CHEMICAL STATES
Transforming Bodies, Environments, and Nations
(We have not, to borrow a science studies phrase, "followed the molecule.")

Subject:     Environmental Tecnology and Society-------
Date:    Mon, 01 Nov 1999 10:04:21 -0500
From:     Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To:     Lyndon Hawkins <hawkins@empm.cdpr.ca.gov>
 

Dear Lyndon, I thought you might like to read about a California call for papers on the very real unstudied issue regarding environmental technology and society:

From: Monica Casper <mjcasper@cats.ucsc.edu>
To: ENVIRONMENT TECHNOLOGY and SOCIETY <envtecsoc@csf.colorado.edu>
Sent: Saturday, October 30, 1999 8:24 PM
Subject: Call for Papers

Call for Papers

CHEMICAL STATES
Transforming Bodies, Environments, and Nations

edited by Monica J. Casper

Scholars have examined a variety of environmental health and justice issues including people's experiences of environmental degradation, political action, regulatory mechanisms, the stratified nature of pollution, and so on.  Yet surprisingly little attention has been paid to the substances which underlie many of these problems:  industrial  chemicals.  We have not, to borrow a science studies phrase, "followed the molecule."  This is unfortunate, as industrial chemicals are culturally and politically significant.  Twentieth-century chemistry was invested with the  hopes and dreams of Western and developing nations looking to the future.

Industrial chemicals allowed us to nation-build--"to bring good things to life--through a variety of activities ranging from the manufacture of plastics and other synthetics to innovations in medicine and agriculture.  But, as renowned chemist Hugh Crone has written, "we have adopted the chemical (POISON) age without knowing its consequences."

The editor seeks papers for a volume that addresses the Janus-faced nature of synthetic chemicals as both promise and pitfall, and that attend to the social construction of chemicals themselves as well as the contexts of their use.  It is hoped that the papers will perform significant  theoretical work on the relationship among chemicals, bodies,  environments, and nations.  Chemical projects have the capacity to reconfigure health, safety, risk, community, environment, and nation.  That we are currently  witnessing unprecedented globalization complicates these matters further.

The volume will be interdisciplinary and welcomes contributions from sociology, anthropology, political science, history, science and technology studies, cultural studies, and environmental studies. Submissions should be approximately 30 double-spaced pages.  The deadline  for draft chapters is JULY 1, 2000.  Before that time, it is recommended that you correspond with the editor about your topic.  The address  for correspondence and submissions is:  Dr. Monica Casper, Sociology Department, 324 College 8, UCSC, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, mjcasper@cats.ucsc.edu.

***********************************************************************
Monica J. Casper, Ph.D.      "I shall stay the way I am,
Assistant Professor           because I do not give a damn."
Sociology Department                     --Dorothy Parker
324 College 8, UCSC
Santa Cruz, CA   95064
831/459-3837 (phone)
831/459-3518 (fax)

Well Lyndon, Do you agree with Dorothy Parker or do you give a damn?

Respectfully,  Stephen L. Tvedten.
 

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