Call for Papers

11th Global Conference

Tuesday 3rd July 2012 – Thursday 5th July 2012
Mansfield College, Oxford

Communities seeking environmental justice

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference aims to explore the role of environmental thinking in the context of contemporary society and international affairs, and assess the implications for our understandings of fairness, justice and global citizenship. ‘Environmental justice’ is conceived broadly as reflecting not only justice in the context of human communities but also towards other species, ecosystems, habitats, landscapes, succeeding generations and the environment as a whole. ‘Global citizenship’ is understood as an awareness of individual’s relative responsibilities in the global context.

Within this framework the 11th Conference of Environmental Justice and Global Citizenship will explore realizations of communities seeking environmental justice, relations between these communities and the institutions and practices through which environmental justice is sought and attained.  Contributions are called for that explore the interconnectedness of people and the environment, nature and natural-resource use, and which analyse the challenges such interconnectedness involves. In particular, papers are sought which investigate and question the inter-relationships between human and non-human interactions over time and the way decisions are made in environmental-developmental contexts. In addition, the conference provides the opportunity to illustrate circumstances in which environmental justice has been advanced and draw out the key lessons learned. In this way the case studies can point the way forward to assist in attaining environmental justice in other situations.

Papers, presentations, reports and workshops are invited on any of the following indicative themes:

• The role of community in environmental justice: how various conceptions of communities are seeking environmental justice.
• Pathways to more sustainable societies: the realization of environmental justice; recognizing and building capacity for ‘wise’ decisions.
• Victims of environmental injustices: people displaced by environmental disruptions; the impact of multinationals on indigenous people and minorities.
• New concepts for new environmental justice: Mother Earth’s rights; rights of the nature; constitutional rights to a healthy environment.
• Access to justice on environmental matters: the role of environmental courts and tribunals; the challenges of enforcement and lawsuits.
• Actors/promoters of environmental justice: the criminalisation of activists; the role of global civil society; information and participation rights.
• Green business and environmental justice: GMOs and bio-fuels and their social, economic and environmental impacts and benefits.
• Justice in cities:  environmental and social integration; making cities more human.

Perspectives are sought from all disciplines including:

• The natural and social sciences, and those engaged in actor network theory, agriculture and agricultural economics, the built environment and urban studies, conflict and dispute resolution, critical geography, environmental studies, human and sustainable development, industrial relations, law, philosophy and ethics, political science and international affairs, public policy and politics, sociology and communication of science, theology, cultural studies and anthropology.
• people in the public and private sectors who are involved in planning and project development, policy-making and implementation, and negotiation and mediation at national and international levels
• people in Governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations, voluntary sector bodies, environmental charities and groups, business and professional associations

The Steering Group welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 13th January 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 11th May 2011.

300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to all Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract.f) up to 10 keywords

E-mails should be entitled: EJGC11 Abstract Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

The conference is part of the Critical Issues series of research projects run by Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into 20-25 page chapters for publication in a themed dialogic ISBN hard copy volume.

Style Sheets
In preparing your papers, please pay strict attention to the following style sheets

*****Updated Style Sheets*****

• Download Full Style Sheet – v7.4d (pdf)
• Download Chicago Style Reference Sheet 1.2d (pdf)
• Download Template Document (Word)