Call for Papers for The 5th Peaceful Coexistence Colloquium: Knowledge and Action for Sustainable Change, Joensuu, Finland, 28.-29.9.2023
As the multi-faceted environmental crisis keeps unfolding and its realities have become impossible to ignore, the notion of sustainability is ever more widely used. However, the notion of sustainability brings forth new divisions and politics. The hegemonic notion of sustainable development leans on the idea of governing the society into a green transition, while the growth-based economic paradigm and the associated social order remain intact. Yet various kinds of alternatives are suggested, under the notions of strong sustainability, degrowth, and the like, and by pointing to the diversity of existing and possible human-nature relations. This division is not only a political one, but comes down to epistemologies: ways of knowing, and organizing and valuing knowledge.
The 5th Peaceful Coexistence Colloquium looks into these alternatives and possible sustainable epistemologies. What should count as relevant knowledge amidst the environmental crises? What kinds of approaches in research would be more desirable than the currently hegemonic ones? What kinds of alternative ways are there for conceptualizing societies and human-nature relations? What do alternative epistemologies imply for activism and alternative organizing? Or broadly, what kinds of knowledge and action are needed for truly sustainable change?
The colloquium is an interdisciplinary meeting for people engaged in research, activism and artistic work that question mainstream solutions to the challenges that now face the Earth and its habitants. We wish to bring together people united by the interest in developing new and radical ways for thinking of and acting in the time of the environmental crisis, and by willingness to share their findings and thoughts.
The colloquium takes place at the Joensuu campus of the University of Eastern Finland on September 28th.-29th, 2023. The colloquium is scheduled to take place immediately before the meeting of the local degrowth movement Kohtuus Vaarassa in Koli national park, which many colloquium participants might be interested in joining.
The colloquium is organized by SUCH (Sustainable Change Research Network), together with the University of Eastern Finland. SUCH is a transdisciplinary research network which aims to challenge the unsustainable societies of today and propose alternatives to them. The University of Eastern Finland (UEF) is one of Finland’s leading research universities, committed to building a sustainable future based on open science that makes an impact. It has campuses in Joensuu and Kuopio.
Various kinds of conceptual, methodological, empirical and artistic contributions broadly related to the colloquium theme are welcome. If you are interested in presenting in the colloquium, please notify us by April 30th by sending your abstract to uefcolloquium23@gmail.com. For academic presentations, please send an extended abstract of about 600-1000 words. For artistic and other non-conservative submissions, please send a description of your planned presentation in a suitable length and form.
For further information, please be in touch with Teppo Eskelinen (UEF): teppo.eskelinen@uef.fi or Karl Johan Bonnedahl (SUCH): karl.bonnedahl@umu.se
PLEASE NOTE the changed time of the colloquium! After initial circulation of the Call For Papers, the colloquium had to be moved to take place one week earlier than initially planned. The colloquium will take place as said here, on September 28th-29th.