The Thirteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic, & Social Sustainability will take place on January 10-21 2017 at the Biomass and Water Management Research Center, Fluminense Federal University, Niterói, Greater Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The 2017 special focus is Pathways to Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities for State and Society. The state plays a contradictory role in sustainability politics, facilitating both environmental degradation and environmental conservation. It stands at the interface between local, national, and global politics and faces multiple—often competing—pressures. The pressure includes that from businesses, pressing for a political environment that is conducive to investment and economic development, and from citizens and social groups making a broad range of demands for domestic and international security, economic stability, social public goods, and environmental sustainability.
Internationally, the state remains the sole representative of its public, and it is legally the only actor with the regulatory authority and capacity to govern within its territory.Yet, critical research on globalization suggests that the state is losing its autonomy, yielding decision-making authority to international organizations, transnational corporations, and non-governmental organizations. Activists are increasingly looking to non-state actors to catalyze the necessary social changes that will generate sustainability.
This has produced a rich literature on sustainable consumption, environmental citizenship, and non-state market-driven forms of environmental governance that are reconfiguring society. But the state, while inadequate on its own, is also indispensable—hence the “greening” of the state—advocated to contain corporate power, channel the use of technology into low-carbon energy production, and stimulate sustainable modes of production that respect ecological integrity and local cultures.
We warmly welcome proposals from scholars, policy makers, and activists for papers, workshops, interactive sessions, posters, exhibits, and colloquia on all aspects of sustainability.
The Thirteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic, & Social Sustainability features research addressing the following annual themes and the 2017 Special Focus:
- ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
- SUSTAINABILITY IN ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT
- SUSTAINABILITY POLICY AND PRACTICE
- SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATION