CALL FOR PAPERS

RGS-IBG Annual International Conference: London, 1st-3rd September 2010 Regional and local governance of the low-carbon economy Abstract submission deadline: Friday, 12 February, 2010

Organisers:
James Van Alstine, University of Leeds (j.vanalstine@ leeds.ac.uk, j.vanalstine@leeds.ac.uk

Andrew Gouldson, University of Leeds (a.gouldson@leeds.ac.uk, a.gouldson@leeds.ac.uk>

Sponsored by the Planning and Environment Research Group (PERG)

The transition to a low-carbon economy has become the political mantra of the 21st century. Through a mix of supply and demand-side incentives, governments, particularly in developed countries, are seeking to significantly lower emissions in carbon-intensive sectors such as energy, transport, housing and agriculture. The national policy signals are becoming clearer, but what remains opaque is how these 'transitions' will be governed at the regional and local levels.

This session aims to explore how regional and local governance of the low-carbon economy is emerging in a variety of contexts around the world.
National decarbonisation strategies have largely been presented in aspatial language, with limited reference to the governance structures and processes required at various scales of analysis and in different contexts. The session invites both conceptual and empirical contributions that explore the following questions:

- How are scaling and/or networking strategies affecting decarbonisation policy and planning processes?

- How are place-based processes potentially territorialising the implementation and take up of low-carbon initiatives?

- How does the interface between policy and planning influence the potential uptake of renewable and clean energy projects?

- What actors and organisations hold positions of authority within the low-carbon economy discursive space? Who are the potential winners and losers? To what extent are these spaces of governance accountable and transparent?

- How might the trickle down of the low carbon agenda influence the politics of protest at the regional and local levels?

- How do bottom-up initiatives from the local and regional scales impact upon the low carbon agenda at the national and international scales?

The session organisers intend to submit a group of papers from this session for a journal special issue.

If you are interested in presenting a paper in this session, please forward a short abstract to the organisers by Friday, 12 February, 2010. Please direct any questions to the organisers listed above.

James Van Alstine
Lecturer in Environmental Policy
Programme Manager, MSc Sustainability (Environmental Politics and Policy)

Sustainability Research Institute
School of Earth and Environment
University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
T: +44 (0) 113 3437531
E: j.vanalstine@ leeds.ac. uk <j.vanalstine@leeds.ac.uk>
W: http://www.see. leeds.ac. uk/people/
j.vanalstine<http://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/people/j.vanalstine>

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