Call for Proposals: Promoting Community and Environmental Sustainability

Posted by on April 22, 2005

Call for Proposals

Action in Place: Promoting Community and Environmental Sustainability
October 6-9, 2005
Goddard College
Plainfield, Vermont

DEADLINE May 1, 2005

Join us to celebrate and learn from the experiences of those involved in community-based initiatives to promote environmental, economic, and community sustainability. While globalism is an undeniable force in our lives, projects rooted in specific places, cultures, and communities are pockets of hope for democratic and social action. These educational and activist projects, while often modest in their scope, are multifaceted in their approaches. Traditional boundaries between environmental, cultural, social, and economic issues and constituencies may dissolve as activists engage with the day-to-day issues that transcend these categories.

We will bring together people who have engaged in community and place-based initiatives and those who want to examine such opportunities and issues. We will include a wide variety of perspectives from the arts and culture to the sciences, from educators and scholars to activists, as we discuss how to develop initiatives that engender an ecological ethos on the local level. We will also explore how the larger environmental, peace, and social-justice movements can nurture local engagement, and how local initiatives can provide fresh insights regarding global challenges.

We want to showcase place and regionally based programs of education and action promoting environmental and community sustainability, and to advance the development and implementation of such programs.

Sponsors (to date):
Orion Society
Cobscook Community Learning Center
Global Community Initiatives
Two Rivers Center for Sustainability

We welcome proposals for presentations, full panels, and other activities that address the conference theme in diverse ways. Proposals should address such questions as:
? What existing place and regionally based programs and activities provide models of ways promoting environmental and community sustainability?
? What are the diverse methods and strategies for engaging in this work using, for example, the arts, education, restoration, advocacy, and political action?
? What are the strengths and limitations of these approaches?
? What are the major current challenges to promoting environmental and community sustainability?
? How do we envision meeting these challenges in the future?
? How can local initiatives address global issues?
? How can local initiatives work to bring different constituencies together?
? How can local initiatives address issues of environmental justice?
? What are the underlying historical, philosophical, political and other foundations of such programs and activities?

We welcome presentations from a wide range of people, from grassroots activists to scholars. Presenters must be registered participants in the conference. (We anticipate that limited scholarship support will be available for those who cannot otherwise attend.)

For more information, including what should be included in your proposal, visit the conference’s web site at:
http://www.goddard.edu/academic/actioninplace.html

Proposals should be submitted by e-mail attachment in Rich Text Format to LuttsR@goddard.edu. Deadline for proposals is May 1, 2005.