Dear all,
APOLOGIES FOR CROSS POSTING.
Call for Papers: AAG Annual Meeting, Chicago 2015
Paper Session: Biofuels, Bioenergy and the Emerging Bio-Economy
ORGANISERS
Kean Birch (York University, Canada)
Kirby Calvert (Pennsylvania State University, USA)
Peter Kedron (Ryerson University, Canada)
Sharmistha Bagchi-Sen (SUNY-Buffalo, USA)
Jennifer Baka (LSE, UK)
OUTLINE
The ‘bio-economy’ represents a socio-ecological system in which
biological material (e.g. plants) replaces fossil fuels as the underpinning
natural resource base for our societies and economies. The bio-economy
includes new forms of energy (e.g. biofuels), new intermediate inputs (e.g.
biochemicals) and new products (e.g. bioplastics). According to
governments, policy-makers and others promoting the bio-economy, it
represents an important sustainable transition pathway based on the
renewable qualities of ecological systems and the fact it does not
compromise the longevity of current ecosystem services.
At first glance then, the bio-economy promises a win-win solution to
ecological, economic and societal challenges, even if it does necessitate
the widespread geographical reorganization of agriculture, natural resource
management, energy production and distribution, transport, innovation,
manufacturing and consumption. However, critics of the bio-economy have
noted a number of socially and environmentally regressive outcomes. These
include: (a) large-scale (direct and indirect) land-use changes and
possible carbon debts; (b) the readiness of technologies and
infrastructures to form the foundation of a bio-economy; and, (c) rising
incidences of land-grabbing that threaten prevailing livelihood strategies
of already marginalized populations.
Critical voices argue that the emerging bio-economy is being advanced as
part of broader neoliberal visions, market-based mechanisms, and industrial
policy instruments which construct nature and natural resources in certain
ways (e.g. abundant and free, eco-efficient and renewable, etc.). Critics
contend that what we need are community-based transition pathways leading
to more localized socio-ecological transformations. At the same time, some
proponents of the bio-economy question the capability of biomass stocks to
provide the material required for large-scale conversion to bioenergy and
biofuels, and call instead for biomass to be processed into lower volume
but higher value ‘green’ chemicals and other products. We have to
recognize that there are trade-offs whichever pathway is chosen, and that
these trade-offs are geographically diverse and varied. This necessitates
rigorous analytical and empirical work drawing in researchers from an array
of sub-fields in geography (e.g. agriculture, resource, energy, economic,
social) and from other disciplines (e.g. political economy, science and
technology studies, critical business studies, sociology, etc.).
The purpose of this paper session is to explore these issues from whichever
perspective. We have suggested several possible topics and questions below,
but these are intended as inspiration rather than limits. We invite
contributions from all corners of the discipline and beyond.
QUESTIONS
Visions of the Bio-economy:
How and with what effect is space (scale, nature, ecology) politicized
in the construction and negotiation of the bio-economy?
How are hybrid environmental-industrial policies used to promote the
bio-economy as a technological fix for climate change and a vehicle for
low-carbon growth?
What are the links between the bio-economy and other socio-political
spatial strategies and transformations (e.g., the post-staples economic
transition; landscape conservatism; neo-liberalism; urbanization)?
Transition to the Bio-economy:
What are the factors shaping the spatial dispersion or concentration of
bioenergy, biofuels and the bio-economy?
How are regional clusters of expertise converging / diverging as they
pursue innovations necessary for bioenergy and biofuels?
What are the path-dependent, path-breaking and path-shaping
characteristics of biofuels, bioenergy and other biotechnologies?
Landscapes of the Bio-economy:
What do bioenergy and biofuels landscapes look like, where are they
emerging, what are their impacts?
How might new technologies and new policies re-configure energy
landscapes generally, and bioenergy landscapes in particular?
Under what conditions, if any, is the bio-economy sustainable?
How do these bioenergy and biofuels landscapes compare with other
renewable energy landscapes?
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
If you would like to participate in the session, please submit an abstract
(250 words max) by email to biofuelsaag2...@gmail.com by 17 October 2014.
People wanting to participate in other ways (e.g. discussant) please feel
free to contact us as well.
