Climate change is indisputably a topic of great social relevance. Melting glaciers, rising sea levels, severe storms and floods cause enormous (social) costs and attract media attention, pressurising scientific, economic and political actors to make unambiguous statements and take action. While present evaluations and forecasts largely rely on research concerning the physical dimensions of climate change, its social consequences, cultural interpretations and local coping strategies cannot simply be derived from natural scientific methods. Therefore, the conference “Climate Change: Global Scenarios and Local Experiences” seeks to provide a forum for research initiatives in the social and cultural sciences which deal with case studies and help to build up a thorough empirical basis concerning the socio-cultural implications of climate change.

Interdisciplinary climate research faces a range of unsolved theoretical problems. Climate change denotes a global phenomenon defined by abstract natural scientific concepts, while its socio-cultural implications, interpretations and coping strategies are locally situated. How do we study a phenomenon which is in itself not directly perceptible in everyday life? What does climate change mean – does it even mean anything – in a specific local context? How is knowledge about climate change produced and translated into specific life-words? In which ways does climate change impact on everyday life? How can fresh insights into the cultural pluralism of climate change feed back into (natural) scientific forecasts and models about global climate change? Can mediating concepts, such as for instance “glocalization”, be made fruitful for investigating into these global-local interrelations?

We cordially invite contributions from empirical research dealing with or presenting solutions to these questions. The accepted contributions will be arranged into thematic sections, which will be opened by a methodologically/theoretically oriented introductory lecture. Each submitted paper will be summarized and critically commented on by two invited discussants. The authors will then be given the opportunity to comment on how their paper has been presented by the discussants.

We aim at publishing selected papers. The conference languages are German and English. Travel and accommodation expenses can be refunded.

Invited speakers and discussants:

Jörg Bergmann (University of Bielefeld)
Monika Büscher (Lancaster University)
Gabriela Christmann (Leibnitz-Institut für Regionalentwicklung und Strukturplanung, Erkner)
Heike Drotbohm (Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg)
Heike Greschke (University of Bielefeld)
Christoph Küffer (ETH Zurich)
Claus Leggewie (Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, Essen)
Martina Merz (University of Luzern)
Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka (University of Bielefeld)
Petra Pansegrau (University of Bielefeld)
Miranda Schreurs (FU Berlin)
Peter Schweitzer (University of Alaska)
Frank Uekötter (Rachel Carson Center Munich)

Please send your abstracts (maximum of 4,000 signs, Word or PDF-document) and a short CV to klimawelten[at]uni-bielefeld.de, by 22 March 2011. You will be notified by 15 April 2011 whether your proposal has been accepted. Invited speakers will then be kindly asked to submit their full papers until 15 September 2011.