(Apologies for x-posting) CFP : "The Political Economy and Ecology of Coal: Extraction in the world-economy from Appalachia to ."
Dimensions of Political Ecology (DOPE) Conference on Nature/Society University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY February 27-March 1, 2014 www.politicalecology.org <http://www.politicalecology.org> Session organizer: Paul K. Gellert, University of Tennessee Session description: A number of studies of coal mining in Appalachia in recent years have focused on the local community and gender dynamics in areas affected by mountain top removal techniques (e.g., Bell and Braun 2010; Bell and York 2010; Scott 2010); others have investigated the socio-ecological contradictions (Austin and Clark 2012). Fewer have examined class, state (the US and local states), and private capital or viewed the political economy of coal through a global lens. On the other hand, scholars of the South frequently use such lenses to focus on questions of "development" and, increasingly, "governance" (e.g., Carroll 2012). In studies of mining, a significant geographical literature has emerged on mining in Africa, Asia, and Latin America that addresses the relations between state, capital and territorial control in a period of neo-liberal advance and investment shaped by risk (e.g., Bebbington and Bebbington 2010; Emel et al. 2011; Hatcher 2012; Huber 2013; McCarthy and Prudham 2004; on natural gas see Kaup 2010, 2013). With their attention to multiple units of analysis and scales in unequal relation to one another, world-systems perspectives have the potential to bridge studies of the North and South (Arrighi 1994; Bunker and Ciccantell 2005; Clark and Foster 2009). This panel aims to bring together scholars conducting research on the political economy and ecology of coal throughout the world - from the Appalachian mountains to other parts of the world - in order to build a global or world-historical political economy of coal. In particular, the panel seeks papers that might address the leading coal producers (China, USA, India, Indonesia, and Australia), the leading coal exporters (Australia, Indonesia, Russia, USA and South Africa) and the leading coal companies which come from these same countries, (Coal India, Shenhua Group, Peabody, Datong Coal, Arch Coal and BHP Billiton). (For data see http://www.worldcoal.org/resources/coal-statistics/). Please send inquiries / abstracts of 250 words to Paul Gellert at [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> by November 22. All conference participants will be required to register for the conference and submit an abstract at the conference website, <http://www.politicalecology.org/> www.politicalecology.org Some questions this panel hopes to address include: . Are there important similarities and differences between extractive regions in peripheral or developing zones of the world-system and core zones? . What is the relationship between coal mining and exports from the US and coal mining and imports in China, India, Indonesia, Australia and elsewhere? . How has the world-historical significance of coal to politics and economics changed over time? . How is the process of extraction, including legal, technical and political aspects, negotiated in various locales? . How is the expansion of natural gas via hydraulic fracturing (fracking) affecting the political economy of coal? . What is the relationship between global social movements around climate change and coal extractive in different zones of the world-economy? -- Paul K. Gellert, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies Department of Sociology University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN 37996 +1 (865) 974-7023 http://sites.google.com/site/gellertsoc/home -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "gep-ed" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
