Florian Steig

The Global Politics of Sea Level Rise: Knowledge, Power, and the Making of a Global Governance Object

Florian’s DPhil research focuses on the construction of sea level rise as a distinct object on global governance agendas. He examines how sea level rise has come to be understood as a ‘global’ problem, which actors and forms of expertise acquire authority in global debates, whose perspectives remain marginalised, and how the emerging agenda reshapes the solution space for adaptation. Another strand of his research focuses on how different actors imagine the future to look like for coastal areas exposed to rising sea levels. His research sits at the intersection of global environmental politics, International Political Sociology, and Science and Technology Studies.

Florian is funded by the German Academic Scholarship Association. Prior to coming to Oxford, Florian was working as a Pre-Doc at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Vienna. He holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Hamburg and an MSc in Global Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. His wider research interests include ocean governance, the changing modes of environmental diplomacy in a context of geopolitical fragmentation, computational social science methods, and the interface of digitalisation and sustainability.

· Steig, F. (2026). The Global Politics of Sea Level Rise Adaptation. Global Environmental Politics, 1-23.

· Steig, F., Lövbrand, E., Oels, A., Barnes, J., Lagerqvist, D. E., Fischer, M., ... & Stripple, J. (2026). The Show Must Go On? Revisiting the Script of International Climate Cooperation Ten Years After Paris. Global Environmental Politics, 26(3), 1-23.

· Steig, F., Koenig, P. D., Marquardt, J., Oels, A., Radtke, J., Rehak, R., & Weiland, S. (2025). Sustainability powered by digitalization?(Re-) politicizing the debate. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, 21(1), 2521181.

· Steig, F. and Oels, A. (2025) Governing the Climate in the Paris Era: Organized Irresponsibility, Technocratic Climate Futures, and Normalized Disasters. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 16(2), e70001.

· Steig, F. (2024) Imagining the Flood: Rationalities of Governance in Sinking Cities. Frontiers in Political Science, 6: 1362526.