Section 5: TRACK 6

Track 6: Birth Pangs of Ecological Civilization

The world as a whole is still dominated by people for whom the sustainability of wealth and power are more important that the sustainability of food and water. Still people are recognizing the need for radical change and creating movements to implement this change. This track will consider how what this conference calls for can build on what is already happening.

Other Tracks in this Section

• Track 1: The Psychology of Wellbeing and its Ecological Implications
• Track 2: Sustainable Practice and the Cultural Dimensions of Ecological Health
• Track 3: Population and Women
• Track 4: The Future of Meat without Animals
• Track 5: Agroecology as Foundational for Ecological Civilization
• Track 7: China and Ecological Civilization

Fubin Yang

Dean of the School of Politics and Law at Beijing International Studies University, and the Travel and Tourism Law Center Beijing

Dr. Fubin Yang is a professor and dean of School of Law and Politics in Beijing International Studies University (BISU).

He teaches Process Philosophy of Whitehead and Legal Philosophy and other subjects and from 2004 is particularly interested in Whiteheadian Process Philosophy and Tourism and Travel Law research. He is also the director of Center for Tourism and Travel Law in BISU and the chief-editor of Treatise of Tourism and Travel Law (series in Chinese).

He received his Ph.D. in Renmin University and has been an exchange researcher in Claremont Graduate University in Los Anglos from 2009. and was also the co-host of the 20th International Conference of IFTTA in 2008 in Beijing.

Barbara Muraca

Assistant Professor

I studied philosophy in Turin, Italy, and Greifswald, Germany and completed my Ph.D. in Philosophy with a dissertation on the philosophical foundations of Strong Sustainability. My favorite quote about what philosophy is for me is from Alfred North Whitehead’s book Modes of Thought: “Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains”. Whitehead’s philosophy is an important guide to my work both in research and in teaching. I have worked for many years on sustainability theory, environmental and social philosophy and love feminist philosophy. Currently, my research focuses more specifically on the philosophical foundations of political ecology and on global environmental justice.In my current project I explore the role of concrete utopias and social experiments for a social ecological transformation, by focusing on the Southern European ‘Degrowth’ movement and discourse. The main challenge is to imagine an equal, just, and participatory society that does no longer rely on economic growth for its own stabilization. I also work on society-nature relations and how the understanding of our relation to what we call nature shapes our self-understanding as individuals and as communities.

liberalarts.oregonstate.edu