Conferences

11.05.2013

Artists, Art Communities and Creative Initiatives in the Urban Spaces of Russia and Europe

Open Interdisciplinary Seminar series “Scientific Environment”, 6th meeting of the 2013 spring session

 May 14th 2013, Faculty of Sociology, St. Petersburg State University (Russia), ul. Smolnogo 1/3, entrance 9, room 229, 18:00

Speakers:

  •  Sacha Kagan (Leuphana University Lueneburg, and Cultura21): “Creative cities and the challenge of sustainability”
  • Nikita Basov and Anisya Khokhlova (St. Petersburg State University, Faculty of sociology): “Communication Practices of Knowledge Generation: Comparing Creative Communities in St. Petersburg”
  • Anna Zhelnina (Higher School of Economics at St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg State University, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences) and Alexandra Nenko (Higher School of Economics at St. Petersburg): “Self-Organizing Urban Initiatives: Actors and Practices of Creative Transformation of the City”

This event is organized by the Center for German and European Studies (a collaboration between the St. Petersburg State University in Russia and the University of Bielefeld in Germany).

Website (with abstracts): click here

By Sacha Kagan

10.05.2013

Beyond the Surface: Environmental Art in Action

A conference investigating relationships between art and the environment

May 31, 2013, 9 am – 5 pm, Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Philadelphia (USA)

Bringing artists & arts professionals to Philadelphia to explore ways art can create environmental awareness while restoring ecological systems. With: Lillian Ball, Sam Bower, Jenny Laden, Stacy Levy, Amy Lipton, Eve Mosher, Frances Whitehead.

“No longer content with scratching the surface of environmental problems, these artists want to move beyond the surface to engage audiences in becoming part of the solution.”

5-7 pm: Reception celebrating Rain Yard, the Schuylkill Center’s new permanent environmental artwork by Stacy Levy.

Conference Details & Online Registration: click here

By Sacha Kagan

06.05.2013

New Directions in Social Ecology: From Climate Action to Housing Justice

San Francisco (USA),  June 12th – 22nd 2013

Each year, the Institute for Social Ecology hosts intensive seminars for students, activists, and community leaders to come together to explore sets of dynamic and urgent social and ecological issues. They are partnering with the California Institute for Integral Studies based in the SOMA district. Classes will include the politics and philosophy of Social Ecology, international social movements for direct democracy, alternatives to capitalism, climate justice with a focus and emphasis on urban housing and land struggles. There will be local field trips that will allow participants to get to know the community in which they are studying.

Read more: Click here

By Sacha Kagan

02.05.2013

Conference in Indonesia: ‘The Power of Culture as Catalyst in Sustainable Development’

New pathways for locating culture as an integral part of sustainable development will be explored and highlighted when a World Culture in Development Forum is held in Bali, Indonesia, on 24-29 November 2013. This conference will focus on four themes:

• Culture, Freedom and Social Sustainability,

• Culture and Economic Sustainability,

• Cultural Convergence in a Global Context, and

• Culture and Environmental Sustainability

Read more on the culture/futures website: click here

By Sacha Kagan

30.04.2013

Brazil: Seminar on Culture and Sustainable Development

Within the framework of the Joint Programme ‘EU-Brazil Sector Dialogues’, the Ministries of Culture and Planning, Budget and Management will hold a seminar on Culture and Sustainable Development, which will take place from 21 to 23 May 2013, in Brasilia, Brazil. The focus will be on links between cultural diversity and environmental sustainability.

Read more on the culture/futures website: click here

By Sacha Kagan

28.04.2013

Congress in China: ‘Culture: Key to Sustainable Development’

An international congress entitled ‘Culture: Key to Sustainable Development’, organised by UNESCO with the support of the Government of the People’s Republic of China, will be held in Hangzhou, China, on 15-17 May 2013. The focus will be  to discuss the role of culture in sustainable development in view of the post-2015 development framework.

