Call for papers SWOME/GaMON Marktdag 2005

This year's theme is the interaction between policy-making and the social sciences. Through the Marktdag, we not only wish to bring social scientists and policy-makers together, but also to inform participants about ongoing research and contemporary policy-making. Traditionally, the Marktdag consists of plenary and parallel sessions. In this year's plenary opening session, Prof. Frans Berkhout (Director of IVM) will discuss the relation between science and policy-making. In the parallel sessions organised by SWOME, we want to enable researchers to present their work to an audience of policy-makers and researchers. We wish to tackle a number of contemporary, relevant themes. Some issues are listed below, the website www.swome.nl features more elaborate descriptions of the sessions. This is only an indicative list, should you have another subject interesting to present, you are welcome to submit.

1. "Social dimension of sustainable development"; Co-ordination: Frans Coenen

The concept of sustainable development is used to advocate a well-balanced equilibrium between the environmental, economic and social dimension (WCED, 1987). In this session, we wish to discuss social science approaches concerning the linkages between environmental and social interests.



2. "Science and Policy"; Co-ordination: Esther Turnhout and/or Pieter Leroy

Science and policy-making are closely related. A firm scientific basis is seen as a prerequisite for good policy-making and, at the same time, science often aims for a certain societal relevance and legitimacy. There is a lot of debate about possible cultural differences and whether or not there is a unbridgeable gap between scientists and policy-makers. These are the subjects of this session.



3. "Sustainable Enterprises"; Co-ordination: to be announced
It is commonly acknowledged that companies play an important role in realizing sustainable development. Recently, the discussion has focussed on the relationships between corporations, governments and citizens/consumers, for example in the light of sustainability reporting or new policy instruments. This session digs deeper into these issues.



4. "Sustainable Consumption"; Co-ordination: Gert Spaargaren and Sander van den Burg

The relation between environment and consumption is of long-standing interest to social scientists, but in recent times, the scope of analysis has broadened up significantly. In this session, we wish to discuss innovative social science approaches concerning the linkages between environment and consumption.


5. "Transitions towards a sustainable society"; Co-ordination: Aad Correlj.

In this session, we will discuss how the concept Transition Management can be employed as a dialogue between scientific analysis and policy-making. We welcome presentations that shed light on the identification and examination of the drivers behind long-term societal processes and that address the question of how these insights may be used to develop effective approaches to influence the impact and direction of these drivers in the future.



6. "Environmental governance in (trans)national networks";
Co-ordination: Bas Arts and Jan van Tatenhove

Since its early days, the environmental policy field has been characterized by policy innovations and the emergence of new modes of governance. Yet traditional, state-oriented policy arrangements have not disappeared. In fact, complex hybrids of classical and (post)modernist approaches have emerged. In this workshop, we wish to analyze cases of such innovations and hybrids in policy and governance.



HOW TO PARTICIPATE?

If you wish to present your research in one of the parallel sessions at the SWOME/GaMON Marktdag, here is the procedure:


- Send a short description of your research to sander.vandenburg@wur.nl. The deadline is March 1, 2005. Below you will find information on the required format.

- March 15 at the latest, we will let you know if your submission is suitable for publication in the proceedings and if it can be presented at the Marktdag. This depends on the quality of the submission and the total number of abstracts received.


REQUIREMENTS FOR SUBMISSIONS

Traditionally, the Marktdag proceedings, in which abstract of the presented papers are provided, are published. Individual contributions thus count as professional publications.


Submissions should be in Dutch or English, and be no longer than 1800 words. To fit into the existing format of the proceedings, abstracts should contain the following elements:
- Title of the research

- Names of researchers and institutes/universities involved.

- Definition of the problem tackled, theoretical perspectives and methology used.

- Description of the social relevance of the research

- An analysis of how the research can contribute to policy-making

- Contact details


THE PROGRAM AND OTHER PRACTICALITIES

The SWOME/GaMON Marktdag will take place at the Ministry for Environment in the Hague, easy to reach by public transport. Lunch will be provided. The provisionary program is as follows:


10.00 - 10.15 Opening

10.15 - 11.00 Presentation by Prof. Frans Berkhout

11.00 - 13.00 Parallel sessions

13.00 - 14.00 Lunch

14.00 - 16.00 Parallel sessions

16.00 - 17.00 Closing session: Prepared debate with the audience



MORE INFORMATION NEEDED?

If you have any questions about the SWOME/GaMON Marktdag, please contact:

SWOME

t.a.v. Sander van den Burg

Leerstoelgroep Milieubeleid (bode nr 175)

Postbus 8130

6700 EW Wageningen

(tel) 0317-482984

(e-mail) sander.vandenburg@wur.nl

(web) www.swome.nl