09/2024: Julia Teebken Department Talk at Temple University, Philadelphia, United States

Julia Teebken was invited by Kimberley Thomas, Associate Professor and Graduate Chair at the College of Liberal Arts, Geography, Environment and Urban Studies to hold a Department Talk at Temple University in Philadelphia, United States.

Based upon historical materialist policy analyses conducted in Germany and China the talk critically challenges prevailing expectations of adaptation practitioner’s ability to "produce" transformative adaptation responses in the sense of addressing the root causes of people’s vulnerability.

Different and overlapping forms of inequality (economic, cultural, political) are being reproduced in both political systems and as part of a capitalist political economy. Environmental agencies and adaptation practitioners have limited influence over these structuring context conditions. The findings raise more fundamental questions on the role different actors can and cannot play for transformative adaptation.