Abstract/Summary

My research project investigates whether communities in Colombia experiencing mobilities or immobility linked to climate-related stresses use legal mobilisation (LM) and why. Based on a framing analysis, this study explores the role that place-attachment and violence play in triggering (or constraining) the use of legal mechanisms. This exploration reveals that there are external and self-sustained factors that might hinder the use of LM, such as personal safety and social risks of taking legal action. While legal mobilisation theory has focused on aspects that facilitate LM such as opportunities and resources, there has been little attention paid to those risks that might shape legal mobilisation in certain ways, even when opportunities and resources are present. This Thesis shows that risks to legal mobilisation do not necessarily define the type of strategy, but they do define frames and claims used in that strategy. Drawing on this, I argue that in chronic risk contexts, turning to the law is mediated by an assessment of risks, which demonstrates the explanatory potential of a risks-based approach to legal mobilisation. This PhD research thus aims to contribute towards developing a more integrated legal mobilisation theory, which not only considers opportunities and resources (or limitations in relation to the lack of them), but also independent constraints such as risks.