Call for Papers and Content
Integrated Network for Social Sustainability, Conference
June 5-7, 2017
Charlotte NC, Atlanta GA, Bend OR, Washington DC, Oxford MS, Peru
and other locations

The Integrated Network for Social Sustainability (INSS) is a research coordination network funded by the National Science Foundation to stimulate interdisciplinary discussion about the often-overlooked social dimension of sustainability. The 2017 INSS conference theme is “Smart, Connected Communities”. We invite abstracts for papers, digital posters, and other electronically archivable media from multiple disciplines and locations that address any of the following themes:

• How can new technological applications enhance community wellbeing?
• By what ethical standards should we judge these new applications?
• For which ‘communities’, and at which scales will so-called ‘smart’ technology enhance community wellbeing?
• Are the purported benefits of ‘smart’ systems possible without technological sophistication?
• How does the meaning of ‘smart, connected communities’ vary across different cultural and historical contexts?
• What historical models exist for ‘smart, connected’ communities?

Abstracts may explore these themes through the lenses of social justice, housing, water, transportation, security, communication, food, energy, education, health, etc. Individuals may also submit content as part of an “emerging issues” track, that may be unrelated to our conference theme. Abstracts and proposals should showcase the experiences and expertise of the author(s), and should be original works. Proposals for roundtables, workshops, and other events are also welcome, and should include a list of participants or activities, expected length (ideally less than 1.5 hours), and relevance to the conference theme and INSS.

As part of our conference, we expect to populate a peer-reviewed special issue with select presentations from all INSS conference sites. Submissions may assume a traditional scholarly format (introduction- literature review- methods- analysis- conclusion), but non-traditional formats and mediums such as visual art, short story, filmed documentary, or poetry are also welcome. Workshop and event organizers may want to collaborate with participants on a publication.

Deadline: Interested participants should submit a 500-1,000 word abstract about their submission by April 14, 2017. Please submit all content via the content application form here.

ABOUT INSS
For four years INSS has hosted conferences that bring together scholars and practitioners of social sciences, physical sciences, engineering, and the humanities to discuss such diverse topics as transportation, social mobility, water management, disaster recovery, coastal erosion, sustainability education, environmental racism, and theoretical issues of sustainability. In 2015, we inaugurated our first multi-site conference, with interactions across multiple physical locations, and we expanded this multi-site model in 2016.

Exploratory inquiries are encouraged and should be sent to socialsustainabilitynetwork@gmail.com