Coping with Environmental and food crises throughout history
Our research contributes to a better understanding of these challenges by investigating the historical roots of current environmental crises, analysing the structural factors and actors that hinder moving to a path of more sustainable long-run patterns of economic development. We examine both the driving forces of such problems and the long-run consequences of acute historical food and environmental crises in different time periods and regions of the world. Drawing on theories and insights from the fields of ecology, sociology, political sciences, anthropology, and economics, our research is highly interdisciplinary and highlights the role socio-economic inequalities, conflict, power relations, institutions, and international trade in shaping vulnerability and resilience throughout history.
The world today is facing enormous, interrelated challenges in terms of dealing with rapidly changing climate conditions and deteriorating natural resources while having to feed a consistently growing global population. While the global scale of the current food and environmental challenges is larger than ever before, historical societies similarly faced climate hazards and food shocks, including the consequences of massive deforestation, recurring droughts or floodings, pollution, and catastrophic famines.
Exploring history for a famine-free future
Research themes
Legacies of colonialism and slavery
We examine how colonialism and slavery have contributed to the rise of globalisation, capitalism, inequality, migration, environmental change, unfree labour systems and racialised hierarchies.
Coping with Environmental and food crises throughout history
We investigate the historical roots of current environmental crises and analyse the structural factors and actors that hinder moving to more sustainable long-run patterns of economic development.
Roots of health and educational inequalities
Our research combines the long-term analysis of slow-moving societal factors and individual-level elements, comparing countries or regions in different stages of development.
Long-Run Trends in Economic inequality and migration
We seek to understand why some countries have joined the ranks of wealthy nations while others have not (yet) in the context of migration.