Dr. Julia Teebken
Dozierende und Wissenschaftlerin (Drittmittel)
Lehr- und Forschungseinheit Mensch-Umwelt-Beziehungen
Sprechstunde:
nach Vereinbarung bitte per Email

Dozierende und Wissenschaftlerin (Drittmittel)
Lehr- und Forschungseinheit Mensch-Umwelt-Beziehungen
Sprechstunde:
nach Vereinbarung bitte per Email
My research focuses on the political dimension of uneven vulnerability to climate change and the politics of adaptation benefits. As part of this work, I comparatively explore human vulnerability to climate change and which factors contribute to it, as well as adaptation responses across different political systems, governance levels (government, non-state, society) and geographic scales (local, regional, national). I am interested in learning, where political institutions and people already adapt, and where systemic, path-dependent factors (lock-ins) sustain uneven vulnerability to climate change. Thereby, I contribute conceptually and empirically to discourses on transformative adaptation.
Empirically, I have been working over a decade on the politics of human vulnerability and adaptation in China, the United States, Germany and the EU. Methodologically, I have applied mixed methods research designs but have a stronger focus on qualitative social science research and critical policy analysis. Over the past three years, I have been exploring historical materialist policy analysis and some of its limitations when applying it to fragmented authoritarian contexts. Critical and comparative political economy research provide the very foundations of this work.
My research aims to contribute to a better understanding of the opportunities and limitations of different political systems to address the root causes of vulnerability, which relate to classic inequality and social stratification questions. I wish to unveil the black box of policy processes and responsibilities that is often implicit in climate justice dominant discourses on “vulnerable populations”. Through my research, I have come to question mainstream social vulnerability approaches that focus on descriptive variables and single out individual, socio-economic and demographic characteristics that render people vulnerable. I find that these explanatory attempts are more often incomplete, problematic and lack a deeper understanding of the structural origins of and various forms of marginalization, that are actively reproduced as part of the dominant political economic orders (capitalism). Therefore, I argue for vulnerable political institutions.
Teebken, J. (2024): Opportunities and limitations for social justice in Germany’s climate adaptation policy, ZPol Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, 34, pp. 231–253. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41358-024-00382-w
Teebken, J. (2024): Deutsche Klimaanpassungspolitik im Wechselspiel mit der Europäischen Union, In: M. Jopp & F. Tekin (eds.), Deutsche Europapolitik, Handbuch für Wissenschaft und Praxis, 3. aktualisierte Auflage, pp. 321-336. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783748944249
Teebken, J. (2024): Chapter 2: Historical materialist policy analysis to study the state of climate adaptation policymaking in China, In: X. Zang & X. Zhan (eds.), Handbook on Climate Change and Environmental Governance in China, pp. 19-41. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035316359
Teebken, J. (2024): Disrupt and unlock? The role of actors in urban adaptation path-breaking, Buildings and Cities, 5(1), pp. 162–181. https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.383
Teebken, J. (2024): Vulnerability locked in. On the need to engage the outside of the adaptation box, Global Environmental Change, 85, 102807. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2024.102807
Teebken, J., N. Mitchell, K. Jacob & T. Heimann (2023): Classifying Social Adaptation Practices to Heat Stress – Learning from Autonomous Adaptations in Two Small Towns in Germany, Weather, Climate, and Society, 15(1), pp. 95-108. https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-22-0003.1
Teebken, J. (2022): Playing hide and seek - Adapting climate cultures in troubled political waters in Georgia, United States, In: T. Heimann, J. Sommer, M. Kusenbach & G. Christmann (eds.), Climate Cultures in Europe and North America - New Formations of Environmental Knowledge and Action, Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003307006, Article in Book.
Jacob, K. & J. Teebken (2022): The ups and downs of the European Union as an actor in global climate policy, Integration, 45(3). https://doi.org/10.5771/0720-5120-2022-3-219
Jacob, K., C. Paulick-Thiel, J. Teebken, S. Veit & M. Singer-Brodowski (2021): Change from Within: Exploring Transformative Literacy in Public Administrations to Foster Sustainability Transitions, Sustainability, 13(9), 4689. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094698
Heyen, D. A., K. Jacob, J. Teebken & F. Wolff (2021): Spillovers between policy-transfer and transitions research, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 38, pp. 79-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2020.11.005
Teebken, Julia and Michael Schipperges (2024). “Soziale Frage Klimawandel Anpassung an den Klimawandel als sozialpolitische Gestaltungsaufgabe“. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Germany, Diskurse, https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/a-p-b/21344.pdf.
