1st Global Conference: Crisis and Opportunity (February 2013, Sydney, Australia)
7th to 9th February 2013
Sydney, Australia
CFP deadline: Friday 14th September, 2012

The intention of this lively inaugural project is to bring together established and emerging international practitioners and theoreticians, philosophers and scientists, and writers, artists and performers who wish to share their ideas, experiential processes, practice, and research about crisis and opportunity.

A significant focus for the project is an annual conference which will provide valuable opportunities for new participants to become involved in the first of many thoughtful, unique, and creative dialogues with one another. In this engaging and responsive forum presenters are encouraged to share their discipline with enthusiasm and to foster new working relationships through the exploration, examination and discussion of their work with colleagues.

Initially, this project defines ‘crisis’ as an unstable, potentially dangerous situation, or event, which may impose difficult or extreme life changes or challenges. The term ‘opportunity’ here anticipates the effects and/or outcomes of pre-crisis preparation or interventions and post-crisis responsiveness and management. Thus, the effective management of crisis may, in part, depend upon the careful framing of opportunity as a useful resource and as a positive outcome.

This broadly focused project, therefore, encourages an examination of crisis and opportunity as both independent and interconnecting areas of scholarly and creative interest. Consequently, it is expected that participants will view crises and opportunities from multiple perspectives and in many socio-cultural contexts. These may include, but need not be limited to, specific disciplinary, multi-disciplinary, or systems perspectives that examine the management of, and exposure to, crisis events in international, organisational, group, and personal settings.

Participants in this project are encouraged to explore the notion that crises can provide opportunities for significant growth in areas of organisational management and planning, professional development and education, as well as those situations that influence psychological and spiritual well-being. Consequently, we warmly invite professional practitioners, educators, planners, theoreticians, artists, and writers to present and reflect upon their work in this key area of emerging research and practice.

Presentations, performances, papers, art-pieces, workshops, and pre-formed panels are invited on any of the following themes:

– The roles of crisis and opportunity in human development and across the life-span;
– The development of crisis theory;
– Case studies in crisis management and organisational change – examining and balancing proactive and reactive strategies;
– Critical issues in the management of crisis;
– The relationship between crisis and opportunities – crises that create opportunities, and opportunities that precipitate crises.
– Cultural perceptions of crisis and opportunity;
– Representations of crisis and opportunity in literature, the arts and in the media;
– Crisis, opportunity and psycho-spiritual development;
– Philosophical, ethical, and legal issues in crisis and opportunity;
– Learning from global crises and opportunities.

Please note that presentations that deal with related themes will also be considered.

It is our hope that a number of these interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary dialogues will be ongoing and that ultimately a series of related cross context research projects will be developed. It is also anticipated that these will support and encourage the establishment of useful collaborative networks, and the development, presentation, and publication of research materials. Through such richness and diversity, it is expected that awareness for the work within and the links between crisis and opportunity will contribute to a body of knowledge that serves both individuals and organisations.

What to Send:
300 word abstracts or presentation proposals should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs by Friday 14th September 2012; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract.
E-mails should be entitled: CRISIS Abstract Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs

Peter Bray: PBray@eit.ac.nz
Rob Fisher: crisis1@inter-disciplinary.net

The conference is part of the Persons programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.

Enquiries: crisis1@inter-disciplinary.net
Web address: http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/persons/crisis-and-opportunity/call-for-presentations/
Sponsored by: Inter-Disciplinary.Net

Categories: Calls for & opportunities