General:
My work analyzes how environmental stressors influence human behavior dependent on context, identity, and governance structures. I strive to connect relevant research questions with implications for both current social dynamics and future policy development. One common theme in my articles addresses how environmental factors, particularly water scarcity, influence social interactions, whether conflictive or cooperative. For this work I have used various types of analysis (spatial analysis, survey work, case studies, interviews).
First, my work has explored how external environmental factor can exacerbate communal violence, encourage cooperative actions regarding water management, or affect cooperative behavior among different social groups. A second theme concerns the interplay between environmental factors and group identity. My research highlights how environmental challenges like drought and water scarcity intersect with group identities and societal structures, such as ethno-religious affiliations and democratic institutions. For instance, a recent publication (Döring & Hall 2023) discusses the role of group identity in altruistic responses based on variation in drought exposure, while an earlier article suggests the effects of water scarcity on non-state cooperation are conditional on levels of democracy (Döring 2020b). A third theme concerns the spatial and temporal dimensions of links between scarcity and behavior. My research exemplifies that the environment can affect conflicts through across long time periods and distant geographies. Scarcities influences individual decision making, with key implications for relationships towards institutions or groups. Overall, my research calls for a nuanced understanding of how past, present, and projected environmental conditions shape human interactions across time and space.
Ongoing research projects:
As of August 2024, I lead three research grants while being a collaborator on three other projects:
Principal investigator (PI):
(1) "War and Water - Coping with Conflict-induced Water Shortage", Funder: Swedish Research Council (VR)
(2) "Environmental devastation and trust among Ukrainian citizens experiencing war" with Tobias Ide, Eric Skoog and Henrikas Bartusevičius, Funder: Folke Bernadotte Academy, Swedish agency for peace, security and development (FBA)
(3) "FlowForward: From Research to Policy", Funder: Geneva Water Hub (GWH)
Research collaboration:
(4) Management team member and researcher for Violence & Impacts Early-Warning System (VIEWS). Funders: ERC, Riksbanken Jubileums Fond, VR, among others. More here: https://viewsforecasting.org/
(5) Co-investigator: "Dynamic Adaptation to Temporally compound hydroclimate Extremes: supporting a sustainable transformation under global changes (DATE)". with Elena Raffetti (Karolinska I., Project Lead), Cecilia Magnusson (Karolinska I.), Maurizio Mazzoleni (VU Amsterdam), and Gabriele Messori (Uppsala Uni.). Funder: FORMAS (Sweden, a government research council for sustainable development)
(6) Research contributor to Uppsala Peace Lab (led by Jonathan Hall). Funders: VR, FORMAS, among others. More here: https://uppsalapeacelabdotcom.wordpress.com/