EnvJustice

Invitation and call for papers from the Human Ecology Division, Lund University, Sweden for a workshop on 27-28 March 2014.

The Human Ecology Division, Lund University, is pleased to invite EJOLT partners and other potential contributors to a two-day workshop on ecologically unequal exchange (EUE) and ecological debt (ED). We hope to be able to organize sessions dealing with several different aspects of these topics, ranging from the analytical and theoretical definitions of central concepts such as EUE and ED, and methodologies for tracing their occurrence, to political, legal, and ethical considerations. A fundamental ambition in all EJOLT initiatives is to encourage mutually beneficial communication between researchers and activists affiliated with environmental justice organizations.

The workshop will address fundamental conceptual issues such as the relation between EUE and capital accumulation, including the growth of material infrastructure as well as financial assets. It will consider the role of monetary measures of (exchange) value in relation to biophysical measures of productive potential such as embodied energy, labor, or land. It will also discuss possible policies for ameliorating asymmetries in the international trade in ecological resources.

The workshop will comprise 15-20 presentations selected from the applications submitted. To propose a presentation, please submit your name, affiliation, and the title and abstract of your presentation to conference organizer Alf Hornborg (email hidden; JavaScript is required)

before January 15, 2014

Applicants will receive notice of acceptance before February 15, 2014. Presenters of accepted papers will be offered free meals (lunch and dinner) and coffee during the two days of the workshop, but other costs such as travel and hotels will have to be covered by the participants.

As the aim is to compile papers from the workshop into an accessible volume that will be useful for environmental justice organizations struggling to expose and oppose ecologically unequal exchange, and to gain recognition of ecological debts, please have this in mind as you prepare your presentation. Papers should avoid detailed technical arguments from e.g. economics, physics, or statistics, focusing instead on conceptual clarity and considerations of policy. The preliminary organization of session topics is as follows:

Session 1. Conceptual and analytical approaches to ecologically unequal exchange

Session 2. Metrics and methodologies for identifying ecologically unequal exchange

Session 3. Theoretical arguments for the recognition of ecological debt

Session 4. Case studies of ecologically unequal exchange and ecological debt

Session 5. Political, legal, and ethical aspects of ecologically unequal exchange and ecological debt

The workshop will take place at the Department of Geography, Sölvegatan 10, Lund. The nearest international airport is Kastrup, near Copenhagen. There are direct trains from Kastrup to Lund. There are several reasonably priced hotels in central Lund, such as Hotel Concordia (Stålbrogatan 1.) If you plan to participate in the workshop, please make your travel and hotel reservations as soon as possible, and count on arriving Lund on March 26 so as not to miss the morning session on March 27.