Call for Papers

ISA Research Committee on Environment and Society (RC24)
Conference on New Natures, New Cultures, New Technologies
Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University
Cambridge, UK
5-7 July 2001

As we enter the twenty first century, new cultural and technological transformations are on the horizon. Globalization, the network society, the New Economy, information technology, and genetic engineering are a few of the catch-phrases that point to new forms of social organization. But these transformations do not leave nature and environment untouched. It is not only that we witness new environmental challenges and opportunities, but more so that the very definition of nature is undergoing rapid change, and that the socio-political settings and arrangements that (try to) govern and manage these opportunities and challenges are also transforming. As new technological and economic 'systems' are organized across time and space, we enter into new society - environment relations. Environmental social scientists use various interpretation schemes to understand these new society - environment relations: ecological modernization, social constructivism, risk society, the treadmill of production, green Marxism, rational choice, environmental psychology, ecological dialogue, cultural ecology, social or human ecology, ecofeminism, and paradigm shift, among others. This conference provides a forum for social scientists to explore from different theoretical perspectives how these new technologies, new political and economic arrangements, new cultural definitions and perceptions of nature, and new society-environment relations at times interweave and at times collide. The conference opens with a plenary session by Fred Buttel and Brian Turner. Subsequently various parallel sessions center around four themes:

1. Contested bodies and natures
(Coordinator: Mike Bell)

2. New economy, new societies
(Coordinator: Markku Wilenius)

3. Risk, regulation, and governance
(Coordinators: Harriet Bulkeley, Tim Rayner)

4. Power, knowledge, and movements of resistance
(Coordinators: Peter Dickens, Arthur Mol)

For more details about the program see
http://www.ucm.es/info/isa/cforp111.htm

Abstracts (500 words) of papers should be submitted before December 1, 2000. After approval, full papers need to be sent in by May 15, 2001.

Send abstracts and papers to:

Peter Dickens
Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University
Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0DG, UK