Anthropologists have a long, if uneven, history of
engagement with studies of energy and economy – from the use of wind in ancient
exchange and the effects of domestication on production, to the contemporary
dependence on the consumption of fossil fuels. While Leslie White most
explicitly incorporated energy in his mid-century macroevolutionary model, the
discipline’s engagements with energy and economy include a wide variety of
approaches ranging from cultural ecology and systems-based approaches to
political ecology and ecofeminism. Despite these diverse engagements,
economistic understandings of the relationship between energy and economy
continue to dominate the intellectual and policy landscape.
Anthropological insights, however, make it clear that actual human engagements
with energy almost never follow a simple logic of economic efficiency. What can
the historical, material and ethnographic records tell us about the empirical
relationships between the environment, economy, culture, and energy use? Better
analysis of these mutually influencing relationships enriches scholarship and
has critical policy relevance – particularly given the urgent need for a
transition to less carbon-intensive energy sources.
Human societies have always relied on continued resource
inputs, yet explicit consideration of energy is often neglected in social
scientific work. Perhaps this is due to energy’s invisibility – its doxic,
taken-for-granted flow as mysterious to most people as its effects are profound
and ubiquitous. Uneven social, political economic, and environmental impacts
simultaneously accompany these flows in a global circuitry of energy and trade
that is as cultural as it is physical, bringing different, intersecting forms
of power into perspective.
Energy flows, then, are at the very foundations of
economic provision and therefore provide a compelling lens through which to
examine the economic affairs of any society.
We are especially keen on stimulating interdisciplinary
engagement with the meeting theme. SEA 2014 is thus planned in conjunction
with the SAA meetings in Austin, Texas and we strongly encourage submissions
from archaeologists, and other anthropologists, as well as economists,
historians and other scholars of the human condition. Texas will provide a
particularly relevant backdrop for SEA 2014 given the state’s notable energy
resources and significant influence on US and global energy policy. Austin is
an especially pleasant setting, with delightful spring weather and a vibrant
music scene.
We welcome anthropologically informed and theoretically
relevant papers and posters that address (but are certainly not limited to) the
following questions:
Economic
Theory: concepts, method, professional practice,
interdisciplinary
What fundamental reorientations of theory and method are
needed to widen appreciation of humanity’s past, present and future dependence
on energy flows? What theories and methodologies are most useful for
understanding shifts between energy regimes? What are the most promising
ethnographic frontiers for understanding the transition away from the fossil
fuel era? How can a long-term perspective incorporating non-industrial
societies bolster how we envision energy flows and human-environmental
relations? How might we best think about vulnerability, sustainability
and resilience? Should economic anthropologists resume measuring food, fuel and
labor in terms related to advances in environmental economics or human ecology?
How might renewed attention to energy reunite or reconfigure four-field
anthropology?
Production:
environmental interfaces, labor, work, social structuring
How can we best categorize diversity in the cultural and
material production of energy – from energy used to fuel human labor and the
fire used to smelt iron, to the biological, nuclear and solar technologies now
being explored? How have prehistoric and more contemporary social groups
resisted particular energy regimes even when technological or labor capacities
may have allowed them? What role has energy played in the development and
reorganization of societies? How have historical and contemporary energy regimes
shaped and been shaped by social and political relations? What are the
physical, social, cultural, political and economic ramifications of extracting,
processing and using carbon-intensive fuels and growing renewable electricity?
Exchange:
energy, social circuitry, markets, commodification
How has energy affected the ways market and non-market
exchange shapes social connection and dislocation? How do we best account for
the energy embodied in goods and services exchanged? How are gender, age,
kinship, class and other dimensions of social organization related to energy?
What are the possibilities for incorporating externalities in market-based
efforts to speed energy transitions? What are the impacts when we commodify
resources necessary for life? How is money related to energy flow?
Consumption:
style, status, decision making
How are habitus, consumption styles, status desires, and
imaginaries related to the flow of energy involved in people’s ongoing
construction of meaning and identity? How can energy and other resource demand
from a growing middle class in BRIC and other countries be
understood and accommodated? How might we interpret flat to declining energy
use in the OECD/developed countries? What can economic anthropologists
contribute to understanding peoples’ use of renewable energy technologies,
distributed energy, smart grids, private electricity generation, etc.?
