Environmental justice and social wellbeing: Utopian and alternative intellectual Ideas in the 19th and 20th century

Environmental justice and social wellbeing: Utopian and alternative intellectual Ideas in the 19th and 20th century

Veranstalter
Astrid Kirchhof/Scott Moranda in connection with European Society for Environmental History (ESEH)
Veranstaltungsort
University of Zagreb
Ort
Zagreb
Land
Croatia
Vom - Bis
28.06.2017 -
Deadline
15.09.2016
Von
Scott Moranda/Astrid Kirchhof

On February 17, 2016, some 40,000 people rallied in Washington. These protestors included eco-socialists marching under the banner “system change, not climate change”. Socialist and Marxist ideas – largely taboo since the Cold War ended – seemingly have gained momentum again, at least among environmentalists advocating structural changes. More broadly, environmentalists increasingly recognize that they should not just protect ecosystems, but also promote social well being and equality.

These ideas are not new. Different social groups, states and political systems in the last two hundred years experimented with and have seen utopian (environmental) ideas. The American poet, philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau already in the 19th century explored simple living in natural surroundings, bringing together ideas of environmental justice and social wellbeing for all humans by calling for civil disobedience. Nature conservationists in socialist East Germany experimented with a life style in harmony with nature by integrating a communist political order and concepts of the reform-movement of the 19th century.

In the scholarship, environmental historians since the 1990s began to pay more attention to social conflict and environmental injustices as well as the environmental history of the Cold War. In particular, we have seen the appearance of several new works on Soviet bloc countries. Intellectual movements, like eco-criticism, draw on Marxian ideas in new ways, and post-structural critique of binary oppositions inform environmentalists seeking a ‚third way‘ beside capitalist and socialist systems. Nonetheless, the environmental history of socialism remains surprisingly undeveloped when compared to the environmental histories of the non-socialist world.

What are the historical roots of contemporary eco-socialism? When have utopian ideas (such as community living) actually materialized? How have humans thought beyond binary oppositions to come up with a ‚third way’? When have activists abandoned liberal reform to embrace radical structural change? How did socialist and capitalist states theoretically (and in reality) connect the needs of people to the environment?

For the ESEH 2017 conference in Zagreb, we are interested in papers on the meaning of environment for utopian movements or thinkers that come into contact with or confront other economic or social systems. Attention will be given to past and present utopian and philosophical ideas and their materialization of a sustainable, harmonious and just life for humans and nature in historical as well as literary accounts.

The following concepts might apply, though this list is not exhaustive:

- Utopian ideas of environmental and social justice and their historical materialization
- Philosophers and thinkers behind ideas of environmental and social justice
- Ideas of the reform movement in the 19th/20th century such as living in communities, vegetarianism, pacifism, free love libertarian philosophy, feminism, anarchism, free economy (Freiwirtschaft), etc.
- Eco-anarchism
- Environmental ideas or movements motivated by (fears of) Marxism
- Activists and activist’s actions
- Pros and cons of private property and the regulation of private landowners
- Central economic and social planning and its consequences / benefits
- Criticism of capitalist and/or socialist (communist) political orders and their consequences for the environment – concepts of a ‘third way’
- Critique of economic policies focused on growth and productivity (in West and East)

If you would like to propose a paper or have questions, please contact Astrid Kirchhof, astrid.m.kirchhof@hu-berlin.de or Scott Moranda, scott.moranda@cortland.edu before September 15.

Programm

Kontakt

Astrid Kirchhof

Humboldt University
Mohrenstraße 41, 10117 Berlin
+49-30-2093-70525

astrid.m.kirchhof@web.de

http://www.astrid-kirchhof.de/en
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Weitere Informationen
Land Veranstaltung
Sprach(en) der Veranstaltung
Englisch
Sprache der Ankündigung