CFP - In the Shadow of the Petrochemical Smokestack. Chemical Corridors and Environmental Health

International Conference – Lyon (France), 28^th and 29^th November 2019

This conference endeavours to study chemical industries that use fossil fuel derivatives. It will focus on these industrial activities’ environmental and health effects on surrounding areas and local populations. 

By breaking with historical scholarship that considers increased fossil energy consumption and local prosperity to be a foregone conclusion, this conference calls for participants to focus their narratives of the petrochemicals industry on the health impact of its activities. As a result, this conference will give special emphasis to papers that take a fresh look at the history of health surveys in industrial areas, and to projects that foster in-depth discussions between researchers in the social sciences and public health. Three main themes are open for debate:

- The first theme calls for studying how the petrochemical industry shapes a region’s development, factoring in the conflicts about health-related issues.

- The second theme endeavours to specify the timelines of the process whereby the petrochemical industry’s health and ecological effects become visible and are managed. 

-  The third theme aims to better describe the health knowledge produced, the way that this knowledge serves as a warning about one or more substances, and how this knowledge is used to transform industrial risk regulation practices.

Working languages will be English and French.

Paper proposals will include the name of the applicant, a short CV and an abstract of no more than 400 words. The deadline for the submission of paper proposals is 15^th May 2019.

Paper proposals have to be sent simultaneously to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and sThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Applicants will be informed shortly after 15^th June 2019. The organizing committee will cover their accommodation during the conference, and applicants could ask for a cover of reasonable travel costs if required.

Successful applicants will be asked to send a working papers of about 30,000 characters before the 31^st October 2019.

Conference supported by the Fondation de France.

Organizing Committee

Renaud Bécot (Post-doctoral researcher, History, LARHRA, Lyon)

Stéphane Frioux (Maître de conférences, History, University Lyon 2 and IUF, LARHRA)

Gwenola Le Naour (Maître de conférences, Political Science, Sciences Po Lyon and Triangle, Lyon)

Vincent Porhel (Maître de conférences, History, University Lyon 1 and LARHRA)