Call for Papers "Bridging Communities: Community Theory and Practice in a Changing World" Interdisciplinary Conference Wilfrid Laurier University Brantford, Ont. (Canada) 30.9.-2.10.2004
This conference is being organized to enhance interdisciplinary ties between those in the academic world exploring ideas of community, and those practitioners and organizations focused on community work. Across the disciplines we find diverse definitions, boundaries and societal implications associated with ideas of 'community' - making for complex and contested theoretical terrain. Meanwhile, community, as a powerful taken-for-granted discourse in our day-to-day worlds, serves as the basis for a diversity of local social, environmental, and political practices. And, it does this within continuously shifting social and political contexts. It is this juncture of community theory and praxis upon which the Laurier Brantford conference is situated this coming September 30-October 2, 2004. Our keynote speaker for this conference will be Dr. Susan Wismer, associate professor and chair of the Environment and Resource Studies program at the University of Waterloo. After a 20 year career as a community development worker, she joined academia and since then has pursued issues, both in Canada and internationally, related to equity, gender, sustainable livelihoods, and community-based development. We invite paper submissions and workshops which theorize about communities and/or provide grounded experience in community work, while also addressing the issue of how to bridge gaps between community theory and praxis. The kinds of areas which we see as appropriate to the conference theme include, but are not restricted to: Community and: * Governance * Identity and Place * Exclusion/Inclusion * Development * History * Education * Culture(s) * Change, Difference * Celebration * Sustainability * Environment * Symbolism Deepening the examination of community while developing stronger ties and understandings with those doing the work of 'community' will lead to a collection of this "bridging" experience for publication. Please send abstracts of either your workshop idea or paper, with a title and brief description of 200-300 words, and contact information, to Robert Feagan and Brenda Murphy (emails provided below). The conference website will be updated as we go along. Deadline for submissions is June 15th, 2004. Contact: Robert Feagan; Brenda Murphy Wilfrid Laurier University at Brantford Contemporary Studies Brantford, Ont. N3T 2Y3 Canada Phone:(519) 756-8228 ext. 5798 Email: rfea...@wlu.ca, bmur...@wlu.ca Website: http://www.wlu.ca/~wwwbrant/pages/conference/ _________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org/ Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://agd.polylog.org/cal/
