Call for Papers: Integrating the History and Philosophy of Biodiversity
RHN 32/2023 | Call
https://www.ruralhistory.at/eurho/newsletter/2023/rhn-2023-032
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Organisers: Charles H. Pence, philosophy and history of biology, Université catholique de Louvain; Max Bautista Perpinyà, history of science, Université catholique de Louvain
20–21 October 2023, Museum of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium
Deadline for abstract submissions: 01 April 2023
Call for Papers:
Integrating the History and Philosophy of Biodiversity.
Narratives of Diversity, Extinction, Conflict and Value
‘Biodiversity’ is something of a paradox: a contested concept philosophically, historically, and scientifically, yet one almost universally considered to be a precious natural resource worth protecting. As a shorthand for biological diversity, the concept has been part of crucial changes in the history of the life sciences, where theoretical developments have been entangled with cultural anxieties about extinction and degradation. The quantification of biodiversity is based upon complex data infrastructures where lack of interoperability poses serious obstacles for local and global conservation governance. Philosophers have found in its empirical indeterminacy a possibility to introduce discussions of value and ethics in science. From the preservation of wildlife to the making of national parks to the emergence of conservation as a science, nature conservation is by no means an innocent project with only positive outcomes. The history of conservation is also a history of conflict for access to territory and resources. Land conflicts are at the heart of conservation and biodiversity, as indigenous people still face expropriation and eviction. Critics of the western model of conservation have voiced the need for a more plural representation of nature’s stakeholders in conservation decision-making, and this seems to be reflected in the most recent UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15, December 2022), which shows, together with the 30 x 30 conservation pledge, a wish to recognise the “the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.”
A photograph of a rainforest, a taxonomic puzzle, a conservation metric evading consensus, a flagship for colonial domination, a possibility for value in science, a situated sensibility towards endangered wildlife, or simply, a powerful buzzword. With its many lives, researchers in the history and philosophy of science, as well as in neighbouring fields, will likely agree that ‘biodiversity’ is not an unmediated representation of nature. As with its densely value-laden cousin of ‘variety,’ biodiversity has come to pervade our discourse about the protection of nature, finding itself not only in conservation hotspots in the tropical rainforests, but also in frozen seed banks, in temperate forests, in governmental agencies, in university departments, and in activist fanzines.
Scope
This conference aims to bring together scholars from several traditions – at the very least, from philosophy of science, history of science, and environmental history – to propose different ways to think about ‘biodiversity’ and explore how they might interact. The scope of the conference includes topics in but is not restricted to:
- empirical underdetermination of biodiversity
- the role of values in conservation science
- the challenges of taxonomic classification
- issues in conservation governance
- histories of conservation science and ecology
- historiography of the history of conservation science and ecology
- environmentalism and conservationism
- histories of environmental conflicts
- grassroots environmental initiatives
- environmental justice
- historiography of environmental history
- beyond the tropics: temperate biodiversity
- forms of diversity: soil diversity, genetic diversity, phylodiversity
- conflicts of expertise
- colonial roots of conservation
- extinction and future imaginaries
- landscape and identity
For more information: https://pencelab.be/events/biodiversity-2023/
Source: https://networks.h-net.org/node/19397/discussions/12484448/reminder-cfp-integrating-history-and-philosophy-biodiversity