 |
 |
Dear all, This call for papers may be of interest to some members of this list. Apologies for cross-posting. RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2016, London, 31 August - 2 September 2016 Organisers: Francesca Fois, University of Nottingham Jenny Pickerill, University of Sheffield Enacting eco-communities Eco-communities or eco-villages are intentionally created by people who want to live in more sustainable conditions to those that current societies offer. They are a combination of four dimensions of sustainability: ecological, cultural/spiritual, social and economic (Global Ecovillage Network, n.d). Looking at eco-communities as models of sustainable living has long been a feature of social science scholarship (such as Mulder et al., 2006; Lockyer, 2007; Ergas, 2010; Miller and Bentley, 2012). Seyfang et al. have written several contributions looking at communities’ energy consumption as forms of sustainable innovation (see Seyfang, 2010; Hargreaves et al., 2013; Seyfang et al., 2013; Seyfang et al., 2014); Jarvis (2013) is interested in how countercultural intentional communities, such as the autonomous community of Christiania, in Denmark, challenge dominant norms of single-family housing and social organisation through experiments with collective housing alternatives; Chatterton (2013; 2015) aims to provide an agenda for eco-houses, drawing upon his personal experiences with the LILAC project in Leeds; while Pickerill (2012, 2015, 2016) provides rich socio-geographical theorisations of ecological building exploring a wide range of issues from politics to gender. Although scholars in the last decades have expressed growing interest in sustainable initiatives and practices, investigations tend to focus mostly on the ecological and social features of these sites to the neglect of other interdependent functions of sustainability, such as economic diversity and culture. Contributions from practitioners and activists (for example Jackson and Svensson, 2002; Bang, 2005; Joubert and Dregger, 2015) regard spiritual/cultural values and economic/financial issues as equally relevant as the social and ecological features of ecovillages, yet this interdependence is not reflected in current academic scholarship. This session aims to open out investigations of eco-communities by including the four dimension of sustainability. How are these eco-communities ecologically, socially, culturally and/or economically enacted? What are the community experimental practices enacted in such spaces? The session encourages papers that explore the enactment of eco-communities from the global north and south. We are interested in contributions that explore themes such us: • everyday practices • ecological experimentations • work • affordability • money • knowledge/expertise • gender • culture • art • spiritual practices Please provide author name(s), author affiliation(s), author email(s), paper title, paper abstract (~200 words) and an indication of which author(s) will be presenting. Please submit this information to both Jenny Pickerill [log in to unmask] and Francesca Fois [log in to unmask] by Monday 15th February. This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it. Please do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment may still contain software viruses which could damage your computer system, you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation.