Forwarded for a colleague; please respond to him directly...
---------- Forwarded message ---------- *From: *Jack Manno <[email protected]>* Date: *Wed, 16 Jun 2010 * Subject: *BSTS Special issue - Call for Papers Dear Colleagues, While its easy to get discouraged by the powerful trends driving overconsumption, there is a very large range of possibilities for improving quality of life while minimizing energy and material consumption. A large proportion of consumption is unnecessary, wasteful and much is harmful, particularly but not exclusively in the overdeveloped (or maldeveloped) world. Much work in our field has documented this. In my work I have explored some of the economic system dynamics that drive overconsumption, what I’ve referred to as commoditization pressures. The *Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society* (BSTS) is planning a special issue (that I am editing with BSTS editor Bill Vanderburg) on these and other factors that drive overconsumption. We are seeking papers from any disciplinary perspective that further develop these ideas. Please see call for papers below and attached. Jack P. Manno Associate Professor of Env Studies and Graduate Program Coordinator Department of Environmental Studies SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Syracuse, NY 13210 ************ Call for Papers *Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society* Special Issue: "Selective Commoditization Pressures and the Evolution of Science, Technology and Society" The *Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society* is an international journal that reports research on the complex interactions between science, technology and human society with a focus on improving our understanding of these interactions in order to create more livable and sustainable ways of life. The sustainability literature is rich in analytical description of unsustainable trends in energy and material consumption and their ecological consequences but is nearly silent on the social and economic selection pressures of rewards and punishments that have driven the evolution of modern societies toward these unsustainable patterns of energy and material consumption. These selection pressures are identifiable as patterns of investment including financial investments and investments of time, attention and human creativity. In Privileged Goods and other publications, Jack Manno has developed the concept of commoditization as the operation of these selection pressures as they privilege certain goods and services (those that are relatively easy to commoditize) over others that are more difficult to commoditize. As a result, social and technical evolution moves in the direction of increasing reliance on consumption for maintaining human wellbeing. Commoditization leads to the underdevelopment of the economy of relationships (the sphere of community and ecosystems) and overdevelopment of the economy of things (the sphere of market goods and services). What we call highly developed societies are those whose development patterns have been distorted by the colonization of the communal and ecological spheres by the logic and values of markets through the action of commoditization. This special issue of the *Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society* will reflect the most current research and theory development related to the concept of commoditization and the evolution of unsustainable development patterns. Scholars and scientists from a variety of disciplines are invited to submit an abstract for consideration by *September 30, 2010*. Invitations to submit full manuscripts will be sent by October 15. Completed manuscripts will be due on or before January 30, 2011. The issue will be published summer or fall 2011. Please send abstracts to Jack Manno, co-editor of the special issue at [email protected].
Call for Papersbsts.doc
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