CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Concurrent Crisis and Sustainable Futures: Global Extractivisms and Alternatives

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Conference “Concurrent Crisis and Sustainable Futures: Global Extractivisms

and Alternatives” – October 20-23, 2020, University of Helsinki, Finland

The Global Extractivisms and Alternatives Initiative (EXALT) is a new international network of scholars, activists, and policymakers dedicated to collaboration and knowledge creation around the pressing crises stemming from extractivist policies and practices. At the EXALT Initiative 2020 conference we seek to draw together diverse critical analyses of the phenomena of global extractivisms and the myriad alternatives being actively pursued in both theory and practice. It is the intention of this conference to contribute to, expand, and deepen the concept of extractivism and the role of alternatives beyond the conventional usage connected to natural resources.

The upcoming conference “Concurrent crisis and sustainable futures: Global Extractivisms and Alternatives” is a two-day conference with six scientific sessions. We hope to catalyze and facilitate inter- and transdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration, and welcome proposals from researchers of all academic career-levels. There will also be a joint Doctoral Students’ pre-conference in conjunction with the EXALT conference. Separate Call for Abstracts will be sent out for that later.

Please read the instructions for submission below.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

To present your work in the conference please submit an abstract on your research (max 500 words without references, as a pdf). In your submission please state clearly, which thematic track you wish to participate in, and whether you wish to do an oral presentation or a poster presentation. The abstract should include the key research questions, theoretical underpinnings, empirical foundations (if applicable) and expected contributions to the discussions of the selected theme.

The conference also offers space for a variety of methods of making and talking science. Therefore we welcome submissions of alternative ways of examining and discussing the conference themes, outside of the traditional powerpoint-presentation form, for example, sessions which include participatory elements and creative and/or artistic presentations.

Submit your abstract via this link.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS APRIL 6th.

Below you can find the thematic tracks of the conference.

THEMATIC TRACKS:

GLOBAL EXTRACTIVISMS

This track examines the politics, political economy, political ecology and world-ecologies of extractivisms, especially their wider dynamics. Topics could include, agroextractivisms, mining, forestry, hydrocarbons and other areas affected by the extractivist paradigm. Track chairs: Markus Kröger, Anja Nygren & Barry Gills

INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGNTY, MODERNITY PROJECTS AND ALTERNATIVES

This track examines Indigenous peoples’ struggles and sovereignty, the interplay of coloniality and modernity, intersectionality, language and linguistics, and post-extractivist social movements from any region of the world. Track Chairs: Pirjo Virtanen, Eija Ranta, Paola Minoia and Maija Lassila

URBANITY AND EXTRACTIVISM

This track examines the tensions and contradictions in urbanism that are central to a post-extractivist agenda, including (re)theorizing urban development as part of development, underdevelopment, and alternative development, and analyses that deconstruct modernist fossil and nuclear-based urbanism from a theoretical, empirical, and methodological viewpoints. Track Chairs: Franklin Obeng-Odoom and Özlem Celik

4. FINANCIALIZATION AND INTELLECTUAL EXTRACTIVISMS

This track examines financial, intellectual, and data related extractivist practices. Papers that analyze global centers and systems of financial accumulation, financialization and extractivist structures of world production, emerging alternative monies, and decentralized production are encouraged. Track Chairs: Ossi Ollinaho and Chris Chagnon

TRANSITIONS TO ALTERNATIVES

This track examines the organizational practices that shape the transformations needed to build alternative futures in a post-extractive world. Contributions could explore the organizing processes, leadership skills, and strategic dimensions of transformation. Track Chairs: Maria Ehrnström-Fuentes, Galina Kallio and Maxim Vlasov

OPEN THEME

If you have a topic on extractivisms and alternatives that you feel does not fit any of the named thematic tracks above, we welcome your submission under this open theme track. Track Chairs: Sophia Hagolani-Albov and Janne Salovaara