#PHISO2021 Free Virtual International Conference on Global Anthropocene
Call for Proposals: Global Anthropocene
Anthropocene, a geological period describing the veritable impact of human activities in the planet’s ecosystem, has become a primary concern among the members of the academic community. Anthropocene does not only involve the individual or the communal, but it transcends beyond the complex relations of both the living and the non-living, thus, forming a new reality (Harrington 2016, p. 4). The study of Anthropocene is no stranger to IR since its scholars examine “how humanity deals with the challenges of sharing a singular and finite space” (Olaf as mentioned in Simangan, 2020). A case in point is the COVID-19 pandemic; it has exposed humans’ excessive use of earth resources beyond its limits affecting the normal ecological flow and life in the international system. However, mainstream IR scholarship—realism for example—reiterated that human excessive use of the planet’s resources serves an important mechanism as a response to pandemic and to maintain a global order. The closing of state border, imposition of hardline immigration policies, polity’s mistrust on world bodies, etc., are some of the realist points. In contrast, liberals emphasized the role of cooperation among states amidst crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, the pandemic’s multiple facets were subjected to numerous scientific and socio-political contestations among IR actors, and such disputes relegated the pandemic as a merely dependent variable. Evaluation of the Anthropocene approach is highly needed. Going beyond the humanist approach, Anthropocene is seeking “for newer approaches of thinking about humanity’s connection to nature” (Lovbrand et al, 2020; Hamilton, 2017; Scanton 2015) by tethering the fates of both humanity and the planet (Lovbrand et al, 2020; Biermann and Lovbrand, 2019; Hamilton et al., 2015; Steffen et al., 2011). To meet the demands of the Anthropocene, it needs a deconstruction and reconstruction of conventional frameworks (Simangan, 2020).
The #PHISO2021 Free Virtual International Conference on Global Anthropocene—to be held on November 6-7, 2021—is an attempt to bring scholars, practitioners, and students in the discussion of opportunities and challenges regarding the Anthropocene approach to IR (or human-nonhuman relations). We, therefore, encourage paper presentations, panels, and roundtables that are hinged on, but not limited to, the discussions on Anthropocene in IR:
- Adopting the questions raised by Lovbrand et al, who speaks for the future of the earth? And whose Anthropocene?
- How can we reconcile the unsustainable production from the insurmountable consumption while we preserve life?
- How do global structures impact global, regional, and local levels in influencing sustainable initiatives and development?
- How do governance processes, institutions, and decision-making infrastructure address the fundamental 21st challenges of global environmental change?
- How do we bolster the understanding of indigenous or decolonial agency, human-nature entanglements, and differentiated vulnerabilities in relation to the Anthropocene and IR?
- How do we locate Anthropocene in the Western-based of and modernist approach to IR?
- How do we situate the position of ideas and belief systems present among civilizations, including the role of humanity, in the Anthropocene?
- How has the discourse on mobility relates to Anthropocene and the political in IR?
- How security studies treat the Anthropocene epoch phenomenon?
- How should IR engage with other disciplines to meet the demands of the Anthropocene?
- What alternative models are available in response to maintaining growth and abundance of earth’s nature?
- What approaches, actions and responses are deemed fit in challenging the dramatic shift of the planet’s biosphere?
- What pedagogies are best suited in the study of Anthropocene in IR?
- With the absence of Anthropocene in the discussion of IR, how do we position the human-nonhuman relations in the discipline?
Subthemes: Artificial Intelligence • Environment • Global environmental politics and movements • Green theory • Migration • Natural and human-made disasters • Non-Traditional security • Non-West/Global South • Pandemic • Pedagogies of the Anthropocene • Transnational Actors
Submission types:
● Paper: It includes a title, 250-word abstract, 3-5 keywords, and author’s details. To submit your paper proposal, click here or proceed to the pertinent form embedded below.
● Panel: It includes a title, 250-word description, convenor’s details, and a minimum of 3 to no more than 5 paper abstracts with their corresponding titles, 250-word abstract each, and authors’ details. The convenor may also be one of the paper presenters. PHISO invokes the prerogative to include individual paper proposals in panel proposals whenever thematically and pragmatically necessary. To submit your panel proposal, click here or proceed to the pertinent form embedded below.
● Roundtable: It includes a title, 250-word description, convenor’s details, as well as those of a minimum of 4 to no more than 8 participants. The convenor may also be one of the participants. To submit your roundtable proposal, click here or proceed to the pertinent form embedded below.
Philippine International Studies Organization (PHISO) 