Economic
& Energy Transitions: governance, finance, movements and
the future
What precedents in the archaeological and historical
record could help us understand the economic and social implications of slow
vs. sudden shocks in energy supply? What is the minimum net energy surplus
needed for societal functioning, and how useful is net energy analysis in our
fields? What roles do debt and finance, including bubbles, play in the creation
and reproduction of existing and potential energy regimes? How are modes of
political and economic governance related to control over past, present and
future energies? What is expertise, and how do experts affect the forecasting
of possible energy futures? How are war and militaries part of past and future
energy transitions? How have/can social movements shape(d) energy cultures?
PRELIMINARY PROGRAM
[Available in early 2014]
PAPER AND POSTER SUBMISSION
GUIDELINES
NOTICE:
Re cutting and pasting your abstract. The system accepts abstracts
up to 500 words, but if you tried to log in before 12 November 2013, you may
still find a red “250 word limit” alert when you try to advance to the next
page. To get around this, either use another browser to register, or go
into your existing browser, find the “clear cache” setting somewhere under
“Tools” or “Settings”, and start over. We apologize for this extra step.
Abstracts of proposed papers and posters should be no
more than 500 words, and should be submitted here, after completing the conference pre-registration here. Abstracts are
due no later than DECEMBER 15, 2013.
POSTER PRESENTATIONS
The SEA “happy hour” poster session is an inclusive and well-attended event at
each annual conference. Papers not accepted for oral presentation are
automatically eligible for inclusion in the poster session. Scholars whose work
may not fit the central theme of the meeting are encouraged to submit a poster.
The SEA always welcomes posters on any topic in economic anthropology.
MEETING FORMAT
The SEA meetings provide a rare opportunity for a focused and coherent program
of presentation, with time for critical discussion in a convivial intellectual
setting. Papers are selected for a program that allows 15-20 minutes for
presentation and 15-20 minutes for discussion in plenary sessions over two
days. Papers and posters from the SEA annual will be considered for publication
in a special issue of the society’s journal: Economic Anthropology. Submitting
a paper for the plenary sessions represents a commitment that you wish to be
considered for inclusion in the journal. We encourage archaeologists, cultural
anthropologists, economists, and other scholars concerned with the meeting
theme to submit abstracts.
SEA 2014 CONFERENCE
REGISTRATION, FEES
Before submitting your abstract
go to the AAA website and pre-register for the
conference. Registration is $100 for members, $125
for nonmembers and $70 for students. Please note that refunds can be issued up
to one month in advance of the meetings in the case that your abstract is not
accepted.
VENUE & REGIONAL
ATTRACTIONS Texas is an especially relevant venue for an energy-themed
conference as it continues to play a major role in US energy provisioning and
policy. Austin provides a particularly pleasant setting within Texas due to its
delightful spring weather, proximity to the University of Texas, and a vibrant
music scene.
The 2014 meetings will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn Austin, 500
N Interstate 35, Austin, Texas, 78701. This location is a short two blocks from
the Convention Center and the concurrent annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
The hotel is also within walking distance of many area attractions, music
venues and restaurants. For additional information about tourist
attractions, entertainment and dining in Austin, please visit: http://www.austintexas.org/visit/.
ACCOMODATIONS
SEA has reserved a block of rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn at a discount
rate. Rooms are $179/night for single or double occupancy. This
room rate is very competitive given the location and quality of the
hotel. One of the concessions that the hotel provided with the guestroom
rate, is our full breakfast buffet with cook-to-order omelets and waffles each
morning, offered on the 18th floor of the hotel with a wonderful panoramic view
of the Austin skyline and surrounding hill country.
For reservations click here.
TRAVEL
There are several options for transfers to and from Austin’s Bergstrom Airport,
including rental cars, a SuperShuttle, city buses and of course taxis. The
least expensive option from the airport is by city bus. The city of Austin’s
Capital Metro provides the “100 Airport Flyer”, an express bus from the airport
to downtown. The bus picks up on the lower level of the airport near baggage
claim. Tickets are purchased on the bus, and airport staff should be available
to direct you. There is a stop at 4th and Trinity and again 6th and
Trinity that service the Hilton Garden Inn. One way tickets are $1 one-way from
the airport to any of these stops, and 24-hour passes are $2.Visit www.capmetro.org/airport/ for more information,
or call 512-474-1200.
PROGRAM CHAIRS: CONTACT INFORMATION
Thomas Love
Dept. of Sociology/Anthropology Linfield College McMinnville, Oregon
97128 tlove@linfield.edu 503-883-2504 fax: 503-883-2635
Cindy Isenhour Department of Anthropology
University of Maine Orono, ME 04469 cynthia.isenhour@maine.edu
303.807.6515
For more information about the Society for Economic Anthropology, vist http://econanthro.org.
For more information about the Society for Economic Anthropology, vist http://econanthro.org.
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