Call for papers for a panel at the 2017 Conference The Value of Life: Measurements, Stakes, Implications of the Centre for Space, Place and Society (CSPS), 28-30 June 2017, Wageningen, the Netherlands
Socio-environmental crises: Valuing human and non-human life under pressure
Convenors: Stasja Koot, Emile Smidt and Bram Büscher
As is repeated often, we live in a time of multiple, overlapping environmental and social crises that influence the lives of many human and non-human beings. Global climate change, wildlife crime, intensified extraction and many other dynamics continue to increase the pressure on important ecosystems and species, and the people that live with them. Recent literature has pointed out that these pressures often may lead to violence, evictions or otherwise harmful effects. Yet, exactly how to conceptualize the notions of ‘pressure’ and ‘crisis’, and what impact different conceptualizations have, has only recently started. One central consequence of ones choice for particular conceptualization of crisis or pressure relates to how human and non-human life are valued. Indeed, value seems to become a central element of the political ecology of environmental crises, and in this panel we want to investigate these value dimensions and dilemmas.
For this panel, we are looking for papers about socio-environmental crises situations that engage with the ways in which the pressure that such crises instigate work out in the daily lives of human and non-human actors. We ask the following questions: in which ways do these crises influence how actors value their lives and that of others, including non-human actors? What role does technology, including new online, surveillance and security technologies, play in this valuation? To what types of violence, contestation and conflict do these value judgements lead and how are these, in turn, addressed? How does the valuation of life relate to broader political economic contexts, cultural and social considerations, including race and gender, and issues of identity, belonging and resistance?
If interested, please send your abstract, with a maximum of 250 words, to Stasja Koot, in a Word document, latest by 10 December 2016: kootwork@gmail.com
For more information about the conference please click here.
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