PD Dr. Arno Pascht

Arno Pascht is a social and cultural anthropologist and lecturer at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at LMU Munich. He is currently a senior researcher in two interdisciplinary and international social science research projects, SOCPacific: A Sea of Connections, and FALAH. In these collaborative projects, he and his colleagues are researching perceptions and conceptualizations of the environment and climate change, marine and environmental conservation practices, and forms of nutrition and agriculture in Oceania. Previously, he has led an anthropological research project funded by the DFG (German Research Foundation) on climate change in the South Pacific. He then worked as a project manager and researcher in an interdisciplinary social science project on agriculture, nutrition, and climate change at the National University of Vanuatu.

His current areas of interest include social science research on the environment, climate change, marine and nature conservation, nutrition, well-being, knowledge and, in particular, the processes of change associated with these issues.

Research Project:

Co-Creating Future Environments, Socialities and Livelihoods: Assemblages of Change in Vanuatu

Selected Publications:

• with Desirée Hetzel. “Klimawandel.” In Handbuch Umweltethnologie, edited by Kathrin Eitel and Carsten Wergin. Springer VS, 2025.
• with Desirée Hetzel. “Environments and Socialities in Oceania – Changing Ideas and Practices.” In “Environments and Socialities in Oceania. Practices of Transformation and Cooperation.” Special issue, Anthropological Forum 34, no. 2 (2024): 151–65. https://doi.org/10.1080/00664677.2023.2271675.
• “Adaptation to Climate Change in Vanuatu?” In “Approaching Climate Change Adaptation: Knowledge, Power, Communication.” Special issue, Cultural Analysis 21 no. 2 (2023): 57–75.
• “Marine Conservation in Vanuatu: Local Conceptualisation and ‘Assemblage.’” Ambio 51 (2022): 2389–400. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01767-3.
• “Preservation or Diversification? Ideas and Practices Connected with Sustainability in Vanuatu.” Sustainability 14, no. 8 (2022). https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084733.