CfP: “Environmental questions in Great Britain : Between Visibility and Marginalisation”. Sorbonne University
One-day workshop organised by the Research Group MAPS / HDEA - Paris-Sorbone University.
Date : 16th June 2017
The
importance of environmental questions today seems, at first sight, to
justify a view according to which environmental concerns have slowly and
gradually risen from invisibility and neglect to their current
inevitability. Many discussions and accounts of “the age of ecology”
thus assume that issues around nature and the human relationship have
only been raised above the individual and local level only in the past
three or four decades. One of the corollary of this vision of a gradual
unravelling of environmental concerns in modern societies is that these
questions are bound to become more and more important and inevitable.
Historians
have however shown that concerns over man's relation with his
environment have a much longer history, but have also insisted on how
some of these warnings (over pollution or the destruction of natural
environments for example) were sometimes ignored or marginalised. Even
if we focus on recent events and contemporary political action, the
salience of environmental questions is subject to variations and it is a
commonplace to say that they have sometimes been relegated to the
background by those who professed to make them a priority. So, while
issues of environmental concerns are often treated from the point of
view of a gradual and inevitable “awekening” it seems as important to
analyse their fluctuations, the debates to which they have given rise
and the political processes which have contributed to question and
sometimes marginalise these concerns.
The
purpose of this workshop will therefore be to analyse historical and
contemporary environmental questions in Great Britain by insisting not
on a linear and consensual emergence but rather on the instability and
the negotiations presiding over the political treatment of such
questions. In order to avoid a teleological and uniform vision of what
environmental questions and environmental movements constitute, the notion of “environment” will be understood in a broad sense precisely to better understand its plasticity and evolutions.
Possible themes include :
Responses to pollution
Energy dependence and reactions to coal consumption
Chemicals, pollution and health.
Nuclear energy
Warnings and concerns over waste and sustainability
Conservation of natural heritage
Animal welfare in history and today
The passing of environmental laws (causes, processes, negotiations).
Lobbying and the “greening” of politics
Devolution and environmental issues.
The EU, Brexit and environmental issues in Great Britain.
Paper proposals in English or French (300 words max.), along with a short biography, should be sent before January 20th 2017 at
the latest. Acceptance/rejection will be notified before February 10th.
The workshop languages are English and French. A publication of
selected papers is planned as part of a special issue in the Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique (English and French).
Submissions should be sent to : page.arnaud@gmail.com
Contact Info:
Arnaud Page, Associate Professor, British History, Paris-Sorbonne
Contact Email: