International conference on sustainable development in Oceania: towards a new ethic?

Call for papers: Sustainable development in Oceania: towards a new ethic?

International Conference: 24, 25 and 26 April 2013, Northern Province, New Caledonia
Scientific Coordination Séverine Blaise (Lecturer in Economics, University of New Caledonia, Nouméa) and
Carine David (Lecturer in Public Law, University of New Caledonia, Nouméa)

Purpose of the conference:
In Oceania, countries with high living standards and growth rates coexist alongside the poorest countries in the world. The region provides also a wide variety of macroeconomic situations, from countries surviving on fishing and agriculture, to rentier and extroverted economies based on mining and tourism. In Oceania, the problems of non sustainability of the current development models are particularly acute due to various reasons : climate change inducing an inevitable rise in the seawaters, ocean acidification, increased migration, overexploitation of natural resources (such as fish but also drinking water), pollution and ecosystem degradation due, among other things, to the intensive exploitation of mineral resources or tourism development. More generally, Pacific island states and territories face changes in lifestyle, a loss of biodiversity and cultural diversity, a disintegration of the traditional social fabric and a rise in inequality that generates violence and conflicts, health problems related to new patterns and ways of life etc.
In most countries of the region( if we except Australia and New Zealand), the development process also faces constraints characteristic of small island states (SIDS): remoteness, small markets, vulnerability to world prices, etc. often combined with socio-cultural and political difficulties related to decolonization and the learning of sovereignty. With the acceleration of the globalization process, an unfavorable international environment has emerged for the poorest countries in commercial exchanges, in which the strategies of transnational corporations play an increasing role, shaping territories by upsetting the balance.
In this context, the purpose of the conference is both to encourage interdisciplinary theoretical debates (economics, law, management, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, geography, ecology, history ...) around the concept of sustainable development and the specificities of SIDS, but also to share experiences and prospects of implementation of development programs in the various countries of Oceania.

Themes of communications:
1. Pacific approaches for a renewed concept of sustainable development
(Sub-themes: Representations and models of development Green growth versus degrowth Systemic approach and transdisciplinarity Thermodynamics and entropy Ethics and values Marginalization of social sustainability Reinvention of law for a renewed conception of sustainable development?

2. Terms and implementation of sustainable development in Oceania
Sub-themes: Corporate societal responsibility and intercultural management / Social mediation / Common Goods and Governance / Appropriation and participation / Custom and modernity / New technologies: opportunity or threat? / Sustainable land management and urbanization / Measuring sustainable development / Happiness: a new development paradigm?

Practical Information
Deadlines Proposals of presentations must be submitted by: September 15 2012
Acceptance decision will be communicated at the latest by December 15 2012
The final version of the paper (50 000 signs maximum) to be presented at the conference should be sent to organizers by : March 15 2013
Languages : French or English (abstracts of final submissions must be in both languages)
Proposals of communications must be sent by electronic mail, using the attached file to agora.shs.nc@gmail.com with copies to severine.blaise@univ-nc.nc and carine.david@univ-nc.nc
Depending on the grants obtained by the organizing committee, full or partial financial support to cover airfare to Nouméa will be given to a limited number of contributors selected by the Scientific Committee