The International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, in association with La Trobe University, Melbourne, is organising its 4th International Conference between 16 and 19 December 2010 in Fremantle, Western Australia. Fremantle, located on the edge of land and sea, is a perfect site at which to discuss the notion of ‘Living on the Edge’. We invite proposals from scholars exploring the intersection and edges of religion, nature and culture from a wide range of critical perspectives and from all disciplines.
Questions arising point to the edge as a place of transition and transformation, a launching place for change and action to counter ecological degradation and regenerate communities and ecosystems.
The conference asks how human and nature ecologies are affected by the environmental crisis. It covers the variety of challenges and approaches to change – scientific, social, psychological, spiritual and cultural – that emerge through living on the edge.
Through a multi-disciplinary framework of religion, nature and culture, the conference explores the relationships between people and nature, social and ecological systems, local and global economies, art and ecology, science and religion, and cultural diversity and biodiversity.
Edge spaces, like ecotones, are places of rich fecundity. Using the metaphor of the meeting of two ecosystems, the edge represents the meeting place between disciplines where different modes of knowing and working are shared. It interweaves personal stories of environmental, social and spiritual change with theoretical discussion from a range of disciplines in dynamic interchange. It transcends the boundaries to move to new possibilities of mutual understanding, research and action.
The following questions serve as guidelines for exploring the themes of ‘living on the edge’. There are more of course and we would welcome hearing about them.
1. How is living on the edge defined in a local, regional or global context?
2. What features and qualities are reflected in an environmental, social, psychological, economic and spiritual sense?
3. Are we living on the edge of extinction? What are the tipping points?
4. How do local histories and cultures distinguish living on the edge?
5. Can the ‘edge’ be integrated with the ‘centre’? And what are the implications?
6. How do the natural sciences deal with edge issues? Do the social sciences hinder or help? Is there a meeting point?
7. How do individuals and communities cope with the awareness of ecological deterioration? Is there a relationship between social, psychological and ecological resilience?
8. Predictions of rising rates of environmentally displaced or affected people in the coming decades raise some important psycho-spiritual themes. What sorts of social and psychological distresses are anticipated? How does secularism or religiosity contribute to or alleviate these experiences?
9. How are Indigenous cultures affected and how are they effecting change?
Other important issues concerning the ‘edge’ may include: the rural-urban interface; the sea-land interchange; the problem of water resources; the nexus between peace and warfare; dichotamies of tame-wild, male-female, East-West.
It is also likely that a special issue (or two) of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture may be published on the theme and associated ideas, drawn from excellent and original scholarly papers arising out of this conference.
Deadline for submission of abstracts – 30th July 2010.
Additional conference information, including procedures for submitting proposals, will soon be made available here, and sent to scholarly lists.
The Society's Third International Conference with the theme "Religion, Nature, and Progress" was held at the University of Amsterdam 23-26 July 2009.
“John Muir and the Religion of Nature” 
Description: John Muir (1838–1914) was the founder of nature conservation in his adopted home the United States and the prophet of a new religion. As a young man he turned away from his family Scottish Protestant tradition and embraced science and the divinity of the natural world. Although he was not alone in that move, he became a Moses-like figure for the new religion, which found its institutional home in groups like the Sierra Club of California. What is not well understood or appreciated is the deep connection between that nature religion and the rise of modern liberalism and democracy. Later critics would charge that nature preservation has been elitist, not democratic, but Muir’s life can help us see how closely intertwined the new religion was with revolutionary social and political ideals.