 10, 2017
Publication Date	May 1, 2017
Deposit Date	Jan 4, 2017
Publicly Available Date	Feb 10, 2018
Journal	Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change
Print ISSN	1757-7780
Electronic ISSN	1757-7799
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	8
Issue	3
Article Number	e460
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.460

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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: Baldwin, W.A. (2017). Climate change, migration, and the crisis of humanism. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 8(3): e460, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.460. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.