Recently, social scientists and philosophers have shown increased interest in questions of social, global and intergenerational justice related to energy production and consumption. Topics that have been discussed are, for example, questions about availability and affordability of energy and questions about the negative environmental impacts of energy production. The capability approach is today one of the most influential theoretical frameworks for analyzing issues of justice, and there have been a few attempts to employ it within the field of energy justice. The purpose of the conference is to further explore the potential of the capability approach for conceptualizing and studying issues of energy justice. The conference will cover questions about energy poverty, climate and energy justice, and energy justice and sustainability. The invited speakers are the following well-qualified scholars in the field of energy and climate justice:
-Rosie Day, Senior Lecturer in Environment and Society. Day has a background in Environmental Human Geography and has made important contributions to social science research on energy consumption.
– Kirsten Jenkins, Lecturer in Human Geography and Sustainability Development at the University of Brighton. Jenkins have published extensively on energy justice from a social science perspective.
-Gordon Walker, Professor at the Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University. Walker has a background in social science and has made important contributions to the debate on environmental justice.
-Rafaela Hillerbrand, Professor of Philosophy of Science and Technology at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, German. Hillerbrand has made important contributions to the ethical debate on energy systems and has applied the capability approach to questions of energy production and sustainability.
-Behnam Taebi, Associate Professor in Ethics of Technology, at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands. Taebi has published extensively on energy production, especially nuclear energy production, and justice.
-Stephen Gardiner, Professor of Philosophy and Ben Rabinowitz Endowed Professor of Human Dimensions of the Environment at the University of Washington. Gardiner is one of the leading researchers in the area of climate ethics.
Conference organizers: Anders Melin, Associate Professor in Ethics, Malmö University, David Kronlid, Associate Professor in Ethics, Uppsala University.
Contact: Anders Melin, anders.melin@mau.se.
Preliminary program
12 September:
9:00-10:00: Registration, coffee/tea
10:00-11:00: Gordon Walker: Making sense of energy justice, capabilities, social practice and rights
11:00: 12:00: Rafaela Hillerbrand: Energy justice, sustainability and the capability approach
12:00-13:30: Lunch
13:30-14:30: Stephen Gardiner: Climate and energy justice
14:30-15:30: Kirsten Jenkins: Responsibility for energy justice
15:30-16:00: Coffee break
16:00-17:00: Rosie Day: Energy poverty and the capability approach
17:00-18:00: Behnam Taebi: Energy justice and normative uncertainties
18:30: Conference dinner
13 September:
8:30-10:00: Paper sessions
10:00-10:30: Coffee break
10:30-12:00 Paper sessions
12:00-13:30 Lunch
13:30- 15:00: Paper sessions
15:00-15:30: Coffee break
15:30-16:30: Anders Melin, David Kronlid: Intergenerational energy justice and the capability approach
16:30: End of conference
Conference venue
The conference will take place in the conference centre Sankt Gertrud close to Malmö Central Station (https://www.sanktgertrud.se/kontakt/).
Call for papers
We welcome papers that concern all issues related to energy justice from the perspective of social science or philosophy. It can be questions of social, global and intergenerational justice, as well as justice towards non-human life forms. The papers can be either more empirical or more theoretical. If necessary, we will prioritize papers that discuss how the capability approach can be employed for conceptualizing and studying issues of energy justice. Send an abstract, no more than 250 words, to Anders Melin, anders.melin@mau.se. Write ¨energyabstract¨ in the subject field. State also your current position.
The deadline for sending in abstracts is 6 August at 24:00 (Swedish time). Date of notification whether your abstract has been accepted: 9 August.
Registration
The cost of the conference is 2000 SEK (approx. 190 Euro). The conference dinner on 12 September costs 600 SEK extra.
Deadline for registration: 13 August at 15:00 (Swedish time).
Register by sending an e-mail to Anders Melin (anders.melin@mau.se). Write “energyconference” in the subject field. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Your name
- Your position
- Your workplace address
- Your e-mail address
- Mobile phone number
- Whether you want to join the conference dinner on 12 September
- Diet (vegetarian, vegan, etc.)
- Food allergies
- VAT no/momsregistreringsnummer
- Name and address of the receiver of the invoice
Please also inform us if you have any physical disability since the conference centre would like to know in advance.
After registration, you will be notified whether you have received a place at the conference and we will send an invoice. Please note that the registration is binding.
Getting to Malmö
Malmö is situated in the south of Sweden close to Copenhagen Airport with good communications to all parts of the world. From the airport you can take the train or taxi to Malmö. The train takes about 25 minutes to reach the Central Station in Malmö, which is close to the conference venue. Malmö Airport is a smaller airport with some international flights. From Malmö Airport you can reach Malmö Central Station by bus in about 50 minutes.
Hotels
There are several hotels close to the conference venue. Here are a few examples:
Radisson Blu Hotel, https://www.radissonblu.com/en/hotel-malmo?facilitatorId=CSOSEO&csref=org_gmb_sk_en_sn_ho_MMAZH.
Moment Hotels, http://momenthotels.com/sv/.