Introduction to the special section: unfolding a governance perspective on climate-related mobilities

Attention to the linkages between climate change and human mobility practices – including immobility – has mounted as climate-related mobility becomes more evident. Research and policy engagement have followed, with increasing recognition of the complexity of climate-related mobility countering simplistic causal models. In this introduction and special section, we seek specifically to highlight the relationship between governance and climate-related mobility. The relevance of governance, which we consider broadly through the lens of political authority, is a growing undercurrent in climate mobility research. This special section seeks therefore to explicitly theorize the role of governance in shaping climate-related mobility and examine it empirically, building on recent developments within the literature. Through a theoretical and analytical discussion in this introduction and four empirically based contributions from South to North America and West Africa to the Horn of Africa, it unfolds diverse perspectives and approaches to the role of governance in mobility contexts and practices, particularly in relation to slow-onset climate change. Ultimately, this special section seeks to engage scholars in further theorizing of the relationship between governance and climate-related mobility.