Organized Panel – Call for Papers

2013 Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences
June 19-22, 2013 in Pittsburgh, PA
Conference Theme:  Linking Rural and Urban Societies and Ecologies
http://www.aess.info/

Session Title:
*Flows of Waste:  Linking Rural and Urban Societies and Ecologies through the Creation, Movement, and Use of “Waste”*

*Theme:*
Waste – both the need to dispose of it or the re-purposing of it for productive purpose – links rural and urban societies and ecologies through flows of nutrients, energy, and material goods.  More than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, posing daunting social, environmental, and justice issues related to waste management.  The disposal of such waste often links urban and rural locations, creating a new set of social, environmental, and justice issues.  With increasing urbanization, the creation, movement, management, disposal and use of waste is a topic requiring an interdisciplinary approach to identifying problems and proposing equitable and sustainable solutions.

Waste in this session is broadly defined to include organic and non-organic discarded items, human sewage, industrial effluent, slaughterhouse offal, manure, etc.  The session seeks to draw together a selection of papers that address case studies related to waste creation, management, or use that serves to link rural and urban spaces.  Possible areas include:

– ·         Rural landfill sites that receive urban waste
– ·         International disposal of e-waste, hazardous waste, etc
– ·         Waste-to-energy projects that collect waste from one location for energy generation in another
– ·         The disposal of urban sewage
– ·         Environmental social movements related to waste
– ·         Environmental justice perspectives on the creation, use, or disposal of waste
– ·         The transference of nutrients from rural to urban and waste generated in the process

A range of topics related to waste as a linkage between rural and urban landscapes will be considered.  Please send an abstract of not more than 200 words to:  sbarnhart@allegheny.edu by December 10th.

*Session Organizer: *
Shaunna Barnhart
Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Science
Allegheny College
Meadville, PA 16335