culgob 2018 - A Stream on “Globalization, Sustainability and Culture”

The Arts & Culture Unit of ATINER is organizing A Stream on “Globalization, Sustainability and Culture”, 11-14 June, 2018, Athens, Greece as part of the 3rd Annual International Symposium on Culture and Civilization.
With the advent of the 21st century, post ‘cold war’ America is confronted by new conflicts from the Islamic world, its global superiority is contested by emerging global powers (i.e. China). Inequalities in the over-developed world are only becoming more intense within their own geographies, due to recession following the ‘2008 financial crises’, their economies being partially exported elsewhere. Meanwhile, developing world powers (including China, India and the Middle East) are providing both niche -market for the West while taking neo-colonial stances towards other weaker countries. As far as the ‘Sustainability’ debate is concerned, it is very much like ‘Upping sticks and going on’. The unequal relationship between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have not’s continue to persist in the 21st century, being a globalized norm. In short, while appearances have changed, unequal relationships of power have not.
Globalization concerns not only the political and economic dimensions of late capitalism, but also new and emerging cultural forms. The globalization of Western consumption patterns and the logics of the Western version of the division of labour (stemming from the ‘industrial revolution) have also been entangled with the global diffusion of global cultures within a variety of spheres (architecture, media, food, and so on). In relation to western consumption and production patterns, sustainability (and non-sustainability) comes into question. Sustainability’s relation to political, economics, cultural forms and practices is complicated further by the global diffusion of capitalism and the increasing tendency towards planned obsolescence and waste. For instance, can recycling objects within sustainable planning and design projects may help in countering planned obsolescence?
This stream aims to focus on the relationship between western globalized consumption and production patterns, the global diffusion of culture and how this relates to sustainability. This relationship is complicated further by new global power relations: the questions of neo-imperialism may require re-examination in light of this new situation. For instance, the emergence of reversal colonization of Chinese market and investments in Afrcia or Indian industrial relocations in Europe.
Key themes:
New cultural forms, neo-imperialism and emerging power relations
Cultural forms, practices and communities within the over-developed world and their relation to globalization
Sustainability and its relation to contemporary consumption and production patterns.
Sustainability, cultural practices and community led design in a globalized world.
Contested sustainability
You may participate as presenter of one paper, chair or/and organizer of a session, or observer.
Fee structure information is available on www.atiner.gr/2018fees.
Special arrangements will be made with a local hotel for a limited number of rooms at a special conference rate. In addition, a number of special events will be organized: A Greek night of entertainment with dinner, a special one-day cruise to selected Greek islands, an archaeological tour of Athens and a one-day visit to Delphi. Details of the social program are available here.
Please submit a 300-word abstract before 12 February 2018, by email, to atiner-AT-atiner.gr, Dr. Tasleem Shakur, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography and Editor-in-Chief GBER (Global Built Environment Review), Edge Hill University, Lancashire UK. Please include: Title of Paper, Full Name (s), Current Position, Institutional Affiliation, an email address and at least 3 keywords that best describe the subject of your submission. Decisions will be reached within four weeks of your submission. Please use the abstract submitting form.
If your submission is accepted, you will receive information on registration deadlines and paper submission requirements. Should you wish to participate in the Conference without presenting a paper, for example, to chair a session, to evaluate papers which are to be included in the conference proceedings or books, to contribute to the editing of a book, or any other contribution, please send an email to Dr. Gregory T. Papanikos, President, ATINER & Honorary Professor, University of Stirling, UK (gregory.papanikos-AT-stir.ac.uk).
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