[ecrea] CFP *RE-DO * On sustainability and culture’s role in sustainable futures

Call for papers and panels for the interdisciplinary conference
*RE-DO *
On sustainability and culture’s role in sustainable futures
Aarhus University and Aarhus 2017 28.10-31.10 2015
/Confirmed keynote speakers: /
/Nick Shepherd, University of Cape Town, South Africa /
/Nancy Duxbury Carreiro, University of Coimbra, Portugal /
/Noortje Marres, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK /
/Joel Outtes, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil /
*Main organizers*:
rethinkIMPACTS 2017/Britta Timm Knudsen and Louise Ejgod Hansen
Aarhus 2017 (Aarhus as European Capital of Culture)
Energy Academy on Samsø
and
Aarhus University
*Aarhus as part of the Nordic countries has more to offer than raw crime
fiction, Michelin star striped New Nordic Cuisine restaurants and a
well-oiled welfare society. Cultural sustainability is a key concept in
Aarhus’ path towards becoming European Capital of Culture in 2017;
cradle-to-cradle thinking and circular economies form a substantial part
of the region’s “re-think economy” strategy, while renewable energy and
fossil-free-zones are part of conference co-organizers´ - Energy Academy
(Samsø) - agenda for a sustainable future. It is within this setting
that the RE-DO Conference, organized jointly between Aarhus University
and Aarhus 2017 takes an interdisciplinary approach to the challenge of
creating sustainable futures. The conference invites academics,
practitioners, artists and activists to take part in the dialogue about
sustainable cultures. *
RE-DO indicates that sustainability /has been/, /is /and /has to /
become something /we do /as part of our everyday practices and living in
order to matter. In this sense we view cultural sustainability not just
as an add-on to environmental agendas, but as the very precondition for
their long-term success.
RE-DO invites contributions on past, present and future cultural
sustainabilities in all kinds of landscapes. Contributions can
investigate cultural sustainability theoretically, methodologically
and/or through case studies of everyday material practices or
sustainability initiatives in cultural industries such as museums,
heritage, theatres, tourism, cinemas, media, urban management and
planning, architecture and design, restaurants and food industries.
Sustainability is already put to practice in every-day life, in
citizen-based initiatives against food waste, in enterprising
initiatives to avoid depopulation of outskirt regions, in integration
initiatives targeting minority groups, immigrants and political
refugees, and in all sorts of “green” initiatives in which citizens show
care for biodiversity and wildlife conservation issues. Moreover,
cultural sustainability may also serve as a productive focal point for
rethinking policies and practices in traditional public sectors such as
healthcare, education, children and elder care.
We aim also to investigate critically the concept of cultural
sustainability. Has the concept of sustainability never undergone a
cultural turn as it seems to be reserved for special interest “green”
scholars or criticized for being a new master narrative above the realm
of politics fortifying Western Hegemony? Or is it rather that
sustainability has triumphed by playing a predominant role in
post-constructivist and post-anthropocentric research agendas in the
humanities and social sciences since the mid 90ies? Sustainability is on
the agenda in Science and Technology Studies’ conceptualization of
nature-culture intersections, in Actor-Network-Theory’s focus on
environmental entanglements and relationalities between human and
non-human actors, in New Materialism’s focus on ecologies and beings
with the world. It is also central in digital culture and media studies’
new focus on media as geologies, in groundbreaking thinking around
alternative or circular economies and new posthuman or neo-human
emerging empowered subjectivities.
We invite presenters to address questions related to cultural
sustainability and the role of culture in sustainable futures,
including, but not limited to the following questions:
• What role does culture play in the three-legged eco-centric model –
with environmental, economic and politico-social dimensions – of
sustainability? What understandings of “culture” are relevant or perhaps
even necessary for us to work towards cultural sustainability?


• Is it preferable to challenge the three-legged consensual model of
sustainability, disputed by critics to be post-political, by a
four-legged (environment, economy, social and cultural sustainability)
differential model? What would such a widening of categories translate
to on the practical (i.e. “doing”) level?

• How could culture – worldviews, every-day practices and living
togetherness, pasts, costumes, food, identity-constructions and
understandings, aesthetic and ethical values, artistic representations
and performances – become an important and measurable part of a
sustainability agenda of its own? Is that desirable?

• In what ways does a focus on cultural sustainability change well-known
agenda-setting power geometries between North and South, East and West
for example due to climate change adaption and mitigation necessities?

