Environment Day
Risk and Uncertainty in Environmental Management
A one day symposium hosted by The Australian Sociological Association’s Environment and Society Working Group.
1 December 2008
The Australian National University
Canberra
PRELIMINARY ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS
Climate change, extreme weather events, drought, wildfire, biodiversity loss, exposure to pollution, and so on, rank among the issues of our day. So too do industrial and technological hazards including nuclear contamination, toxic waste, and the unknown effects of genetic engineering and nanotechnology. Environmental politics is no longer primarily about protecting pristine ecosystems and endangered species from anthropogenic harm; it is about calculating and managing the risks to human communities of at times rapid environmental and technological change.
Calculating and managing risk is contested ground. Lay people and experts have a history of conflict over the magnitude and consequences of risk. Some of this history is well known; for example, the success of environmental justice and community epidemiology movements in focusing attention on previously unrecognized exposures to toxic waste.
The considerable uncertainty that characterizes many of the environmental and technological risks now before us raises difficult questions:
- Is nuclear energy a green solution to climate change or an unacceptable risk in its own right?
- To what extent is dry weather a consequence of natural climatic variability? At what point does it become a drought, an exceptional circumstance or a natural disaster?
- Who is responsible for identifying and dealing with the highly variable local environmental and social impacts of global environmental change?
- What does environmental risk and uncertainty mean for national sovereignty and security? How will migration flows, food insecurity and resource conflict re-shape the nation state?
- Can private entrepreneurs be expected to calculate and manage environmental variability when faced with uncertainty over the magnitude and timing of change?
Answering these questions calls for multidisciplinary engagements across the social and natural sciences. It calls for a re-thinking of sociological theory and methods in order to take more seriously the biological embeddedness of human society. And it calls for a broad conceptualisation of environmental sociology as a sociology of risk, of uncertainty, of variability, of knowledge, of mobility…
Call for papers
Paper proposals are welcome on any aspect of uncertainty and risk in the identification, discussion and management of environmental problems. Potential topics include:
- Theoretical analyses and interpretations of risk and uncertainty.
- Definition and application of the precautionary principle in international and national conventions, policies and regulations.
- Capacity of regulatory and planning institutions to cope with risk and uncertainty.
- Capacity of private sector initiatives such as environmental standards and corporate social and environmental reporting to deal with risk and uncertainty.
- Policy innovations such as market-based instruments that aim to deal more flexibly and at lower cost with environmental degradation.
- Conflicts between lay and expert assessments of risk and risk management.
- The emergence and activities of social movements such as the environmental justice movement.
- Case studies of attempts to engage citizens in the calculation and management of environmental risk.
- The importance to mainstream social theory of environmental sociological perspectives on risk and uncertainty.
Please forward paper proposals (including title, authors and abstract) of no more than 200 words to Professor Stewart Lockie at Stewart.Lockie@anu.edu.au by 28 September 2009.
Registration
The Risk and Uncertainty symposium will be held as a preliminary event linked to the Annual Meeting of The Australian Sociological Association (TASA).
Registration Fees
| $60.00 for Standard Registration | $30.00 for PhD Student Registrations |
The registration fee will cover morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea. Payment can be made through the TASA conference website at www.tasaconference2009.com.
Annual Meeting of The Australian Sociological Association, 1-4 December 2009
Under the theme, ‘The Future of Sociology’, the 2009 TASA conference will assess the current state of sociology, the relationships between sociology and other disciplines such as biology, economics and psychology, and the role that sociology can play in policy making. Reflecting its future focus, the conference will particularly encourage the views of doctoral students and early career researchers.
In addition to the Risk and Uncertainty symposium, the Environment and Society Group will be hosting thematic sessions throughout the conference. Proposed contributions to these sessions are invited on any topic relevant to environmental sociology.
Paper proposals for Environment and Society or other thematic sessions through the TASA conference may be submitted as refereed papers, general papers, work-in-progress papers and poster presentations.
Symposium participants are strongly encouraged to register for the whole conference. For more details go to www.tasaconference2009.com.
The Australian National University is located in the heart of Canberra’s CBD. For full details on transport links, accommodation options and registration please visit the conference website.
Important dates Submission of paper proposals: Monday 28 Sept Symposium: Tuesday 1 December TASA 2009: 1-4 December |
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Further details Prof Stewart Lockie Research School of Social Sciences The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Phone: 02 6125 1743 Email: Stewart.Lockie@anu.edu.au |
