SURGE - Anticipatory Narratives of Sea Level Rise in the North Sea Region
SURGE investigates how coastal residents anticipate sea level rise and storm surges, and how their concerns, practices, imaginaries, and emotions shape support for, or resistance to, coastal protection and adaptation strategies.
SURGE examines how citizens living along the North Sea coast imagine future coastal change and articulate concerns related to sea level rise. Through ethnographic interviews, online qualitative research, and computational text analysis, the project investigates how anticipatory narratives - rooted in practices, imaginaries, and affects - shape attitudes toward protection, adaptation, or retreat.
Central questions include: How do residents anticipate impacts on their local environment? What futures do they envision for their communities? Which preventive or preparedness solutions do they support or reject?
Kristoffer Albris, Principal Investigator, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen
Emilie Munch Gregersen, PhD Fellow, University of Copenhagen
Nikoline Victoria Traun, Student Assistant, University of Copenhagen
Ró Holm Magnadóttir, Research Intern, University of Copenhagen (2026)
Kysten Som Konfliktzone. Presentation at Aarhus School of Architecture, event arranged by the National Network for Climate Adaptation. 17.03.2026
Theoretical focus: Anticipatory forms
SURGE takes inspiration from theoretical works on risk, uncertainty, and futurity in anthropology, sociology, and geography. In doing so, the project takes point of departure in three anticipatory forms: practices, imaginaries, and affects. Practices refer to different ways that the anticipation of sea level rise is being dealt with in the present. Imaginaries refer to a common understanding of social life that combine elements of the present with value orientations directed at the future. Affects refer to people’s emotional responses and bodily experiences in relation to how the future will look like. The anticipatory forms are used as a heuristic conceptual categories that will frame the data collection and analysis across the case studies. By understanding citizens’ concerns with sea level rise in the form of practices, imaginaries and affects, the aim is to gain a deeper understanding of how people conceptualize and respond to the threat of sea level rise.
Funded by:
Project: SURGE - Anticipatory Narratives of Sea Level Rise in the North Sea Region
Period: 2025-2029
