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COST Workshop: The Governance of Sustainability
Date: 11-12 April 2012
Place: Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
This Workshop is a joint event of the UACES Collaborative Research Network and the COST network on ‘The Transformation of Global Environmental Governance: Risks and Opportunities (TGEG)’.
The focus of the workshop is to investigate the influence of cognitive and normative factors in the EU's capacity to meet the challenge of governing sustainability. Its focus is energy and environmental public policy-making in Europe, but in the particular context of the upcoming United Nations Rio +20 Conference. Against this background, the first day will focus on the furthering of publication initiatives under the following themes.
Theme 1: 'Environmental Conscience'
The notion 'Environmental conscience' refers to a 'deep world view', which sets the boundaries of 'green' policies. We seek papers that explore how the nature of a moral obligation towards the environment has varied overtime.
Theme 2: 'Sustainability'
The notion of 'Sustainability' encompasses several discourses. While they may all be traced to an environmental conscience, sustainability discourses are typically historically specific, contingent, often incoherent and partial. We therefore seek papers that analyse (i) how policy-makers have translated sustainability into economic, social and environmental principles, (ii) how these are 'operationalised' via human institutions.
Theme 3: 'Energy and the Environment'
Energy policies were foundational to the European project, and it is in concern for energy saving/efficiency that EU environmental policies have their origin. We invite papers that track how, at the EU level, environmental concerns are being extended into 'traditional' energy policy areas such as European gas and electricity networks, transport fuel, as well as the merits of nuclear generation of electricity.
The second day of the workshop will be dedicated to the policy implications of such research papers in the context to the UN Rio+20 conference. Therefore, a concise summary of such policy outcomes will be expected from each presenter on the second day.
We invite research papers (maximum of 6,000 words) from doctoral students, early-career as well as more established academics, and practitioners from across a range of disciplines such as environmental studies, political studies, management studies, history, geography, legal studies, and economics. The aim of the workshop is to develop papers for later publication as a special issue of a journal as well as an edited book.
The deadline for proposals is 10th February, 2012.
Workshop organizers: Jenny Fairbrass, Thomas Hoerber, Simon Lightfoot, Philipp Pattberg
The full call for papers can be downloaded below.
