CULTURES AND LOCAL PRACTICES
OF SUSTAINABILITY.
Intersecting Multiple Footprints and
the Environmental Humanities
Call for Papers

Santiago - Villarrica, Chile
ABSTRACT DEADLINE: 29 Giugno, 2018
• Pontificia Universidade Católica de Chile
• Routes towards Sustainability

The programme includes two venues:
• the Seminar of the "Routes towards Sustainability University Network" will be held at Campus San Joaquín in Santiago, on Monday the 10th

• the Symposium and the Fifth General Meeting will be held in the town of Villarrica, Campus Villarrica UC, from Wednesday the 12th to Friday the 14th.

CALL FOR PAPER
The aim of the Seminar and the Symposium is to build up an international and interdisciplinary academic environment in which Cultures of Sustainability are discussed as a paramount goal to be achieved across the world. 

Between the second half of the 20th century and the first two decades of the 21st century the notion of "sustainable development" has acquired a wide assortment of meanings. Mentioned as the primary goal for ensuring the future of humankind, sustainability has become ubiquitous, high-sounding, and formulaic, serving rhetorical and instrumental purposes. Sustainability has often been defined according to a tripartite model, in which economics stands out as the chief domain, while the environment and society are forever engaged in confrontation. After thirty years of good practices and disappointing results in terms of sustainable development, we are confronted with Planetary Boundaries, showing that we have already surpassed hazard levels of contamination.

In responding to the ecological crisis and pursuing sustainable development goals, the sciences have produced innumerable hyper-specialized data and models, while the humanities have delivered an overabundance of interpretations and representations. Nowadays, it is essential to identify new forms and models of ecological thought from which multifaceted cultures of sustainability can develop, incorporating specialized as well as multidisciplinary research, technical representations as well as popularization, global scope and local diversities, universal speculations and historical contextualization.

Thanks to the definition of "ecological footprint" the debate on sustainability has achieved greater resonance and circulation. However, while the ecological footprint model offers a userfriendly representation of un/sustainability, its figurative impact exceeds scientific soundness. The concept of Multiple Footprints, based on but also different from the analysis of Ecological Footprints, is a pretext for stimulating broader inquiries into sustainable development, involving the social sciences and the humanities, and producing innovative ecological criticism.

The aim of the Seminar and the Symposium is to address questions and elaborate ideas able to inspire new research and teaching projects, while promoting diverse local practices for sustainable habitats and communities. The main question the Seminar and the Symposium will address is how multiple footprints can be utilised in different disciplines, enriched by interdisciplinary methodologies sharing the aim to produce new cultures and practices of sustainability.

CONFERENCE PANELS
We welcome proposals from all members of the Network as well as other university scholars interested in the following topics:

1. The Environmental Humanities
Life as we know it can be sustained only if we understand and significantly mitigate the forms of pressure relentlessly exerted on our planet. Although innumerable scientific measurements and alarming reports have been produced, the impact of humans on Earth remains massive. Scientific reports per se fail if they remain disconnected from rhetorical, political, social, cultural, and affective forms through which climate change is experienced and figured by diverse communities. At the Puerto de Ideas Festival in 2014 Bruno Latour proposed that scientists, artists, and social agents bring together a “composition”, the only feasible mode of conveying a message that can reach our imaginaries, help us introduce the cultural changes and develop creative and assertive relationships with the environment while taking responsibility for the global crisis. Such composition can only be achieved by means of interdisciplinary collaborations. Latour’s metaphor of composition is one that suggests how the environmental humanities can go forward.This panel, dedicated to innovative dialogues among the humanities, the arts, and ecological sciences, will serve as a platform for creative and critical thinking that can inspire cultural changes.
2. Changes in Socio-Ecological Systems
The interconnected challenge of building resilience and generating sustainable societies demands a holistic appreciation of social-ecological systems, which can be achieved by overcoming disciplinary boundaries. Since the early ’90s there have been profitable experiences of interdisciplinary collaborations, including new educational programmes aimed at developing methodologies from the intersection of disciplines such as biology, ecology, economics, management, and the social sciences. Unfortunately, despite such awareness, educational systems – obsessed as they are with specialisation and professionalisation – have made no convincing steps forward in terms of interdisciplinarity and even less in terms of multidisciplinarity. The aim of this panel is to promote holistic approaches to nature and culture by bringing together natural and social scientists, in order to investigate the conservation of biodiversities, ecosystem management, interculturality, and policy making for sustainable development.
3. Local Practices of Sustainability
The belief that it would be possible to find scientific and technological solutions to the problem of unsustainability has undermined the paradigm of sustainable development elaborated in the 1980’s. People need diverse cultures of sustainability, thriving on innovative contributions from ecological criticism, applied disciplines and practices, which can lead to more sustainable individual and collective behaviours. Focusing on the cultural dimensions of development can provide outlets for the tensions caused by globalisation itself as well as promote diverse local practices of sustainability, focused on technological and creative innovations. This panel welcomes interdisciplinary and broad perspectives on the practices of sustainability applied to local, regional, national, and international contexts. Scholars are invited to submit papers on theoretical and applied topics or practices related to: environmental and collaborative economy; urban planning processes; social changes; innovation; production and consumption policies; public policies for sustainability.