Read more on the culture/futures website: click here

By Sacha Kagan

18.04.2013

Call for abstracts: Ecology In Practice – Creative Conservation Symposium

5th World Conference on Ecological Restoration in Madison, Wisconsin, USA October 6-11, 2013

The symposium is convened by David Haley and Richard Scott. Haley has convened and chaired the Ecological Arts symposia at SER (Society for Ecological Restoration) World Conferences in 2000 (Liverpool), 2005 (Zaragoza) and 2011 (Merida), and contributed to Richard Scott’s Creative Conservation workshops at these and European SER conferences. In 2013 they will combine arts and science concepts through formal oral presentations concerning practical research approaches to ecological restoration. In particular, contributors to this event, will aim to shift the focus away from the common position of having to justify the art in an ecological restoration context, or even justifying ecology in an arts context. They will consider the position that art and ecology exist naturally in the world, but that many societies continue to spend much time, effort and money extracting and destroying these embodied phenomena, resources and values. While some artists’ practical interventions reveal ecology through their art, or contribute new perspectives to ecology, their art may also transform the material world, ecologically. These intentions and manifestations are very different from art that merely illustrates nature, or art as a tool to popularize scientific endeavor. Here, ecological art is a necessary component in interdisciplinary thinking and research, and through creative practices, may emerge as a new ‘transdisciplinary’ form of working towards restoration.

Deadline extended: Please make your submissions directly to SER by 15th of May 2013 (click here for the conference website), but also do send them by email to David Haley (d [dot] haley [at] mmu [dot] ac [dot] uk), if you wish to be included in the Symposium – ‘Ecology In Practice – Creative Conservation’. (Please note that Haley and Scott have absolutely no access to any funding to support your attendance.)

By Sacha Kagan

15.04.2013

International Conference: SUSTAINABILITY AND CULTURE / Sustainable Cultural Management

Organized by the Goethe Institut Thessaloniki, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Greece and the European theatre network Mitos21, this International Conference will take place on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th April 2013 in Thessaloniki, Greece, at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall (“Maurice Saltiel” conference room).

The conference will discuss “innovative interventions implemented in recent years in the field of culture in Europe, the US and Canada by public authorities, cultural organisations and institutions, and cultural management experts.”

Admission to the conference is free. For registration and any further information: welcome [at] thessalonikiconference [dot] org

Visit the conference website: www.thessalonikiconference.org

By Sacha Kagan

14.04.2013

Culture and Sustainable Development in the Baltic Sea Region – a seminar at the Nordic Council of Ministers

Venue: Nordic Council of Ministers, Ved Straden 18, 1061 Copenhagen, Denmark – Date: April 29th 2013

The event is organized in cooperation between the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Ministries of Culture in Schleswig-Holstein and Poland.

In connection with this seminar,  the report  “Culture and Sustainability in the Baltic Sea Region – 8 findings, a number of opportunities and way forward” is written by Thomas Winter (Innogate) and Oleg Koefoed (Cultura21 Nordic). Its draft version will be presented by the authors at the event.

Click here to download the program (PDF file). To attend this event (limited number of places available), please send your request to Linn Mårtens (linm [at] norden [dot] org) or the project leader Thomas Winther (tw [at] innogate [dot] net) before Friday the 19th of April 2013.

By Sacha Kagan

20.02.2013

Eco-Aesthetics: Contemporary Arts and the Politics of Ecology

Saturday, 2 March, 2013, 2-7pm
Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, UCL

The first issue of Third text, a bimonthly appearing journal on art in the global context, in 2013 is a special issue focusing on Contemporary Arts and the Politics of Ecology and is accompanied by the conference on the same topic in London.

The event will include numerous contributors to the special issue, which investigates eco-aesthetics in a postcolonial framework—from global warming in the arctic to oil industry environmental damage in Nigeria’s delta, from conflicts between mining corporations and tribals in rural India to the ecological effects of industrial development in the port of Bahia Blanca, Argentina, from urban farming in Detroit to the Occupy movement’s development of a post-media social ecology. The special issue and conference seek to link international and interdisciplinary researchers, artists, and critical theorists in order to consider the questions of how such politico-ecological developments have been recently analyzed, mediated, and negotiated within the visual cultural of art and activism.

The conference is free and no registration is required (seats on a first come first serve basis). (For more information on this event, please email tj [dot] demos [at] ucl [dot] ac [dot] uk).

Among the list of confirmed speakers are Ravi Agarwal, Christoph Brunner, Liberate Tate and Nabil Ahmed.

For the full list of speakers visit: www.ucl.ac.uk/art-history/events/eco-aesthetics

By Nikolai Huckle

31.01.2013

Economics of Happiness Conference 2013

March 15-17, 2013 – Byron Bay, Australia

The not-for-profit organization ISEC (International Society for Ecology and Culture) is, after the success of the first conference held last March in Berkeley, California, hosting the second international Economics of Happiness Conference in Australia. The conference is an annual event of the global grassroots movement whose mission is to promote systemic solutions to today’s environmental, social and economic crises led by ISEC, which has also led to the production of the corresponding documentary in 2011(trailer included in this post).

