Announcement
Faculty Research: Metamorphosis Village Relocation: Unravelling Imaginaries of the Thessalian Plain through the lens of Climate Displacement
We are planning an Interdisciplinary study of the climate-related displacement and the proposed relocation of the Metamorphosis Village in Greece’s Thessaly region. The relocation of Metamorphosis Village has been proposed in response to two devastating storms—Daniel and Elias—that struck the Thessalian Plain in September 2023, flooding an area of 73,000 hectares (180,000 acres) and resulting in the deaths of 17 people and thousands of animals (Fig. 1, Fig. 3). These floods damaged already vulnerable local ecosystems, agricultural fields, and the region’s technical and social infrastructures, including housing, municipal services, roads, schools, and primary health units. The damage is considered irreparable, pushing the situation to a tipping point that demands drastic action and the relocation of Metamorphosis, with other villages in the area considering similar movements.
Centering on the Metamorphosis village, one of the first instances of climate displacement and climate-related planned relocations in Europe – the project will explore: (1) the distinct conceptualizations of risk and habitability formulated amongst different actors (local community, government, scientists and experts); (2) the politics, role and involvement of the community in the decision to move and in aspects of the relocation process (consultation, ownership, governance); and (3) the preservation and rebuilding of identity and sense of home for displaced and relocated communities in light of the new climate imaginaries for the Thessalian Plain – a region that has witnessed multiple and recurring displacements, including those of people, multispecies and material knowledge from the 1960s to the present.
Ultimately, the goal of the project is to inform the growing literature on climate displacement, by providing a multifaceted perspective of climate-related relocation, one that moves beyond narrow techno-political explanations. Planned relocation is a critical strategy to protect and adapt to the impacts of climate change recognized by multiple policy frameworks (Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, The Platform on Disaster Displacement, and the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts) (Ferris and Weerasinghe, 2020). However, empirical examples from around the world have shown that such relocations often lead to poor outcomes for affected communities as they fail to consider critical aspects in regards to the communities’ perspective of risk, the strong ties with ancestral land or peoples’ socioeconomic considerations (see Bower et.al. 2022).
Through the use of design-led empirical and speculative methodologies, combined with frameworks of critical policy studies, we will test and challenge theoretical and normative conceptions, discourses, and policies related to climate displacement and climate-induced relocation, in the hope to rethinking of displacement and relocation from the perspective of affected communities.
