Call for Papers
Special Issue of Environmental Communication : A Journal of Nature and Culture
Volume 6, No. 2, June 2012 (Projected)
Environmental Justice in International Contexts
Editor : Stacey Sowards, University of Texas at El Paso
The importance of communicating about and for environmental justice issues in national and global contexts is increasingly important in the 21st century as we are confronted with environmental problems such as air and water pollution, climate change, development and sustainability issues, and the role of people within local/global contexts. The purpose of this special issue is to address how environmental communication scholars and practitioners address and understand such environmental justice issues in international contexts, building upon scholarship presented at the June 2011 Conference on Communication and the Environment (COCE). COCE’s 2011 theme addressed environmental justice in international contexts, and the focus of this special issue is to bring that theme to the forefront of environmental communication scholarship.
Recent interdisciplinary scholarship has re-examined the environmental justice movement in the United States since its advent in the 1980s. In particular, Sandler and Pezzullo’s (2007) book Environmental Justice and Environmentalism : The Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement calls for study of how environmental movements can work together with environmental justice movements, while recognizing their differences and important contributions to a broader concept of justice, both human and non-human. Cotton and Motta’s (2011) recently published conference proceedings from the 9th Global Conference on Environmental Justice and Global Citizenship (Engaging with Environmental Justice : Governance, Education and Leadership) also demonstrate the importance of expanding our understanding of environmental justice in global contexts with essays that explore environmental justice themes related to education, law and government, technology, and climate change, among others.
Building from such scholarship, this call for papers is open to essays that expand our thinking about environmental communication related to justice and international contexts. Possible topics might include, but are not limited to :
- Theoretical discussions related to environmental justice issues
- Analysis of specific environmental justice cases
- Representations of environmental justice issues in mediated contexts
- Global environmentalism in local contexts
- Postcolonial analyses of environmental problems or organizations
- Border issues related to environmental communication
- Intersections of race, gender, class and environmentalism
- Conceptual framing of environmental justice
- Global effects of environmental problems in local contexts (e.g., climate justice)
- Cultural and rhetorical differences in environmental framing
General Guidelines for Submissions :
- Papers are accepted only in English. American English spelling and punctuation is preferred. Double quotation marks rather than single are used unless the “quotation is ’within’ another”.
- A typical article will not exceed 8,000 words. Papers that greatly exceed this will be critically reviewed with respect to length. Authors should include a word count with their manuscript.
- Manuscripts should be compiled in the following order : title page ; abstract ; keywords ; main text ; acknowledgments ; appendices (as appropriate) ; references ; table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages) ; figure caption(s) (as a list).
- Manuscripts should be double-spaced throughout including the reference section, with wide (3 cm) margins, and all pages should be numbered. All figures, tables, and illustrations should be numbered consecutively and placed at the end of the manuscript. Captions, scales, keys, source details, and other critical wording should be included.
- Abstracts of up to 150 words are required for all papers submitted.
- Each paper should have approximately five keywords.
- Section headings should be concise.
- All manuscripts will be evaluated through a blind peer-review system. Because this journal is international and interdisciplinary in scope, we request the author’s assistance in the review process. When submitting a manuscript, authors are invited to provide the names and e-mail contact information of at least two referees who are qualified to evaluate the manuscript. While we may not consult the suggested readers, it will be useful to have the author’s suggestions regarding appropriate referees.
- To ensure double-blind peer review, the authors of a paper should include their full names, affiliations, postal addresses, telephone and fax numbers and email addresses on a separate cover page. One author should be identified as the Corresponding Author.
- Please supply a short biographical note for each author.
- For all manuscripts non-discriminatory language is mandatory. Sexist or racist terms should not be used.
- For further details on manuscript submission, please refer to the “Instructions for authors” on the journals website. Upon notification of acceptance, authors must assign copyright to Taylor and Francis and provide copyright clearance for any copyrighted material.
Manuscripts should be submitted by no later than 11:00 pm, Mountain Standard Time (USA), September 30, 2011 via Manuscript Central (see above). Questions should be addressed to Stacey Sowards or Steve Depoe