After the Seminar and the Symposium, the Scientific Committee will select a number of papers for publication.

PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME
MONDAY 10 | Santiago Centro de Innovación Anacleto Angelini, Campus San Joaquín Universidad Católica
• 9:00-9:30 Opening ceremony
• 9:30-11:00 | 1st panel "From Multiple Footprints to the Environmental Humanities"
Gianfranco Franz, Università di Ferrara, Close to the limits for a New Ecological Thought
Fátima Vieira, Universidade do Porto, Utopian and Food Studies (provisional title)
Andrea Casals, UC Grupo Letras, Provisional Title: The Environmental Humanities
• 11:30-13:00 | 2nd panel "Cultures and Practices of Sustainability"
Louise Crabtree, Western Sydney University, Affordable Housing and Urban Sustainability (provisional title)
René Kemp, Universitet Maastricht, Title to be defined
Antonio Hargreaves, Sustainability at PUC Chile Huerto San Francisco
• 13:00-14:30 | Lunch Centro de Innovación
Anacleto Angelini, Campus San Joaquín
• 14:30-16:30 | 3rd panel "Interdisciplinary PhD programmes on Sustainability Studies: Challenges and Opportunities"
Paola Spinozzi, Università di Ferrara, Presentation of the PhD programme on Ecological Minds. Biocultural Diversity for Sustainable Wellbeing
Andres Hayes, Presentation of the PhD programme on Sustentabilidad y Sociedad
• 17:30-19:00 | Centro de Extensión Universidad Católica
Book presentation
Cultures of Sustainability and Wellbeing: Theories, Histories and Policies, editors Paola Spinozzi and Massimiliano Mazzanti (New York and London: Routledge, 2018).

TUESDAY 11 | Transfer from Santiago to Villarrica (flight from Santiago to Temuco, shuttle bus from Temuco airport to Villarrica)

WEDNESDAY 12
•  9:30-13:00 | First thematic module: The Environmental Humanities
Paola Spinozzi, Ecological Minds and Ecological Humanities: Theories, Methods, Materials
• 14:30-18:00 | Second thematic module
CALL FOR PAPERS:Changes in Socio-Ecological Systems
Massimiliano Mazzanti, keynote presentation

THURSDAY 13
•  9:30-13:00 | Third thematic module
CALL FOR PAPERS: Local Practices of Sustainability
Gonzalo Valdivieso, keynote presentation
• 14:30-18:00 | Parallel Workshops on each of the 3 topics
CALL FOR PAPERS: Strategies for implementing research agendas and international projects on each theme

FRIDAY 14
• 9.30-12:30 | Fifth General Meeting of Routes towards Sustainability
• 14:30-20:00 | Trip to national park or hot springs

KEY DATES
•  June 29: deadline for submission abstract
•  July 27: deadline for receiving notification of acceptance or rejection of abstracts

DETAILS
Abstracts and papers can be in English or Spanish.
Abstracts should not exceed 250 words.

ACCOMODATION AND TRANSFER
PUC will offer accommodation for up to two members of the Routes Network per partner university.
The Organizing Committee will provide detailed information about accommodation in Santiago and Villarrica to all the other participants.
Papers delivered at the PUC Campus in Villarrica on Wednesday the 12th or Thursday the 13th December in Villarrica should not exceed 30 minutes.
The Seminar will be held in Santiago on Monday the 10th of December and the Symposium will take place in Villarrica from Wednesday the 12th to Friday the 14th of December.
Participants will have to arrange flights from Santiago to Villarrica on Tuesday the 11th. Bookings can be made directly at Latam, www.latam.com, or Sky Airlines, www.skyairlines.cl.SCIENTIFIC

COMMITTEE
•  Antonio Hargreaves, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (RCH)
•  Takashi Ariga, Waseda University, (J)
•  Ana Elena Builes Vélez, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (CO)
•  Andrea Casals, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (RCH)
•  Gianfranco Franz, Università degli Studi di Ferrara (IT)
•  Nicolás Galvez, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (RCH) 
•  Florencia Guidobono, Universidad Católica de Córdoba (AR)
•  Ding Huanfeng, South China University of Technology, (RC)
• Tomás Ibarra, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (RCH) 
• Paul James, Western Sydney University, (AUS)
• Massimiliano Mazzanti, Università degli Studi di Ferrara (IT)
• Marcelo Mira, PUCPR, (BR)
• Gonzalo Salazar, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (RCH)
• Paola Spinozzi, Università degli Studi di Ferrara (IT)
• Gonzalo Valdivieso, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (RCH)
• Fatima Vieira, Universidade do Porto (P)

INFO & CONTACTS 
For further details on abstract submission, travel, and accommodation please contact:
• Dr. Gonzalo Valdivieso, UC Campus of Villarrica
E-mail: gonzalovaldivieso@uc.cl
• Gianfranco Franz and Paola Spinozzi, Università di Ferrara, Co-Coordinators of Routes towards Sustainability
E-mail: routes@unife.it