-----Original Message-----
From: "Rob Emmett" <[log in to unmask]>
Dear colleagues in environmental history and environmental humanities,
Some of you may be interested in our call for papers
<http://www.carsoncenter.uni-muenchen.de/download/events/cfps/greening_of_everyday_life.pdf>
for a workshop "The Greening of Everyday Life: Reimagining Environmentalism in
Postindustrial Societies."
It is sponsored by the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society
and will take place in Munich, 19-21 June 2014.
While the *deadline for proposals is July 15*, I welcome those of you
considering submitting a proposal to contact the organizers, John Meyer
([log in to unmask]) or Jens Kersten
([log in to unmask]) with questions or ideas well in
advance of the deadline.
Travel expenses for invited participants will be paid by the Carson
Center. A plain text version of the call for papers appears in
postscript below.
Best regards,
Rob Emmett
--
Dr. Robert Emmett
Director of Academic Programs
Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society
D-80802 Munich
Tel. +49 (0) 179 2180 72373
>>
While environmental challenges including climate change threaten the
very fabric of our lives, such
that the present course of our societies appears literally
unsustainable, ambitious efforts to address
these rarely seem to resonate with the everyday concerns and ideas most
pressing to citizens in
post-industrial societies.
This workshop will focus upon the normative implications of everyday
material practices for environmental action. In particular, the workshop
will focus upon land, transportation, and household
practices. In each of these areas, human experience is inextricably
interwoven with technology, the
built environment, and the non-human world. The aim is to approach the
political challenges of environmental sustainability by examining these
everyday practices and the concerns they foster directly, rather than a
more abstract environmental discourse that suggests the need to overcome
these concerns.
Attention to this materialist basis of environmental concern has long
been central in poorer and less
industrialized societies, as well as some movements for environmental
and climate justice. Yet it has
been far less prominent in analyses of environmental concern in Europe,
North America, and
Oceania. Moreover, attention to practices has often been overshadowed by
both individual and
structural approaches. This workshop aims to generate new insights into
the possibilities for environmental action and change by exploring these
everyday material practices, reflecting the social,
economic, and ecological ambivalences of greening everyday life.
Analyzing everyday practices invites vital questions about
* concepts of property and ownership;
* the relevance and meaning of citizenship;
* the character and scope of public and private spheres;
* the role of new movements;
* diverse notions of governance;
* popular understandings of freedom; and
* understandings of what counts as "the environment" and
"environmentalism" in postindustrial societies.
We anticipate that such questions will be the focal point of papers and
workshop discussion.
Proposals are invited from scholars in the environmental humanities and
interpretive social sciences.
Papers should centrally address one or more of the three areas (land,
transport, or household practices), in order to reimagine or illuminate
some aspect of the conceptual framework necessary to foster more
sustainable practices.
Invited participants will be required to submit their completed paper
(approximately 6000 words),
in English, by 23 May 2014. These will be circulated to all participants
in advance of the workshop.
The Rachel Carson Center will cover the travel cost and accommodation
expenses for invited participants. It is expected that papers will then
be revised with the goal of publishing an edited book.
To answer this call for proposals, send a CV and a proposal of 300--400
words, including a title, to the conference conveners by 15 July 2013.
For further questions, please contact either of the event conveners:
Conveners' Contact Details
Jens Kersten & John Meyer
LMU Munich Humboldt State University
Rachel Carson Center Rachel Carson Center
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
|