• How to conceptualize culture in the new forms of connectivity between
humans and non-humans that we see in post-human-oriented theories and
what new connections are to be made between deep ecology and ecological
indigenous livelihoods and post-human paradigms?

? What do the temporal and spatial expansions implied in the concept of
sustainability mean for culture? What role do future generations and
non-human actors play in forging materiality?

*Submitting a proposal: *
The conference aims at facilitating new dialogues between academics and
practitioners in which knowledge-sharing, learning and development is at
the center. As much as presenting answers and worked-through solutions,
the conference aims at asking questions and stimulating discussion and
reflection. We invite participants to submit proposals for:
/Papers: /
Abstract proposals for paper of no more than 200 words and a short bio
(max 50 words). We encourage submissions of papers from all stages of
the writing process – from an early stage in which a potential article
is being considered and the associated ideas are in a more conceptual
phase all the way through a more final stage in which an associated full
article is nearing readiness for submission for journal consideration.
/Panels: /
Proposals for a panel with 3-5 presenters, a chair and a discussant.
These sessions provide a moderated dialogue between the contributors. In
particular, we encourage transdisciplinary debate on a specific theme
between scientists
academics, policymakers, and different practitioners. To organize a
panel you should invite 3-4 presenters and a discussant. The proposals
for panels including the confirmed contributions and abstracts (the
abstract of the panel: 250-300 words, abstracts of the presentations:
150-200 words)
/Roundtable Discussions: /
Individual or groups of authors have an assigned table during a session
to review and discuss the ideas, frameworks, and perspectives underlying
their work with interested delegates who gather at the table. Suggesting
a roundtable discussion include proposal of the topic discussed in
50-200 words.
/Workshops: /
Interactive sessions in which skills or concepts are taught,
demonstrated, or explored. Proposing a workshop includes a presentation
of the aim of the workshop and the questions or tasks being address.
Proposals should be submitted to (impact2017 /at/ au.dk)
<mailto:(impact2017 /at/ au.dk)> before June 1. Authors will be notified of
acceptance or non-acceptance before July 1.
*Registration and payment *
Registration is due on October 1.
Conference fee: 140 euros for early birds (before August 1). Ordinary
price 190 euros.
Student price (including PhD students): 100 euros for students,
including PhD students).
*Form of the conference: *
The conference is an attempt to experiment new forms of dialogue between
researchers and practitioners, where knowledge-sharing and dialogue is
central. The conference is equally aimed at proposing solutions and
answers to problems, and at asking stimulating questions that can
provoke discussions and reflections. Therefore the participation is open
to a broad category of people, including international guests.
After the submission deadline the organizers will develop the proposals
into a coherent program aiming at increasing the ability of the
conference to affect both the academic community and actual surroundings
of the conference. This might include inviting a relevant audience of
decision-makers or possible collaborators or formulating a common task
to be solved or discussed within the conference setting.
*Further info: *
RE-DO is a part of a series of conferences leading to Aarhus being
European Capital of Culture in 2017. The conferences address the three
key values of Aarhus 2017:
2013: Democracy - /Rethink participatory cultural citizenship /
2015: Sustainabilty - /RE-DO /
2017: Diversity
More info available at the conference website:
http://conferences.au.dk/re-do/
Britta Timm Knudsen
Dr. Associate Professor, Ph.D.
Dep. of Aesthetics and Communication
Aarhus University
Jens Chr. Skousvej 2, 1485/537
8000 Aarhus C - Denmark
+45 29263916
Website:
http://pure.au.dk/portal/en/persons/britta-timm-knudsen%28acb7a509-e0bf-480e-9206-a0b160768a48%29.html

Latest book: Global Media, Biopolitics, and Affect. Politicizing Bodily
Vulnerability.
http://www.sponpress.com/books/details/9781138019065/

Forthcoming book: Affective Methodologies, Palgrave

Research projects: Greening the City and Reclaiming Waste

Study in Aarhus? New MA programme from September 2014:
Sustainable Heritage Management

Medlem af Erhvervsforsker ph.d-udvalget ved
Innovationsfonden, Forskning, Teknologi og Vækst i Danmark 2013 -










---------------
ECREA-Mailing list
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier and ECREA.
--
To subscribe, post or unsubscribe, please visit
http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
--
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
Chauss�de Waterloo 1151, 1180 Uccle, Belgium
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
---------------