Earth System Governance: Theories and Strategies for Sustainability
C A L L FOR P A P E R S
Earth System Governance: Theories and Strategies for Sustainability
2007 Amsterdam Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 24-26 May 2007
The Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and its partner institutions invite papers for the 2007 Amsterdam Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, to be held in Amsterdam on 24-26 May 2007. This conference will be the seventh event in the series of annual European Conferences on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, begun in Berlin in 2001.
This year's conference will address the theme 'Earth System Governance: Theories and Strategies for Sustainability'.
We define earth system governance as the sum of the formal and informal rule systems and actor--networks at all levels of human society (from local to global) that are set up to influence the co-evolution of human and natural systems in a way that secures the sustainable development of human society--that is, a development that meets the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This notion of earth system governance is phenomenological inasmuch as it describes an emerging social trend expressed in hundreds of international regimes, international bureaucracies, national agencies, local and transnational activists groups and expert networks. At the same time, earth system governance can be understood as a political project that engages more and more actors who seek to strengthen the current architecture of institutions and networks at local and global levels. In both meanings, earth system governance is a demanding and vital subject of research in the social sciences, which we hope will be reflected in lively discussions at the 2007 Amsterdam Conference.
The theme of earth system governance also reflects recent attempts at defining the role of the social sciences within the Earth System Science Partnership, which unites the World Climate Research Programme, the International Biosphere-Geosphere Programme, the DIVERSITAS programme, and the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP). The mission statement of the Earth System Science Partnership calls upon social scientists to develop 'strategies for Earth System management'. Yet what such strategies might be, and how such strategies are to be developed, remains poorly understood in the social sciences.
The challenge of earth system governance raises many theoretical, methodological and empirical questions. For the 2007 Amsterdam Conference, we invite papers on the following seven core conference themes:
1. Theories and Methods for Analysing Earth System Governance, that is, papers on new theoretical advances and methodological tools to better study earth system governance, including new methods and tools that combine quantitative and modelling approaches-also from the natural sciences-with qualitative, case-based methods and participatory, stakeholder-oriented methods;
2. Architectures of Earth System Governance, that is, papers on the effectiveness of the overall governance system including problems of institutional fragmentation, interlinkages, and change;
3. Adaptive Governance, that is, papers on the ways in which institutions at all levels-ranging from local to global-can adapt to large-scale changes in their natural environment;
4. Agency Beyond the State, that is, papers on the influence of non-state actors in national and global environmental governance, including the effectiveness of private governance and stakeholder involvement at all levels;
5. Accountability and Legitimacy of Earth System Governance, that is, papers on the democratic foundations of environmental governance at the local, national, and global levels;
6. Allocation Mechanisms in Environmental Governance, that is, papers on the distributive effects of global and national environmental institutions and governance mechanisms; and
7. The Reflexive Governance of Global Public Goods, that is, papers on the institutional analysis of participatory decision-making, deliberative policy-making and capacity building in the governance of global public goods, including global biodiversity, climate, health, security and fair trade issues.
We also invite papers that focus on teaching global and national environmental governance and that discuss new approaches, experiences and programmes in this field.
KEY DATES:
Deadline for proposals: 1 Oct 2006
Notification of acceptance: 1 Dec 2006
Full papers due: 1 April 2007
Details on abstract submission and more information is available at our conference website
www.2007amsterdamconference.org
We look forward to welcoming you in Amsterdam in May 2007!
On behalf of all co-hosts and sponsors:
Frank Biermann
Chair, 2007 Amsterdam Conference
Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
E-mail: ac2007@ivm.vu.nl
Posted on August 04, 2006