Research

Research Overview

The central question driving my research agenda is how environmental degradation and climate change interact with existing inequalities, and what socio-political consequences this interaction produces. My research focuses on three interconnected areas: (1) when and under what conditions grievances arising from environmental degradation and inequality lead to political unrest, government repression, and declining political trust, particularly in the Global South; (2) how perceptions of injustice, inequality, and unfairness can constrain support for policies aimed at building a more environmentally sustainable future, particularly in the Global North; and (3) whether, and under what conditions, international efforts to address climate change—such as activities by multilateral development banks and multinational companies—mitigate environmental inequalities or instead reinforce them.

My research is theory-driven and based on the rigorous empirical testing of hypotheses. A key strength of my approach is its methodological and analytical diversity. I conduct research across multiple political levels and units of analysis, ranging from individuals to cities, sub-national regions, and countries. My work combines quantitative and qualitative methods, including survey experiments, multilevel models, two-way fixed-effects models, matching techniques, and spatial analyses, as well as qualitative approaches such as expert interviews. Whenever possible, I also develop and draw on novel, self-collected data, including original survey data, new protest datasets, and systematically coded development projects.

Below, I provide a brief overview of my ongoing research in each of these three areas.

1. Environmental change, inequality, and political and social consequences in the Global South

Environmental stress can have profound political consequences, including protest, government repression, and declining political trust. My dissertation research examined the conditions under which environmental hardship translates into such political outcomes and demonstrated that marginalization and inequality play a key role in shaping these dynamics. Yet important aspects of this relationship remain understudied, in part because of the lack of comparable data on environmental protest and limited knowledge about how individuals perceive inequalities and evaluate protest as a means of responding to environmental grievances.

Much of my recent and ongoing work addresses these gaps. I have been involved in compiling ECO-MMAD, a comparative protest dataset covering mobilization in response to environmental issues across Global South countries over a twelve-year period. The dataset provides a new foundation for examining which environmental problems generate political mobilization, under what conditions, and among which groups. In parallel, I use original fieldwork and survey data from Chile, Peru, and South Africa to investigate the individual-level mechanisms linking inequality and environmental change to political outcomes.

Working papers

  • Voices of Change in the Global South: Understanding the Dynamics of Environmental Protest (with Rebecca Strauch, Sebastian Koos, and Gabriele Spilker)
    https://doi.org/10.48787/kops/352-2-1ween35c8fd7z6
  • Silencing Dissent in the Wake of Catastrophe? An Examination of the Repression Dynamics Following Rapid-Onset Climate Disasters (with Gabriele Spilker)
    https://doi.org/10.48787/kops/352-2-47tni498yq962
  • Where and When to Speak Out: A Research Note on the Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Disaster-Induced Protest
  • Jobs, Cash, or Community: Experimental Evidence on Compensation and Acceptance of Environmental Harm (with Gabriele Spilker and Aldo Madariaga)
  • Is Environmental Protest an Effective Response to Environmental Inequality? Survey Experimental Evidence from Chile and South Africa on the Role of Deservingness, Disruption, and Legitimacy (with Summer Isaacson, Sebastian Koos, and Gabriele Spilker)

2. Inequality in the Global North as a constraint on the transition toward sustainability

Environmental harms are often concentrated in highly vulnerable contexts in the Global South, despite the comparatively limited historical contributions of many of these societies to climate change and environmental pollution. This has led to calls for economically developed and highly industrialized Global North countries to take a leading role in climate mitigation and to support adaptation to environmental change in more vulnerable countries.

Yet support for climate mitigation, adaptation, and international cooperation remains uneven in Global North societies. An important question is whether inequalities within these societies shape public support for policies aimed at addressing environmental challenges, including transfers to countries in the Global South. Much of my previous research has examined the political behavior of discontented and marginalized individuals in Global North contexts. This work shows, for example, how concerns about domestic inequality and material interests can constrain public support for initiatives designed to compensate societies in the Global South for climate-related losses.

My recent and ongoing research examines more directly which forms of inequality and which conceptions of fairness constrain support for sustainable policies. In a related project, I investigate how the green transition is reshaping inequalities in labor markets and whether these changes affect support for radical right parties, which have generally adopted skeptical positions toward climate policy.

Working papers

  • Beyond Brown Jobs: Heterogeneity among Green Transition Stakeholders, Family Networks, and Radical Right Support (with Susanne Rhein and Sophia Stutzmann)
  • From Rejection to Reform: Distributional Concerns and Citizens' Proposals for Equitable Climate Policy (with Theresa Wieland)

3. International climate-related activities: mitigating or reinforcing environmental inequalities?

My third research area examines how climate-related activities implemented at the international level play out on the ground in Global South contexts. Climate change is reshaping the activities of both multilateral development banks and multinational companies. On the one hand, the growing need for climate adaptation and mitigation has led to a substantial expansion of climate finance, with development banks funding a wide range of projects in lower-income countries. On the other hand, the green transition has increased demand for critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, copper, and nickel, which are essential for many low-carbon technologies.

Despite the growing importance of these activities, we know comparatively little about how they affect environmental inequalities at the local level. My recent and ongoing research therefore investigates which communities receive climate adaptation and mitigation finance, and whether its allocation mitigates or reinforces existing inequalities. While existing research has examined the distribution of climate finance primarily at the national level, important questions remain about sub-national allocation patterns. I am currently involved in a project that codes the sub-national location and purpose of World Bank climate projects in least-developed countries in Asia and Oceania between 2000 and 2019.

A second strand of this research examines the political consequences of international resource extraction. In ongoing research on mining in Peru, my colleagues and I investigate whether and under what conditions extraction by multinational companies, compared with domestic firms, increases the likelihood of local socio-environmental opposition.

Working papers

  • Localized Disparities in Climate Finance: The Sub-National Allocation of World Bank Mitigation and Adaptation Aid in Least Developed Countries (with Niklas Hänze and Gabriele Spilker)
  • Unearthing Discontent: Mining Ownership, Extraction, and Socio-Environmental Protest in Peru (with Patrick Wagner and Gabriele Spilker)
  • Climate Protection or Opportunistic Strategy? Evidence from the Sub-National Allocation of Chinese Climate Mitigation Infrastructure in Kenya (with Lukas Bebensee and Niklas Hänze)