Hi all,
Kathi Glaab and Lena Partzsch are happy to report that we have just successfully submitted a RC36 panel to the ISA (International Studies Association) Annual Convention in Toronto, March 27-30, 2019. We have quite a dream team covering seven different countries with various perspectives, and we are very much looking forward to seeing hopefully many of you in Toronto next year!

Panel Title: Writing environmental norms: scholarship and progress in global environmental politics
Organizers: Katharina Glaab and Lena Partzsch
Chair: Giulio Gallarotti
Discussant: Thomas Princen, University of Michigan

Abstract:
When discussing solutions towards more sustainable worlds, scholarship in global environmental politics (GEP) engages with normative questions. Although not many scholars explicitly acknowledge this underlying normativity, our choice of concepts and issues defines the direction of our research. On the one hand, sustainable development, accountability, or transparency have become near-universal norms that pre-define our understanding of progress in terms of sustainability. On the other hand, the thematic bundling of research around climate politics or Sustainable Development Goals marginalizes competing issues and perspectives. This normativity is nothing special to GEP, moreover, the reference to universal norms provides GEP research with policy relevance and enables a fruitful exchange with stakeholders. However, there is hardly any reflection about norms underlying GEP research. As a scholarly perspective inherently oriented towards normative goals, it is thus important to reflect how progress is defined and practiced within our academic work.
This panel aims to address how environmental scholars are ‘writing norms’ and normalise knowledge. What forms of normativity underly our research and which ideas of academic and political progress are discussed at the expense of which others? The panel will bring together scholars that critically reflect on research practices and the notion of progress in scholarship.

Papers:
Author: Katharina Glaab (Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway) and Lena Partzsch (University of Freiburg, Germany)
Title: Beyond progress and gridlock: Norms and normativity in global environmental politics research

Author: Susan Park (University of Sydney, Australia)
Title: A Genealogy: The Multilateral Development Banks and the Accountability as Justice Norm

Authors: Maria Jernnäs and Eva Lövbrand (Department of Thematic Studies: Environmental Change, Linköping University, Sweden)
Title: Non-State Action in the Paris Climate Regime: Depoliticizing a Depoliticized Story?

Author: Philipp Altmann (Central University of Ecuador)
Title: Translating norms – the long trip of Buen Vivir from a local political concept to a global discursive field

Author: Basil Bornemann (University of Basel)
Title: Reflecting the co-production of orientation knowledge in global environmental politics