cfp: Rethinking Time & Ecology

March 8, 2011 by Adrian J Ivakhiv

CALL FOR PAPERS: Special Issue of Environmental Philosophy

THEME: Temporal Environments: Rethinking Time and Ecology

Details:

GUEST EDITORS: Jacob Metcalf (UC Santa Cruz) and Thom van Dooren (University of Technology, Sydney)

Place and space have received substantial attention in environmental philosophy in recent decades. Theorists from a variety of fields have proposed that reorienting our relationship to the non-human world requires reconsideration of ways of understanding and inhabiting spaces and places. Ecophenomenologists have argued that replacing meaningful places with abstract space was a critical moment in histories of environmental destruction, and environmental ethics will require re-imagining place as meaningful again. Bioregionalism has emphasized the need to rethink our places as ecological relationships, and inspired not only changes in academia, but also in environmental movements such as food localism. In a related vein, Val Plumwood has cautioned against too simplistic a notion of “one’s place”, critiquing the fracturing of place in which cherished homeplaces are able to be preserved only as a result of the destruction of less visible ‘shadow places’. In short, there is a broad assertion that reassessing our obligations to more-than-human worlds requires understanding place as more meaningful than an empty space to be filled by human concerns.

This special issue of Environmental Philosophy will present a collection of articles that direct similar attention to the time and temporality of environments, a topic that has been relatively neglected by environmental philosophy and ethics. Although environmental ethicists have long discussed temporal issues, such as intergenerational justice, time has often been treated as an essentially linear and static container for human action. But if we conceive of time as produced, constructed, maintained, lived, multiple, and a more-than-human concern, the possibilities for environmental philosophy look dramatically different. This collection will offer such a framework for thinking through time and environment by exploring the multiple lived times present in global climate change, species extinction, the practices of ecological sciences, and the temporal fidelities of conservation and restoration.

Among the questions we hope this collection might explore are: What philosophical reconsiderations of time might be available and useful for other ecological disciplines? How does the pace of human life— markets, science, desires, consumption—impact our ability to imagine and produce livable futures? How might we remember different, and sometimes lost, ways of valuing human and nonhuman worlds in a way that does not fetishize the past but still holds it open as a resource for constructing better futures? How does an attentiveness to the scope of evolutionary time alter our sense of obligation in a time of massive biodiversity loss? How does the high-speed pace of much human life actually make it harder to change the conditions of those lives? How do humans and other animals learn to justly co-inhabit our sometimes very different temporalities? What ways of life are enabled or disabled by different temporal metaphors? What post-colonial temporalities are necessary for recuperation of cultural ecologies damaged by genocides and ecocides? Will sustainable ecologies require new models of temporality to reformulate growth, degrowth, and regrowth?

We invite submissions from environmental philosophers and other ecological scholars, including reflective pieces from natural and social scientists. Pieces that are grounded in specific cases of temporal environments are especially encouraged. We welcome pieces from international and native communities, and others not often represented in philosophy journals.

Environmental Philosophy (http:// ephilosophy.uoregon.edu/) is a peer-reviewed professional philosophy journal, and is the official journal of the International Association of Environmental Philosophy (IAEP). Environmental Philosophy publishes innovative research relevant to all areas of environmental philosophy, including ethics, aesthetics, metaphysics, theology, politics, ecofeminism, environmental justice, philosophy of technology, and ecophenomenology.

Target publication date: Spring 2012
Abstracts of 300-400 words, due by April 1, 2011
Papers due for review by August 1, 2011

There are no word count restrictions, but submissions are encouraged to aim for 6-8,000 words.

For further information or to submit abstracts, please contact Jacob Metcalf (jake.metcalf@gmail.com) or Thom van Dooren (thom.van.dooren@gmail.com).

Posted in Eco-theory, Philosophy | 4 Comments

4 Responses

on March 11, 2011 at 2:09 am | Reply Douglas Lain

It strikes me that the philosopher responsible for directing Critical Theory to the concept of the Production of Space was the Marxist philosopher Henri Lefebvre, and that attempts to “reorient our relationship to the non-human world” mostly amount to avoidance tactics. That is, the difficulty isn’t protecting our homes or local environments, as attempts in this direction will always mean creating “shadow realms” that go unprotected. The trick is changing the totality of our relations, and our human relations will inevitably come first.

Ecology can’t be split off from struggles for social justice and equality. Further, as long as we live in a Capitalist economy that both requires growth and suppresses human potential we will continue to destroy our environment.

Are nonacademic writers allowed to submit abstracts to this publication?
on March 12, 2011 at 1:39 am | Reply Ari Lestariono

I enjoy studying by myself philosphy, I practiced Martial Arts and its Philosophy, it has bring into broader spectrum, and yet this blog is new to me on ecology, I find it interesting and I am leraning also.It will usefull if Philosophy as a Studied in Social Sciences can be implemented into realistic action for good use of human nations, either in technology, social structure, moral education etc.Best teacher of studying philosphy is get your real experiene into life first then studied from book or real master.Anyway its a great blog here
on March 12, 2011 at 9:14 am | Reply Adrian J Ivakhiv

Douglas – Thanks for your thoughts. Lefebvre’s Production of Space was very influential in my own thinking about issues of space/place, politics, and nature. It’s a wonderful book and I highly recommend it to readers.

In answer to your question: there’s nothing to prevent anyone from sending an article abstract to Environmental Philosophy. But in order for the article to be accepted and published, it must go through a scholarly peer-review process that’s meant to ensure a certain professional rigor and quality according to the standards of the field (in this case, of environmental philosophy). It’s up to the editors to decide whether to give authors of abstracts the go-ahead to actually write and submit the article.

Environmental Philosophy typically publishes scholarly (and philosophical) articles. There are some scholarly journals, including Organization & Environment, ISLE, and Capitalism Nature Socialism, that do include non-scholarly kinds of writing and for which your thoughts might be appropriate. As a rule, scholarly journals operate on a shoestring budget and are staffed largely by volunteers (i.e., academics who do the work as part of their professional service), so these journals can’t do much more than what their mandate allows for. There are, however, numerous online sites as well as popular magazines (from ‘Orion’ and ‘Resurgence’ to ‘Monthly Review’) that publish on these topics.
on March 13, 2011 at 2:25 am | Reply Douglas Lain

Adrian: Thank you for providing links to journals that include “non-scholarly kinds of writing,” and I look forward to continuing to read this blog in an attempt to at least partially familiarize myself with the standards of environmental philosophy.

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