The interactive program will consist of plenary sessions, workshops, and social and creative time, participants will have a rare opportunity to learn from and share with some of the foremost leaders in the worldwide localization movement. The conference also offers the chance to make new connections, build on current projects and find new inspiration.

The list of speakers includes: Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, Donnie Maclurcan, Michael Shuman and Helena Norberg-Hodge.

For more information, the full list of speakers and to register, visit theeconomicsofhappiness.org

By Nikolai Huckle

26.01.2013

Summer School – Sustainable Technologies and Transdisciplinary Futures

From Collaborative Design to Digital Fabrication

STTF2013 Summer School – July 8-12 – ISCTE-IUL University Institute of Lisbon

STTF2013 invites you to apply for a one week intensive programme of social and technical methods, in a transdisciplinary environment that will engage participants in both conceptual and practical activities with all four pillars of sustainability as background.

STTF2013 is intended for Master and PhD students, researchers, and professionals from STS, Product and Service Design, Social Sciences and Humanities, Architecture and Engineering, Communication and Media, Environmental Studies, Economics and Management, Computer Sciences, and others.
Regardless of individual experience, everyone will have the opportunity to work in sociotechnical processes of design, construction and discussion of concrete objects, through Introductory Sessions, Masterclasses and Hands On Workshops. Read more »

By Nikolai Huckle

25.01.2013

SCANZ 2013: Wananga-Symposium

Developing the culture to create a sustainable civilization

Feb 1st–3rd, 2013 – New Plymouth, New Zealand

SCANZ (Solar Circuit Aotearoa New Zealand) is New Zealand´s premier art, technology, culture and ecology event and involves a symposium, creative residency, and public events and exhibitions. Occurring biennially, it has typically involved a mix of Aotearoa New Zealand and international artists, producers, theorists and curators. SCANZ 2013: 3rd nature will be the fourth event and will be organized by Ian Clothier, Trudy Lane, and Nina Czegledy of Intercreate, in partnership with aligned organizations within the arts and sciences and with tangata whenua. Read more »

By Nikolai Huckle

21.12.2012

Call for Papers – PhD Student Research Award

Deadline extended: Feb. 15th 2013!
The Research Network Sociology of the Arts, that is an integrated part of the European Sociological Association (ESA) announces a bi-annual PhD-Student Research Award to recognize outstanding unpublished papers by PhD-Students. The winner of this year´s award will receive 500 € and will present his/her paper at a section during the 11th Conference of the ESA (University of Turin, August 28th-31st, 2013)

Deadlines: 15.02.2013 (for the conference abstract) and 24.05.2013 (for the full paper version)

For more information on the call, click here.

For the full post and all call for papers of the ESA conference 2013:

http://www.cultura21.net/activites/conferences/call-for-papers-crisis-critique-and-change

By Nikolai Huckle

17.12.2012

Call for Papers – Crisis, Critique and Change

Deadline extended: Feb. 15th 2013!
The European Sociological Association (ESA) is calling for papers for their 11th conference, taking place in Turin, Italy from the 28-31 August 2013. The topic of the conference is “Crisis, Critique and Change“.

There are multiple calls by all the different Research Network and Research Streams, ranging from Environment and Society or Quantitative Research to Social Theory, as well as a Call for Paper for a pre-conference PhD Workshop at the end of August.

One particular Research Network is the Sociology of the Arts RN chaired by Tasos Zembylas:

Art’s position within society and politics has always been complex and ambivalent. Artists may raise a critical voice or offer ideological legitimation for a dominant, hegemonic image of society. They may display a strong commitment or keep a distance from others’ fate. The attitude of the arts towards contemporary issues such as the ecological crisis, the debt crisis, violence against minorities and opponents, economic exploitation, and deprivation of people’s rights has never lost any relevance. Therefore, we would like to create special sessions and invite papers on this topic with the expectation that they may include a broad nexus of sub-issues around the relation and commitment of arts in society.

More information on this specific call, is available here.

The deadline for submissions is February 15th 2013. For further information on the Conference, all the Calls for Papers and the submission procedure please visit: http://www.esa11thconference.eu

By Nikolai Huckle