Call for papers
International Workshop: „Globalizing lifestyles between McDonaldization and sustainability perspectives – The case of the new middle classes“
4.-5. October 2007, University of Bremen, ARTEC Institute
The world-wide spread of extremely resource-intensive lifestyles is one of the most important challenges on the way towards a more sustainable future. Despite the epochal dimensions of this challenge, there is not only a dearth of sustainable policy concepts, but also a lack of socio-scientific approaches which come anywhere near an adequate analysis of the issues at hand. In particular, it is still an open question whether and, if so, under what conditions lifestyles really are becoming globalised and how this can be politically influenced in a sustainability perspective.
It is from such a perspective that the symposium aims to contribute to the international research debate on consumption and sustainability. The main focus lies on the globalisation of lifestyles and on related consumption patterns.
To come to a more comprehensive understanding of the issue, pertinent inquiries and findings from other fields of research will be reviewed in the workshop. These include the socio-economic characteristics exhibited by the promoters of specific consumption patterns (“new middle classes”), the infrastructures and political frameworks impacting on consumption patterns (“systems of provision” and “transition management”) and societal “modernisation” as a framework of socio-cultural homogenisation and/or of differentiation.
The aim of the workshop is to discuss the globalisation of lifestyles and of related consumption patterns from different academic perspectives. Here we intend to promote the discussion between strands of thinking that seem to be rather unconnected up to now. Such a combination of multidisciplinary analytical perspectives is expected to give rise to new empirical and theoretical perspectives on consumption patterns and globalisation. Thus, the workshop is to provide a contribution to the research on sustainable consumption with a view to the level of global challenges and change processes, both from a theoretical and empirical perspective.
The objective is:
- to contribute to a conceptual framework in which the relation between sustainability and consumption is analysed under the conditions of globalisation with a reasonable of social-scientific complexity.
- to enhance the scientific discussion about sustainability and consumption by relating current research on societal change in a globalised world with research on sustainable consumption.
The workshop is structured in four panels:
- The characteristics and the development of the “new middle classes”
- The importance and the dynamics of lifestyles in these milieus
- The impact of systems of provision and of governance systems
- Convergence and divergence of societal paths of modernisation
Abstracts from a wide variety of disciplines are welcome. These include sociology, geography, economy, political science and anthropology. The conference language is English. We are planning to publish the outcome as an edited volume. Travel expenses will be covered.
We appreciate a 700-word abstracts by June 15, 2007, as a Word or Rich Text document to:
Andrea Meier, email: ameier@artec.uni-bremen.de
The abstracts should touch the methodological background, the empirical basis and the panel which fits to your presentation. Please add a short CV including your current scientific work focus.
Hellmuth Lange
Professor - Sociologist
artec | Research Center for Sustainability Studies
University of Bremen
Enrique Schmidt-Strasse 7
28359 Bremen (Germany)
www.artec.uni-bremen.de