MSU Sociology Professor Xuefei Ren wins a catalyst grant from Swiss National Science Foundation to study climate adaptation

July 17, 2024

MSU Sociology Professor Xuefei Ren wins a catalyst grant from Swiss National Science Foundation to study climate adaptation.

This pilot project examines how cities’ climate action plans have addressed infrastructural vulnerability in two North American and two Swiss cities—Toronto, Chicago, Zurich, and Geneva. It will investigate both formal policies and community initiatives aimed to reduce carbon emission and improve resilience in the infrastructure sector, such as energy, water, transport, and buildings.
 
Most prior scholarship on urban climate adaptation has focused on places facing immediate risks (e.g., cities and towns threatened by sea-level rise, flooding, depletion of water, extreme heat, pollution, and earthquakes etc.), or places after extreme climate events have happened (e.g., New Orleans after hurricane Katrina). This project focuses on cities on the other end of the spectrum — “climate boomtowns”, urban regions in cool climate zones which do not face immediate threats and may even become destinations for climate refugees soon. We examine how these climate boomtowns are futureproofing themselves to improve equity and resilience in the infrastructure sector.
 
The team brings together both senior and junior scholars in urban political economy and ecology, sociology, politics, architecture, design and civil engineering, to study urban future-proofing and climate adaptation. 
 
Research Team:
Xuefei Ren (Professor, Sociology, MSU)
Roger Keil (Professor, Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto)
Sébastien Lambelet (Postdoc Fellow, University of Geneva)
David Kaufmann (Assistant Professor, Spatial Development and Urban Policy, ETH Zurich)
Phillipe Koch (Professor, ZHAW School of Architecture, Design and Civil Engineering, Winterthur, Switzerland)