News

The 2023 2^nd Edition of
THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SUSTAINABILITY CULTURE (ICSC)

“NEW CLIMATE ETHICS: CULTIVATING (THE CAPACITY TO) CARE FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT AND OUR FELLOW (HUMAN) BEINGS”

CALL FOR REGISTRATION



OUR DISTINGUISHED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

EM. PROFESSOR WOLFGANG WELSCH, The Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany: “Breaking barriers down between groups of people, and between humans and other species: Elements for an ethics of climate responsibility.”
and
PROFESSOR CHARLES SAMPFORD, Professor in Ethics at Griffith University, Australia, and Director, IEGL, The Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law (a Griffith Strategic Research Centre linking Griffith, ANU, CAI in Manila, OP Jindal in Delhi, and Strathmore in Nairobi, established on the initiative of the United Nations University):    “New Climate Ethics - rethinking the good life and living it.”  


The new 2023 Hamburg Climate Futures Outlook Report has made it clear that to halt desastrous climate change, we do not need more technology, but significant social change (Lopes-Rivera et al., Hamburg University, Germany, 2023). Scholars of Hamburg University have identified ten social drivers of decarbonization worldwide (including International and national governance and regulation, climate litigation, corporate responses and consumption patterns) and have analyzed that none of these support deep carbonization by 2050, while two of them (corporate responses and consumption patterns) actually undermine the pathways to decarbonization. They have found that social transformation is required to make any postive climate future scenario plausible (as opposed to feasible). This report makes it obvious that any transition away from catastrophic climate change depends on our societal organization, which in turn is decided by our culture, and more specifically, our sustainability culture.   

In the first edition of the International Conference on Sustainability Culture (ICSC) on September 29 and 30, 2022, many issues of sustainability culture and what is needed to achieve the Great (AgroEcological) Transition, were explored from a very much interdisciplinary perspective. Outstanding scholars from all over the world presented their papers, representing many different fields, including Anthropology, Literature, Ethnology, Agriculture, Corporate Psychology, History, Cinema, (Applied) Economy, Outreach, and Forestry. The distinguished presenters explored the subject of sustainability culture and the theme of the sense of belongingness to the land, the environment and each other. Together we have come to define the core question in the field of sustainability culture to be: how is it possible that even though we already have all the knowledge and technology required to live and farm sustainably, we do not seem to be able to fully achieve this? We have postulated - and the Hamburg Report supports this - that the answers are found in how we form our culture and how we relate to the technology that gives us our comforts: which values do we have, how do we think the world works, and do we really want to be sustainable, no matter what?

THE 2^nd EDITION OF THIS CONFERENCE therefor seeks to continue and deepen the debate on how culture defines our drive and thrust toward sustainability from an interdisciplinary approach. It seeks to further the dialogue on what sustainability culture means exactly in the 21^st century. The conference seeks to explore the issues that hinder the achievement of the Great (AgroEcologial) Transition, and what cultural change is needed to advance this in general.

In particular this conference is intended to examine the role and importance in that process of morality and ethics, with the theme: NEW CLIMATE ETHICS: CULTIVATING (THE CAPACITY TO) CARE FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT AND OUR FELLOW (HUMAN) BEINGS. Which values we chose to live by, ethics (how one ought to live), and the principle of care for our environment are essential issues in the process of Sustainable Development. In their recent Care Manifesto, the scholars united in the Care Collective, proclaimed the need to universalize care as a central principle for our society, defining the same as: “a social capacity and activity involving the nurturing of all that is necessary for the welfare and flourishing of life.”, meaning “engaging with and caring about the flourishing of other people and the planet” (Chadzidakis et al., 2020). Especially now we are increasingly facing extreme weather events and environments turning unliveable, the question of how “one ought to live” is becoming more and more pertinent (Laidlaw, 2012).

Such New Climate / Sustainability Ethics may be inspired by spiritual traditions like Buddhist Ethics, or Western philosophical ideas like Transculturality (Wolfgang Welsch, 2001). They are relevant for all domains of our society and therefor a wide range of scientific disciplines, from Green Care to the AgroEcological Transition, from Corporate Sustainability Culture to Social Licensing for services and products, from developing new financial instruments as carbon offsets to cultural licensing while honouring indigenous interests, from SMART Tech innovation to the implementation and scale up in real life, from public development of ESG awareness to Action Learning in Higher Education, from addressing Climate Anxiety and Solastalgia, to the search for meaning.  

The aim of the Conference is to explore the theme from many perspectives and disciplines. The first edition of the Conference has shown that the intredisciplinary approach results in many fruitful discussions. An important part in this is played by TEK. Taiwan has a very special position in this debate, as it is generally considered to be the cradle of the Austronesian diaspora that brought traditional Pacific Island culture from its Eastcoast shores, to the Philipines, down into Micronesia, and all the way to Hawai'i. The Conference schedule will therefore have a pronounced Pacific Region locality and will focus at least in part on Austronesian / Pacific Island Sustainability Culture.

THE THEME of NEW CLIMATE ETHICS: CULTIVATING (THE CAPACITY TO) CARE FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT AND OUR FELLOW (HUMAN) BEINGS, will be regarded from an interdisciplinary perspective, inviting contributions from all fields, including but not limited to: ethnology, cultural studies, agriculture, anthropology, literature, business management and finance, (sustainability) education, (environmental) ethics, aesthetics, anthropogeography, (cross-cultural) psychology, sociology, film and media studies, transpacific studies, art, law, economics, religious studies, and history.

POSSIBLE TOPICS for presentation and discussion relate, but are not limited to:

• What is sustainability culture exactly, its definition and aspects?
• How do we overcome Business-As-Usual and anti-social morals in our (agri)culture?
• What are New Climate Ethics and can they be universal?
• Is there inspiration from Buddhist Ethics?
• The Transcultural as a new Climate Action Approach;
• Sustainability, a matter of care?
• New ethics for sustainable living;
• New Climate Ethics and Anthropology, a necessary tandem?
• Green Care and its implications?
• Building ethical and sustainable connections with our direct environment and living communities;
• New morality education for sustainability;
• Art and New Climate Ethics;
• TEK and evolving beyond the post-colonial discussion;
• Connectiovity between TEK and Western ideas on ethics?
• Is there a Pacific Island Sustainability Culture and what does that entail?
• On being ethical in times of Climate Change;
• New Ethics: an issue that the sustainability movement is grappling with?
• Sustainable living as the new universal?
• Any other related subject.

IMPORTANT information: the conference shall be held in live attendance at the National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan, on November 2, 2023.
The conference will feature renowned Key Note Speakers and Round Table Discussions.
The event will be part of the ACTS (Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability) 2023 Annual Conference as a Regional Meeting Event for the Pacific Region.

REGISTRATION will open as of August 31, 2023, here:
https://forms.gle/82tgEUngjrWqNkbN6

Check our website for further details:
https://iac.nchu.edu.tw/en/sustainabilityoffice/Sustainability.culture.conference

Please contact Theodoor Richard PhD at theodoorrichard@nchu.edu.tw for further questions or information.