CFP (Detroit): Social Institutions and Sustainability Symposium (deadline June 15)

Ongoing environmental and social changes, such as climate change, population shifts, and globalization, have increasingly highlighted the question of sustainability—in terms of how communities may develop their human and natural resources, while ensuring long-term viability (e.g., via recycling products and resources, green manufacturing, regulating greenhouse gases, building resilient urban systems). This symposium centers on the role of social institutions vis-à-vis sustainable practices, noting that they play a crucial role in setting socioeconomic trends, fostering public engagement, and diffusing innovations.

We define “social institutions” broadly—to include formal organizations that set societal agendas (e.g., government agencies, corporations, local and international nonprofits, media, community groups), and institutionalized best practices of the contemporary social order (e.g., governance, due diligence, scientific rigor, risk management). We encourage research that examines how existing social institutions may both restrict and enable the scope of sustainability; how they may be transformed by sustainable practices leading to newer, more adaptable institutions; and how sustainable solutions to specific environmental and social problems have been facilitated by incorporating social components into their approach.

Procedures and timeline for submissions:

• Submit an abstract (up to 500 words) by June 15, 2015, with your bio and contact details, to ssf@wayne.edu
• Authors of selected abstracts will be notified by July 1, 2015
• Accepted authors will be asked to register for the symposium. Registration is free for all attendees.
• All accepted authors are invited to submit a full version of their paper (up to 8,000 words), for peer review to a Special Issue of the journal Critical Sociology.