FRONTIERS 2 is the second high-level scientific conference on ecological economics supported by the European Commission. FRONTIERS 1 addressed fundamental issues concerning ecological economics from a theoretical perspective. FRONTIERS 2 will focus on state-of-the-art applications of ecological economics as used for environmental planning and management, in education and for testing the robustness of research tools. Four subject themes and associated subject areas have been selected.
Contributions
are sought in the form of papers and posters on the themes outlined below. Preferences
will be given to new and unpublished work judged to be of high quality. Submissions
require an abstract plus a two-page synopsis of the proposed contribution. Download
the submission form (19 KB).
Theme
1: Environmental Planning: Scientific-Political Decision Processes
1A: Participatory Decision Processes
Critical appraisal of successes and failures in the application of participatory approaches such as citizens’ juries, consensus conferences, rapid rural appraisal and planning for real on environmental topics such as water resources management, GMOs, nuclear power, waste management. What is, or should be, the role of institutions in these processes?
1B: Socio-Economic and Ecological Dimension of Sustainability
Quantitative and qualitative analysis of changing patterns of production and consumption to help approach sustainability goals and/or show what is unsustainable. The influence and/or potential role of institutions in such processes are of particular interest. One potential area is to look at de-materialisation and the effectiveness of technological change in advancing sustainability. Applications include areas such as use of water, mobility patterns and behaviour, concerns with de-materialisation, and land use.
1C: Community Development
Contributions are sought which take non-economic approaches to community development (e.g. using rural sociology and environmental & social psychology) to show how economic perspectives can be enriched. Papers should explore issues such as social capital, community values, the importance of sense of place, and community development through social learning.
1D: Accounting for Environmental Change
Interdisciplinary approaches give different perspectives on how to account for environmental change. This session aims to explore what has been learned through the application of sustainability indicators, since their rise over the last decade, and assess their validity. Contributions should also address the future of such approaches.
Theme 2: Environmental Management: Applying
Strong Sustainability
2A: Putting Strong Sustainability into Practice
Theoretical work has raised concerns over concepts such as lexicographic preferences and incommensurable values but how these relate to environmental policy remains unclear. Can such concepts be made part of an environmental agency’s practical tool kit? What rethinking is required? Can institutional analysis help? What values motivate support for strong sustainability? What changes are required if human behaviour is found to diverge from deeply held values? Contributions are sought which address such questions using practical experience, case studies and/or empirical analysis.
2B: Legislative and Regulatory Experience
The precautionary principle provides one example of how strong sustainability concerns have been expressed. Contributions should address how this and other approaches provide practical examples of the application of strong sustainability and the role of institutions in this area.
Theme 3: Innovative Forms of Education and
Cooperation
3A: Higher and Community Education
This session seeks to evaluate the spread and content of ecological economics in education. What barriers are colleagues facing in trying to establish this interdisciplinary field? How can those in education make sure they learn from and make links with those who practise the principles of ecological economics without ever having heard of the concept (e.g. agriculturalists using local knowledge and traditional skills)? Are new forms of education arising? Is the role of the University in the community changing? Does ecological economics need to change the current form of education in order to succeed? Case studies and experience should be used to show how these issues affect ecological economics.
3B: Business and Industry
How does industry try to address community and public concerns over environmental impacts and sustainability? What makes businesses sustainable and can they convey this to their consumers? Potential topics are fair trade, community enterprises & communes, regional production & local markets, ethical consumerism, and ethical banking.
Theme 4: Developing and Testing Tools
4A: The Role and Use of Modelling
Contributions would explore developments in ecological economic modelling to address issues such as complexity and multi-dimensionality, ignorance and uncertainty. Papers should critically review applications in environmental decision processes. Coverage of the following subjects is particularly welcome: wildlife management, biodiversity, sustainable agricultural systems, water resource management and climate change.
4B: Processes of Valuation
Transferability of values has become more common place and has been promoted as showing the value of environmental assets. However, the context of values is lost and the meaning and content becomes questionable. Different languages of valuation are used by different interest groups. Questions arise how these values can be included in the process of valuation. For example, there has been debate over the use of deliberation in the context of monetary valuation. Contributions should address alternatives for expressing environmental values in policy process using examples and experience.
4C: Multiple Criteria and Composite Approaches
How do tools being developed and applied address the concerns raised over the use of more traditional economic and legislative approaches to project and policy appraisal? The merge between multiple criteria approaches and participation was raised at FRONTIERS 1 as a developing area. Forms of portraying multiple perspectives are required while being aware of how they will enter into policy processes. Contributions should critically appraise practical experience using case studies.
SCHEDULE
20
October 2002: Final date for submissions of contributions (abstract and synopsis)
25 November 2002: Notification of acceptance/rejections
of contributions (delay due to high submission rate)
20 December 2002: Registration deadline (after this date a higher rate applies)
20 December 2002: Deadline for submissions of final/revised papers (only applies
to focused groups discussions)
12-15 February 2003 Conference, Tenerife, Canary Islands