Land, Sea, and Food: Sociology and Environmental Change

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Our conference theme this year highlights the link between changes in our ecosystems, social inequalities, and food production. Studying both global policies and local activism, social scientists have renewed attention to food systems, addressing government involvement and corporate control over food policies as well as recent developments of communities taking control of their food supplies. Sociological research on environmental and food justice is increasingly addressing how race, ethnicity, class, and gender inequalities inform the interrelationship between economics, politics, culture and food. For island societies and indigenous communities, effective policies governing agriculture production and distribution and land and ocean resources are needed globally. Climate change is forcing families to relocate from their homes disrupting cultures, food access and practices, and livelihoods. Laws governing oceans and seas are currently in transformation as corporations seek to increase deep-sea mining in an underwater land grab that can harm marine resources which many island populations depend upon for sustenance. In the Pacific’s “sea of islands” and throughout the globe, groups, organizations, and communities are developing strategies and avenues to reclaim environment and address ecological shifts forced upon them by global capitalist expansion.

 

We welcome papers that present analysis on how economic systems, culture, society, and private and public institutions are shaping and responding to climate change, organizing food production and consumption, or affecting the livability and sustainability of our planet for all beings. Research papers that focus on a single community, social group, or institution, or untangle the relationships among various scales - global, national, community, or island - are encouraged. We invite participants from a range of disciplines that can support social science insight for advancing social and environmental justice, sustaining the health of the kai (sea) and ‘aina (land), and provide a basis for social action.

 

Submission are open to all sociological related topics and do not have to relate to the conference theme. Papers and sessions on teaching methodologies and professional development (e.g. non-academic careers in sociology, preparing for the job market, graduate school, the tenure track) are welcomed. For more information on how to submit an abstract go to:www.HawaiiSociologicalAssociation.Org.

 

Keynote Speaker:  Ivy Ken, Associate Professor, George Washington University

“Powdered Potatoes on Chiloé: Corporate Intrusion into School Food in Chile”

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  Important Dates:  Abstract Submission Deadline – November 28, 2016

Notification of Acceptance – December 15, 2016

Payment deadline for low-cost accommodations at Lincoln Hall at the East West Center: December 20, 2016 (transportation from East-West Center to Conference venue will be covered with conference registration)