Diary

Article Type: Diary From: Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Volume 22, Issue 4

Energy and people: futures, complexity and challenges

Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, UK, 20-21 September 2011

Papers are invited for this international, interdisciplinary conference focusing on the relationship between society and energy use, particularly in the context of the major transition to a low carbon energy system. The conference,organised by the Lower Carbon Futures research team at the Environmental Change Institute and the UK Energy Research Centre’s Meeting Place, will take place from 20-21 September 2011 at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Papers are encouraged which explore future trends in energy practices, emphasise the human dimension, and:

• challenge the conventional wisdom and suggest alternative ways to approach complexity (e.g. non-market mechanisms; social and governance changes); and

• identify novel methods and approaches for studying pathways to low carbon futures (e.g. research methods such as social modelling, agent-based modelling,and social back casting).

Authors may wish to explore linkages between energy and wider themes, such as: equity; consumption patterns, trade, national and international politics;communication and mobility; infrastructures of production, distribution and consumption; urbanisation, immigration and ageing; or institutions, governance and social change. Contributions are sought from different disciplines and perspectives, for example, politics, sociology, development studies,international relations, psychology, geography, future studies, technology studies, energy studies, economics and history. Further details are available at: www.regonline.co.uk/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=942758

Conference – Green Energy for Towns and Cities 2011

Harpa, Concert Hall and Conference Centre, Reykjavik, Iceland, 28-30 September 2011

This international two-day conference is aimed at regional/city and town planners, who have been tasked to reduce the carbon emissions of their constituents. The conference aims to provide city, town and regional planners with two days of answers to various green applications, such as the cost of implementation, return on investment, possible finance/ funding and case studies.

The global rate of consumption of carbon-based energy is out of balance with the environment and future supply. Efforts are needed in two key areas:

• 1.

  enhancing investment in sources of energy with a lower environmental impact that are more self-sustaining or renewable; and

• 2.

  ensuring that the energy that is consumed is done so in the most efficient way.

The established methods of mass power generation – coal, oil, gas,nuclear – can be improved at distribution and consumption levels. There are also a wide range of alternative power generation solutions which can be employed, from hydro, geothermal solar, wind and tidal to biomass or anaerobic digestion. Many of these can be financed and implemented locally. Whatever the solution, this conference seeks to illustrate how it could be effectively rolled out at a community level. Further details are available at: www.greenenergy4cities.com/about-the-conference

International Conference on Sustainable Consumption

Hamburg, Germany, 6-8 November 2011

The conference aims at promoting the interdisciplinary academic discourse on issues concerning sustainable consumption. The focus is on consumer behaviour,its social and cultural embeddedness, and its interdependencies with economic,physical and political frameworks. Researchers from different disciplines and studying different fields of consumption are addressed and invited to present results from disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary research on sustainable consumption. The conference topics are:

• Determinants of consumer behaviour.

• Steering consumer behaviour.

• Effects and evaluation of consumption patterns.

• Theoretical and methodological issues of research on sustainable consumption.

• Conceptual and normative issues related to sustainable consumption.

• Gender issues in relation with sustainable consumption.

Further details are available at: www.sustainableconsumption2011.org

The Business of Social and Environmental Innovation

Cape Town, South Africa, 14-16 November 2011

Trying to gain a better understanding of the role of business in developing innovative responses to complex social and environmental problems is becoming more urgent and more popular.

In the context of limited progress by national and multilateral efforts in meeting some of the Millennium Development Goals or in establishing a fairer climate change regime, there are manifold initiatives that seek to harness the entrepreneurial, innovative, managerial and financial capacities of business, at various scales, to contribute to improved social and environmental outcomes.

A more proactive role for business in sustainable development is especially pertinent in sub-Saharan Africa, which has been plagued by conflict and poverty but is showing promising signs of a brighter future. This conference seeks to connect and cross-fertilise various narratives on the business of social and environmental innovation, and to share and distil lessons from across academic disciplines and from successful initiatives in Africa and beyond. It invites both scholarly contributions and case studies by entrepreneurs and practitioners. The conference will ask whether some form of research network would be of value, and if so, in what form. The UCT Graduate School of Business is developing a dedicated focus on social innovation and, together with its partners, will endeavour to support such a network. Further details can be seen at: www.gsb.uct.ac.za/BSEI2011/