UBSCC 2020: International Urban Bioeconomy as Societal Change Conference

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Social, economic and ecologic systems are increasingly under pressure, due to climate change, demographic and economic processes as well as a variety of further environmental changes, to be observed in rural as well as urban landscapes. Bioeconomy is seen as a response to these challenges. There are many challenges, opportunities and open questions regarding bioeconomy, consumption and resource usage in urban areas as a potential pathway to achieve sustainable development.

Especially in urban areas sharing economy, technology, information and communication technology (ICT) and digitized communication are a part of bioeconomic societal transformation.

One of the main questions tackles access and obstacles for various social groups, caused by access to knowledge or capital intensity. Additionally we ask how agency can be conceived theoretically and practically in this context. When is the conceptualization of agency suitable as a capacity for action or a power to act?

We welcome papers based on inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives from the social sciences, human-animal studies, or informatics and computer sciences: The conference is especially designed for contributions covering innovative topics at the interface between informatics and cultural, anthropological and social science research in the context of bioeconomy.

Organised in thematic tracks and workshops, we will be covering - but not limiting ourselves - to the following topics:

- sustainability, social and economical change

- urban food production, food chains and sharing economies

- challenges of the bioeconomic societal transformation processes in urban areas

- dynamics of social collaborative systems

- agency, efficacy and accessibility

- interconnectedness of human and nonhuman actors in food production and urban contexts

- machine learning, modelling and simulation in cultural and social sciences: using qualitative data for models and simulations

- barriers and accessibility of diverse social groups

- resilience of social, economic and ecologic systems

- ICT, knowledge-based instruments and tools as well as applications and practical implementations in urban agriculture

- Social Computing, decision making and decision support

- computational sustainability



Submission Guidelines

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All papers must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. The following submission categories are welcome:

Short papers (max 4 pages, including all figures and references)
Abstracts (max 250 words)

They will be published in the conference handout.

Besides oral presentations, we want to give you the opportunity to present your work in an alternative format. This includes (but is not limited to) practical applications as demonstrations, scenario games, visual artworks, design artefacts, performances.

Subsequent to the conference, selected speakers will be offered the opportunity to submit an extended version of their contribution as a paper to be published in book form.

Conference Venue and Organizers
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The conference will be held at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Study) and is organized jointly by the Department of Anthropology and Cultural Research and the Cognitive Neuroinformatics Research Group, Bremen University.