23-26 March 2009 Scoping Meeting Invited Speaker

Karen O'Brien

Dr. Karen O'Brien is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo, Norway, and is currently Chair of the Global Environmental Change and Human Security (GECHS) project of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP). She is interested in how societies both create and respond to change, and her research focuses on issues related to globalization, vulnerability, climate change adaptation, and human security.

Her research explores the ways that processes such as climate change, globalization and other large-scale transformations interact to exacerbate inequity, increase vulnerability and undermine sustainability. Moreover, she is interested in how integral theory and integral approaches can contribute to a better understanding of both the problems and solutions linked to climate change. She was a Lead Author on the adaptation chapter for the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. Karen O'Brien currently leads the PLAN project on The Potentials of and Limits to Adaptation in Norway, which looks at adaptation as a social process, and considers relationship between adaptative responses and values.