ISA Barcelona 2008

Primer Fórum de Sociología de la AIS
Investigación sociológica y debate público
Barcelona, España
5- 8 de septiembre de 2008

Research Committee on Environment and Society RC24

Main theme Contributions of environmental sociology to sustainable societies

Programme Coordinators
The RC24 organizing committee is made up of Raymond Murphy (Canada), Joan David Tabara (Spain), Mercedes Pardo (Spain), and Ernest Garcia (Spain).

Session 1: Social learning about environmental issues

Chair: Joan David Tabara, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain, joandavid.tabara@uab.cat

Session 2: Social dimensions of global environmental change

Chair: Mercedes Pardo, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain, mpbuendi@polsoc.uc3m.es

Session 3: Social movements towards a post-carbon Era

Chair: Ernest Garcia, Universidad de Valencia, Spain, emest.Garcia@uv.es

Session 4 and 5: Temas de actualidad en el medio y la sociedad | Current issues of environment and society

(session in Spanish)
Chair: Ignacio Lerma, Universidad de Valencia, Spain, Ignacio.Lerma@uv.es

Session 6: Sustainable global food markets: facing new challenges

Chair: Julia Guivant, Universidade Federal de Santa Catalina, Brazil,
juguivant@uol.com.br

Session 7: Ecological restoration, adaptation, and environmental change

Chair: Matthias Gross, The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Germany, matthias.gross@ufz.de

Session 8: Environment in the information age

Chair: Arthur Mol, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, Arthur.Mol@wur.nl

Session 9 and 10: Environmental attitudes and behaviors

Chair: Riley Dunlap, Oklahoma State University, USA, riley.dunlap@okstate.edu

Session 11: Environmental justice and ecological debt

Chairs: Michael Redclift, King's College, UK and David Manuel Navarrete, Spain, michael.r.redclift@kcl.ac.uk

Session 12: Science, technology, and risk

Chair: Eugene Rosa, Washington State University, USA, rosa@wsu.edu

Session 13: Ecological risk: local to global

Chairs: Nick Pidgeon, Cardiff Universty, UK, PidgeonN@cardiff.ac.uk, and Eugene Rosa, Washington University, USA, rosa@wsu.edu

Session 14: Community and natural resources

Chair: Stewart Lockie, Central Queensland University, Australia, s.lockie@cqu.edu.au

Session 15: Public participation in environmental monitoring

Chairs: Steven Yearley, University of Edimburgh, UK, steve.yearley@ed.ac.uk and Maria Eugenia Rodrigues, University of Minho, Portugal, eugenia@ics.uminho.pt

Session 16 and 17: Democratizing knowledge, democratizing power

Chair: Luigi Pellizzoni, University of Trieste, Italy, PellizzoniL@sp.units.it

Session 18: Environmental organization for a sustainable future

Chair: SeeJae Lee, Catholic University, South Korea, seejaelee@catholic.ac.kr

Session 19: Environmental movements in a global economy

Chair: Hellmuth Lange, University of Bremen, Germany, lange@artec.uni-bremen.de

Session 20: Social responses to environmental problems

Chair: Brent K. Marshall, University of Central Florida, USA, bmarshal@mail.ucf.edu

Session 21: Environmental identities, environmental literacy and processes of public knowledge building

Chair: Devanayk Sundaram, University of Madras, India, dsundaram@hotmail.com

Session 22: Further environmental debates

Chair: Mercedes Martínez Iglesias, University of Valencia, Spain, Mercedes.Martinez@uv.es

Session 23: Climate, water scarcity and the new social institutions

Chair: Brian Gareau, University of California, USA.
bgareau@ucsc.edu

Session 24: New environmental analyses, the state, the market, and community

Chair: Ralph Matthews, The University of British Columbia, Canada
Ralph.matthews@ubc.ca

Joint Sessions

Joint Session 1: The ‘Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy’: Critical perspectives

Joint Panel of RC02, Economy and Society, RC24 Environment and Society and RC23 Sociology of Science and Technology
Chair: Les Levidow, The Open University, UK, l.levidow@open.ac.uk
Critical perspectives have been developed by a recent report, Taking European Knowledge Society Seriously. The authors ask what knowledges are being privileged or marginalised by discourses of the 'Knowledge-Based Society'. Through master narratives, some possible futures are imaginable, while others are marginalised or excluded (Felt et al., 2007).

