CfP: Crossing the border or not? Towards an environmental history of risks and boundaries
"Nature
doesn’t know about boundaries." This statement is especially suitable to
analyze environmental hazards, both disasters (event happened) or their virtual
representation (risks). The issue of the relationships between borders and
environmental problems is not new. For instance, we can quote the
disputes about river management studied by historians, or the creation of
overhanging organizations to permit cooperation (Tribunales de Aguas,
Spain). This statement also drives the European Union to invest more in
environmental issues. For the actors of risk and disaster management, the
superimposition of scales and authorities on a same space is an important question
to take into account in order to propose an action plan.
To
quote another recent example, one can evoke the Switzerland’s disapproval vis à vis the French’s
nuclear power plants or the conflicts related to water management, risk of
shortage or pollution at supranational levels (Middle East) or interregional
levels (interstate water conflicts, USA).
This
session will examine the impact of all types of borders (internal or external)
on the consideration and management of risk and/or disease in Early Modern and
Modern period.
Papers
will provide examples on contact zones or borderlands to observe the
convergences or differences in perception and treatment of environmental issues
on both side of the borders.
We
welcome case studies focusing on varying geographical scales, and even maritime
borderlands, addressing the conflicts of uses and powers perceived in these
contact areas, but also the plans set up by the actors to federate initiatives.
Did these plans or measures lead to the establishment of integrative
cooperation structures? Or only to temporary agreements? What were the social
effects of environmental managements in these areas?
Please submit your abstract (between 200 and 250
words) before September 25th