Session Announcements and Call for Papers
Session 1: "Northern Food Systems and Food Security"
Session 2: "Engaging Local Expertise: From Collaborative Observations to
Collaborative Understandings of Change"
AAAS Arctic Science Conference 2008
15-17 September 2008
Fairbanks, Alaska
Abstract Submission Deadline: Friday, 1 August 2008
For further information, please go to:
http://www.arcticaaas.org/meetings/2008/#abstracts
Or contact:
Philip Loring
Email: ftpal [at] uaf.edu
The organizers of the 2008 American Association for the Advancement of
Science (AAAS) Arctic Science Conference invite papers for two sessions:
"Northern Food Systems and Food Security" and "Engaging Local Expertise:
From Collaborative Observations to Collaborative Understandings of
Change." The Arctic Division AAAS annual meeting will be held 15-17
September 2008, in Fairbanks, Alaska. The theme of this year's
conference, "Growing Sustainability Science in the North: The Resilience
of the People in the Arctic," allows the event to be organized into
three linked themes: Day 1: "Observing Change," Day 2: "Understanding
Change," and Day 3: "Responding to Change."
Session 1: "Northern Food Systems and Food Security"
Day 1: 15 September 2008
Food systems of the North are strongly connected to climate, weather,
ecosystems, cultures, and economic systems, with complex and
multifaceted responses to change in each dimension. In a global context
of rising food and fuel prices, the costs of living in the North are on
the rise - a trend contributing to intensified rural-to-urban migration,
which further undermines community stability and health. The aim of this
session is to bring together a multitude of perspectives on these
issues. This should be understood to include "subsistence" food system
practices, as well as commercial food production and procurement
activities, for rural and urban systems alike. Papers on all aspects of
northern food systems are invited, including those that discuss the
impacts of larger-scale processes such as globalization, market
neo-liberalization, and the current food/fuel price increases on food
security.
Session 2: "Engaging Local Expertise"
Day 2: 16 September 2008
The importance of engaging local expertise in the research process is
now largely undisputed. Still, many researchers seek merely data,
capable of being imported into existing research methods and
epistemologies. Local experts, however, often possess a level of
familiarity and experience with ecosystems that is embedded within their
unique, localized way of knowing. If researchers indeed value the
contributions of local expertise, the real path towards harnessing it is
to engage the entire system of knowledge, not only the most quickly
identifiable pieces. The only way forward, then, is to engage local
experts in the processes of analysis, not solely observation, to
collaboratively build understandings of change, with multiple
epistemologies at the table. Papers that challenge traditional
treatments of so-called traditional knowledge, with the intent of
expanding the role of stakeholders in community-based participatory
research, from mere observers, to capable analytical thinkers are
invited for this session.
Abstracts must be submitted, no later than Friday, 1 August 2008, via
the online submission form:
http://www.arcticaaas.org/meetings/2008/abstract.html.
Conference registration will be available online beginning Tuesday, 1
July 2008. The deadline for early registration is Wednesday, 1 September
2008.
For further information on these sessions, please contact the session
organizer:
Philip Loring
Email: ftpal [at] uaf.edu.
For more information about the conference, please go to:
http://www.arcticaaas.org/meetings/2008