EH.N: CfP: Asia-Pacific Economic and Business History Conference 2008

[John Singleton]

Asia-Pacific Economic and Business History Conference 2008
Theme: Responses to Environmental Change
13-15 February 2008, Melbourne (Australia)
Venue: Trinity College, University of Melbourne
Organisation: Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand
Call for papers: http://www.uow.edu.au/commerce/econ/ehsanz/

Papers and proposals for sessions are invited for the 2008 APEBH 
conference. The conference theme is 'Responses to Environmental 
Change', around which we expect to organise a number of sessions. As 
at past conferences, we also welcome contributions on other topics in 
economic, social, and business history. Early career researchers are 
encouraged to participate. Researchers across a range of disciplines 
are warmly welcomed including economists and historians of economic 
thought, business, society, and management, as well as archivists. 
The conference organisers are particularly interested in attracting 
papers that examine developments within the Asia-Pacific region 
broadly defined and/or papers that provide an international 
comparative perspective.

The conference theme provides ample opportunities to explore and 
discuss historical research that has implications for ongoing 
discussion on current topical issues. Arguably, current discussions 
on environmental change are insufficiently informed by the lessons 
from history. For example, while historical data on climate change 
inform predictions of future climate change, the general debate on 
the consequences of climate change has hardly assessed the abating 
economic responses that past episodes of climate changes triggered. 
Still, the past must hold a wide array of cases that help to 
understand how short- and long-term environmental changes are likely 
to have triggered responses at different levels: in economic systems 
at large, in specific sections of the economy, in economic 
institutions, or among economic entities such as firms. Such 
responses may have led to the assessment, absorption and possibly the 
abatement of the consequences of negative externalities of 
environmental change.

Current discussions about environmental change are strongly focused 
on changes in the natural environment only. But to foster a deeper 
understanding of the mechanisms that environmental change triggers, 
it would be relevant to compare a wider range of environmental 
changes that in the past led to responses aimed at mitigating the 
consequence of such changes. Hence, the conference organisers are 
interested in attracting papers that discuss a range of short and 
long-term changes in different environments, including for example 
the natural (such as pollution, deforestation, drought and floods) 
and demographic environments (birth and mortality rates, diseases, 
migration), but also the technological, social and business 
environments, and of course interactions between these different 
environments. 

Paper abstracts of one page may be submitted to the addresses below 
at any time up to 30th November 2007. A decision on proposals will be 
made within a month of submission. Session proposals of one page may 
be submitted up to the same date, outlining the main objectives of 
the session. Written papers must be submitted by 15 January 2008. 
There will be a refereed paper section for those interested.

A conference paper prize will be awarded, and a selection of papers 
(subject to review) will be published in the Australian Economic 
History Review.

Further details about the conference can be found at the web page of 
the Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand: 
http://www.uow.edu.au/commerce/econ/ehsanz/

Please send abstracts to Dr John Singleton, School of Economics & 
Finance, Faculty of Commerce & Administration, Victoria University of 
Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, NEW ZEALAND. 
John.Singleton at vuw.ac.nz