Proposals welcome until 26th July 2018
Conference “Eco-cosmology, Sustainability and a Spirit of Resistance”
University College Cork
21st & 22nd September 2018
Org: Anthropological Association of Ireland
in collaboration with the Marginalised and Endangered Worldviews Studies Centre (MEWSC) and the Moral Foundations of Economy & Society research centre (MFES) supported by the School of Sociology, Philosophy, Criminology, Government, and Politics
A two-day interdisciplinary conference on Eco-cosmology, Sustainability and a Spirit of Resilience for discussions from anthropological, environmental, cultural, economic and political perspectives. Local knowledge systems can be viewed as cultures of sustainability, they are often embedded in heterogenous ecological knowledge, a reflection of indigenous cosmologies, epistemologies and ontologies (Kopenawa/Albert 2013). These local knowledge systems are often criminalised, colonised, subverted or commodified. With the process of industrial extraction of natural resources, diverse indigenous, analogous (co-existing but different) peoples, and local communities are deprived of their fundamental human rights for secured livelihood and preserved eco-systems. An industrial, and even digital, neo-colonial intrusion into the territories and minds of indigenous and analogous peoples is taking place worldwide. With ecological degradation, the vulnerable worldviews, rituals, practices and knowledge systems of indigenous/analogous peoples, and local communities are critically threatened. Yet these worldviews and local knowledge systems could be central for finding local and global solutions for a sustainable and philanthropic world where cultural and eco-biological diversity and mutuality may thrive. This conference invites contributions on the broad theme of environmental, cultural and social sustainability with reference to indigenous/analogous peoples, and local communities.
