Tuesday 6th May – Thursday 8th May, 2014
Lisbon, Portugal

How can we live responsibly, taking care of one another and of our planet?  This is the question faced by everyone who wants, so far as they can, to do what is right, and it is at the heart of Living Responsibly: Reflecting on the Ethical Decisions of Everyday Life.

We face ethical decisions every day, whether we are aware of it or not.  Or at any rate, we face decisions that have ethical significance.  Alongside such decisions, we face others that arise from our awareness of the ways in which our actions can impact on the environment.  In the early 21st century, the issues that surround human induced climate change are among the most important for many of those who aspire to live responsibly.  As a result they are mindful of how they build, heat and light their homes and about where and how they travel, both locally and further afield.  They are also increasingly mindful of the relative environmental costs of the food, clothing and other goods that they purchase, depending on where and how they are produced and packaged, how far and by what means they are transported, and so on.

Living Responsibly: Reflecting on the Ethical Issues of Everyday Life will facilitate dialogue about what it means to behave ethically; what motivates ethical behavior, and how we can live in ways that are respectful of others and respectful of the planet.

Abstracts are invited about any aspect of ethical issues in everyday life, of which the following suggested topics and questions are merely exemplars:

Food

• What should we eat and where should we buy our food?
• Should concerns about animal welfare turn us into vegetarians, or persuade us only to eat meat from animals that have been reared humanely?
• What are the ethical arguments for and against the use of chemicals in farming and the introduction of genetically modified crops?
• Is it really morally better to eat organic, locally produced food?
• What’s more important – the air miles it takes to bring my green beans from Kenya, or the fact that the Kenyan farmer who grows them gets at least some money, because I buy them?
• Do organically fed, free range chickens really enjoy their lives more than factory made ones?
• Is eating organically grown beef really more ethical?

Climate Change and Global Warming

• What should we do about the problem of global warming?
• Will it really make any difference if we recycle; consume less energy and take fewer foreign holidays?
• Should I pay optional carbon offsetting charges every time I fly?
• What will we do when the oil runs out?
• How, really, can we decide on the relative merits of wind farms, nuclear power and the consumption of non-renewable energy sources?
• What can I do about the destruction of the rainforests and the depletion of the earth’s resources?

The Steering Group welcomes abstracts for papers and practical workshops that aim to raise issues, or to offer strategies for tackling the problems faced by those who aspire to living responsibly.  We particularly welcome the submission of pre-formed panel proposals.

In order to support and encourage interdisciplinarity engagement, it is our intention to create the possibility of starting dialogues between the parallel events running during this conference.  Delegates are welcome to attend up to two sessions in each of the concurrent conferences.  We also propose to produce cross-over sessions between two and possibly all three groups.

Submission Procedure

• 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday December 6th, 2013
• If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 14th March 2014.
• 300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organizing Chairs
• abstracts may be in Word or RTF formats with the following information and in this order: a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.
• E-mails should be entitled: RL4 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.

Conference Organizers

• Gavin J Fairbairn & Susan Fairbairn, Rob Fisher
• Inter-Disciplinary.Net, A Global Network for Dynamic Research and Publishing