Workshop "Social Risks in Times of Climate Change: Inequalities and Attitudes"

5. Januar 2026

February 19-20, 2026, University of Hamburg, DFG Research Group “Futures of Sustainability,” Gorch-Fock-Wall 3, Room 1021

DIFIS Research Area 1 investigates the interfaces between social policy and ecological issues. Two international collaboration projects involving DIFIS Fellow Katharina Zimmermann are currently dedicated to identifying and analyzing new social risks and inequalities arising in the context of climate change and climate policy. A central element of their work is a survey designed to assess the impact of these risks and attitudes toward their socio-political management.

The focus is on three aspects in particular:

1. The measurement and analysis of “brown” and “green” jobs and their significance for social inequalities and class issues.
2. Regional impacts of climate change and climate policy, including in relation to regional extreme weather events, regional structural change, and urban-rural differences.
3. The combination of qualitative and quantitative survey methods; the survey contains closed and open questions, which participants in focus groups in the same countries also answered and discussed.

 We cordially invite interested experts from academia and, where applicable, practitioners to discuss these aspects with us based on initial data from the survey and your own research. Research Field 1 is holding a workshop on this topic on February 19 and 20, 2026, at the University of Hamburg, to which we cordially invite you. The working language of the workshop will be English.

The number of participants is limited. Registration is possible until January 14, 2026, with Katharina Zimmermann (katharina.zimmermann@uni-hamburg.de), Beate Hartmann (beate.in-kyung.hartmann@uni-hamburg.de), or Felix Bernshausen (felix.bernshausen@difis.org).

Further information on the program will follow in early 2026.