Call for submissions
INSS annual meeting, April 9-11, 2015
Locations: Charlotte (NC), London (UK), Lansing (MI), Phoenix (AZ), Bend (OR) or online
In both academia and public policy, “sustainability” is often framed as an ecological crisis to be resolved with limited social and economic caveats. All too often, the social challenges and social solutions inherent in global sustainability crises are overlooked and under-assessed. The Integrated Network for Social Sustainability (INSS) has been working to help inspire interdisciplinary conversation around this overlooked dimension.
Our 2015 conference is an opportunity to gauge where we are, and where we need to go next, and so we are inviting our network members and others to submit either academic papers or non-traditional written media like stories, poems, or other written or visual content that examine either one of the following broad areas:
(I) defining social sustainability issues: social, political, or ethical issues that emerge in the pursuit of sustainability
(II) encountering social sustainability solutions: social, political, or ethical approaches to addressing broad issues of sustainability
The 2015 INSS conference theme will be “Social sustainability and Infrastructure”. However, while we encourage participants to think about this theme, papers do not need to address this topic directly.
Submissions should showcase the experiences and expertise of the author(s), and should be original works. We may include the select submissions in a special issue of Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy, an open-access e-journal dedicated to the wide dissemination of scholarly research and professional insights on sustainability, edited by INSS member Maurie Cohen.
Interested participants should submit a 500-1,000 word abstract about their submission here by February 15, 2015, explaining the relevance to social aspects of sustainability. We also plan to include online versions of conference presentations and posters for the April conference (paper drafts, videos, images, etc), so there will be an April 1 deadline for sharing these materials with us.
The target length for manuscripts invited for potential inclusion in the special issue is 6,500 words and draft papers will be due on May 1, 2015. All submissions will be evaluated in accordance with the journal’s standard peer-review process. Exploratory inquiries are encouraged and should be sent to socialsustainabilitynetwork@gmail.com