Days of paper presentations, workshops/interactive sessions, posters, and colloquia.
Delegates from all over the world who attended the Thirteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability.
Countries represented.
In the twenty- fifth anniversary year of the historic 1992 “Earth Summit,” Common Ground Research Networks will hold its annual International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, 19–21 January 2017. The special conference focus is Pathways to Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities for State and Society.
The state plays a contradictory role in sustainability politics, facilitating both environmental degradation and environmental conservation. It stands at the interface between local, national, and global politics and faces multiple—often competing—pressures. The pressure includes that from businesses, pressing for a political environment that is conducive to investment and economic development, and from citizens and social groups making a broad range of demands for domestic and international security, economic stability, social public goods, and environmental sustainability. Internationally, the state remains the sole representative of its public, and it is legally the only actor with the regulatory authority and capacity to govern within its territory. Yet, critical research on globalization suggests that the state is losing its autonomy, yielding decision-making authority to international organizations, transnational corporations, and non-governmental organizations. Activists are increasingly looking to non-state actors to catalyze the necessary social changes that will generate sustainability. This has produced a rich literature on sustainable consumption, environmental citizenship, and non-state market- driven forms of environmental governance that are reconfiguring society. But the state, while inadequate on its own, is also indispensable—hence the “greening” of the state—advocated to contain corporate power, channel the use of technology into low-carbon energy production, and stimulate sustainable modes of production that respect ecological integrity and local cultures.
The Thirteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability featured plenary sessions by some of the world's leading thinkers and innovators in the field.
Executive Secretary of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Municipal Secretariat of Urban Planning and Mobility of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Environmental Biologist, Planner and Policy Maker, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science, and City Council Cultural Heritage Protection, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Director, UNDP World Centre for Sustainable Development, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Guanabara Bay Institute, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
For each conference, a small number of Emerging Scholar Awards are given to outstanding graduate students and emerging scholars who have an active academic interest in the conference area. The Award with its accompanying responsibilities provides a strong professional development opportunity for early career academics. The 2017 Emerging Scholar Awardees are listed below.
COPPEAD Business Institute, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
New School of Social Research, New York, USA
Programming and Training Specialist in the Community Based Environmental Program in Peace Corps, Peru
Charles Darwin University, Alice Springs, and Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Liverpool John Moores University, UK
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
NC State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Oklahoma State University, USA
University of Northern British Columbia, Canada
Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz in Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil
Niterói, Brazil
Niterói, Brazil