Master narratives are illustrated especially by the 'Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy', the topic of a major conference (CEC, 2005). The KBBE concept pervades the Commission's Framework Programme 7, especially its thematic priority on 'Food, Agriculture, Fisheries and Biotechnology'. According to an OECD expert group, 'The bio-economy is made possible by the recent surge in the scientific knowledge and technical competences that can be directed to harness biological processes for practical applications.' Potential benefits may be lost or delayed unless government decision-making procedures are adapted to those rapid advances, argue the group (OECD 2006).

Given current policies for the 'Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy', how can critical perspectives generate public debate, while linking diverse academic approaches and stakeholder groups? How can such debate open up possible futures? Taking up those questions, this Panel aims to involve various Research Committees of the ISA and ESA (e.g. Science and Technology, Environment, Risk, Economy, etc.). Talks will critically analyse assumptions of EU policy.

There will be a limit number of travel grants to help participants from B and C category countries attend the Forum.

Joint Session 2: Leisure, tourism and environment

Joint session of ISA Research Committee on Environment and Society, RC24, ISA Research Committee on Sociology of Leisure, RC13, and ISA Research Committee on Tourism, RC50.
Chair: Ishwar Modi, India, iiiss2005modi@yahoo.co.in

Research Committee on Social Movements, Collective Action and Social Change RC48

Main theme Making things public: Social movements and public debates

Programme Coordinator
Benjamín Tejerina Montaña, Universidad del País Vasco, Spain, cjptemob@lg.ehu.es

Social movements have performed an important role in pointing out those aspects that are failing in society, in the denouncing of injust situations or in the claiming for the approaching of new social and political challenges. In these processes it is important to define the problem, to frame the claimings and to give new meanings to aspects of public concern. Debates turn into wars of paper, words and images in the attempt to define the matters at issue among social movements, political agents and civil society.

To frame objectives, setting them up against those of other opponents, and to transmit them to society, with the help of different means of communication, are some of the multiple endeavours in the process of making things public. The central objective of the sessions is to think about these aspects in relation to situations for which contemporary social movements posed questions to the public sphere.

Session 1: Cognitive framing, discourses and narratives in social movements

Chair: Benjamín Tejerina, University of the Basque Country, Spain, b.tejerina@ehu.es

Session 2: Urban conditions, processes of exclusion and social movements

Chair: Tova Benski, College of Management Studies, Israel, benski@colman.ac.il

Session 3 and 4: Democratization, political institutions and social movements in Latin America

Chair: Benjamín Tejerina, University of the Basque Country, Spain, b.tejerina@ehu.es

Session 5: Debates and mass media in public arena

Chair: James Goodman, University of Technology Sydney, Australia, James.Goodman@uts.edu.au

Session 6: Social movements and new media

Joint Session RC07 Futures Research with RC48 Social Movements, Collective Action, and Social Change
Chair: Markus S. Schulz, New York University, USA, markus.schulz@nyu.edu and Benjamín Tejerina, University of the Basque Country, Spain, b.tejerina@ehu.es

Session 7: Traditional and new forms and arenas of social mobilization I

Chair: María Luz Morán, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, mlmoran@cps.ucm.es

Session 8: Traditional and new forms and arenas of social mobilization II

Chair: Debal K. Singharoy, Indira Gandhi National Open University, India, debal_singharoy@yahoo.co.in

Session 9: Social movements: vision, persuasion, and power

Joint Session RC07 Futures Research and RC48 Social Movements, Collective action, and Social Change
Chair: Mark Herkenrath, U. Zurich, Switzerland, herky@access.unizh.ch, and Hannah Neumann, Berlin, Germany, hannah.neumann@googlemail.com

Session 10: Overcoming alienation: democratic mobilizations in a global age

Joint session RC10 Participation, Organizational Democracy and Self-Management, RC48 Social Movements, Collective Action and Social Change and RC36 Alienation Theory and Research
Organiser: Knud Jensen, Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark, knud@dpu.dk