Teebken, Julia, Dirke Arne Heyen, Franziska Wolff, Klaus Jacob and Guilia Kalt (2023):“Identifizierung und Systematisierung von Einflussfaktoren auf Umweltpolitiktransfer. Kenntnisstand der Forschung zu (Umwelt-)Politiktransfer mit Bezügen zur Transformationsforschung“). Government Report, German Environment Agency, Texte 44/2023, https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/publikationen/identifizierung-systematisierung-von
Teebken, Julia, Franziska Wolff, Klaus Jacob and Dirk Arne Heyen (2023): “Politikberatung und Politiklernen in der bi- und multilateralen umweltpolitischen Zusammenarbeit. Eine Orientierungshilfe für Praktikerinnen und Praktiker”. Factsheet, German Environment Agency. https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/publikationen/politikberatung-politiklernen-in-der-bi
Teebken, Julia, Klaus Jacob, Maria Petrova, Franziska Wolff and Nina Schwemmle (2022). “Towards a joint implementation of the 2030 Agenda / SDGs, the Paris Agreement and the Sendai Framework.” Conceptual and Analytical Paper, Climate Change Series 46/2021, German Environment Agency, https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/publikationen/towards-a-joint-implementation-of-the-2030-agenda-0.
Jacob, Klaus, Julia Teebken, Caroline Paulick-Thiel, Blasius Walch and Henrike Arlt (2021). “Transformation wagen. Entwicklung eines Lernlabors im Umweltressort.” Technical Report for the German Environmental Agency, https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/479/publikationen/texte_165-2021_transformation_wagen.pdf
Guest Editor Climate and Development for the Special Issue “From Vulnerability to Critical Adaptation Policy and Practice” together with Alexandra Malmström, David Eisenhauer, Mohammad Harunur Rashid Bhuyan and Rajiv Ghimire
Guest Editor Chinese Journal of Sociology “China and the Environment” together with Jesse Rodenbiker, https://journals.sagepub.com/page/chs/call-for-papers/china-and-the-environment
Project coordinator of the transdisciplinary BMBF-project “How Governance by integrative visions (GoingVis) can support cities in achieving heat risk resilience (https://www.goingvis.de/)
Member of the DFG Scientific Network “Leverage Points for Climate Action” (www.leverage-points.com)
I am involved in various teaching activities in human geography at the undergraduate and graduate levels. I teach classes on the social dimension of climate change (adaptation), land use and land use conflicts, scientific tools for sustainability assessments, transition paths towards sustainability, as well as excursions focusing on climate adaptation and gentrification. Additionally, I am an advisor on select thesis projects (B.A. and M.A.).
Before joining the LMU in the summer of 2023, I was a Postdoc at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) and Paul and Marcia Wythes Center on Contemporary China Studies at Princeton University (2022-2023). In this position, I applied historical materialist policy analysis to study the state of climate adaptation as a policy field in China from a perspective of vulnerable populations. Additionally, I was lucky to be exposed to state-of-the-art social stratification research that allowed me to explore the nexus of inequality and climate adaptation in greater detail.
From 2018 to 2022 I was a research associate at the Environmental Policy Research Centre (ffu) at Freie Universität Berlin, where I worked on different policy consultancy projects for different clients (EU, BMBF, BMUV, UBA). My work here focused on the social dimensions of environmental policymaking, policy impact assessment and transformative environmental politics.
I have long-term research and work experience in China and the United States, in addition to work and research stays in India, Myanmar, and Malaysia. I hold a PhD in Political Science from the Freie Universität Berlin (2020), a M.A. degree in Ethics, Peace and Global Affairs from American University, Washington DC (2015) and a B.A. in China Studies with a minor in Political Science from Freie Universität Berlin (2012).