Call for Papers for MOPAN 2012 on-line!

The MOPAN conference series focusses on partnerships, alliances and networks between any combination of business actors, civil society actors and governmental actors. Together with the organising committee of MOPAN 2012 at Wageningen, I've been very busy trying to get the Call for Papers ready. The call is now is now available at www.mopan2012.wur.nl! Spread the word!

The 2012 Conference Theme is "Multi-actor collaboration in an uncertain and ambiguous world".

We invite papers and other contributions (symposia, workshops, games, videos, …) related to the conference theme or one of the thematic tracks:

Track 1. Dealing with frame diversity in collaborative water governance

Track 2. Towards Version 2.0 of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives: Rethinking business-NGO- government relationships in governing sustainable production of global commodities

Track 3. Power in multi-stakeholder processes for development

Track 4. Facilitating resilience in multi-actor collaboration

Track 5. Innovation networks: self-organization and adaptive management

Track 6. Stakeholder involvement in the United Nations

Track 7. Network Dynamics

Track 8. Complexity leadership and sustainable development

Track 9. Multi-actor pilot projects and policy experiments

Track 10. Global Action Networks

Please outline your contribution in an abstract of maximum 500 words and send it to mopan2012@wur.nl, indicating whether you submit it to the general conference or to one of the thematic tracks.

Important dates

Deadline for submission of abstracts: January 15

Notification of acceptance: March 15

Registration open: March 15

Early registration deadline: May 1st

Deadline Full papers: May 15

Final registration deadline: June 15

WASS Research Day "Knowledge in Society: Contestation, Boundaries and Bridges"

Through some combination of participating in a WASS Talents and Topics course and in the WASS Research and Assessment Committee, I got involved in organizing this WASS Research Day. WASS stands for Wageningen School of Social Sciences, by the way, and the Research Day addresses one of the four research themes of the school. I'm very happy that both Mike Hulme and Marjolein van Asselt were willing to give a talk at the Research Day, and I'm looking forward to the abstracts and presentations. The call is still open, until October 15th - I copied the announcement below.

WASS Research Day "Knowledge in Society: Contestation, Boundaries and Bridges"

1 Nov 2011, 9:00 - 16:00, Wageningen

While it is agreed that the world is facing important challenges, there are strong disagreements in society on how these can or must be tackled. Interdependent actors tend to frame problems and underlying causes differently and hence pursue different solutions and strategies to realize these. In addition, different stakeholders have different views on the risks associated with developments in science and society. At the same time the capacity of scientists to offer authoritative interpretations of reality seems to be diminishing. Yet, for developing and realizing innovative solutions to societal challenges it is imperative to accommodate and integrate diverging understandings. This theme studies how and why different perspectives of reality emerge, how science and other forms of expertise interact, and which prospects exists for dealing with diverging understandings in a productive manner.

"Climate change: knowledge, risk and governance"

Mike Hulme
Professor of Climate Change
University of East Anglia



For the mini-conference we invite contributions on the topic "Climate change: knowledge, risk and governance" or on the broader WASS research theme "Knowledge in Society: Contestation, Boundaries and Bridges". This is an excellent opportunity to meet internationally renowned scholars on the topic and to exchange and discuss your work in the WASS community.

If you want to present your work on the WASS Research Day "Knowledge in Society", please send a 300 word abstract to wass@wur.nl by October 15. Based on the submissions different thematic sessions will be organized.

The Research Day is an initiative of WASS Research and Assessment Committee, and is organized by the WASS Office together with Art Dewulf (PAP), Esther Turnhout (FNP) and Severine van Bommel (COM).