Global climate change, political ecology and migration

Abstract

Communities’ sensitivity to environmental and other shocks has been exacer-bated by major institutional and social restructuring in recent decades. This, in turn, is coupled with climate change, which will continue to have a major impact on the livelihoods and lives of these communities, especially those most dependent on “ecosystem services”. In this context, the economic, political and social impacts of climate change (e.g., in conflicts over tenure, use and enjoyment of resources such as land, water and minerals) will continue to be reflected in the potential or impediment of old and new forms of migration and displacement. This special issue of Revista de Estudios Sociales focuses on five related studies, presented here.