Background

When it comes to the population and environment debate, traditionally the various disciplines have talked past one another, at cross-purposes or simply gone around in circles. This has led to a certain frustration and lethargy regarding this important topic and has perhaps also led to it not being given the serious attention it deserves. For the 2004 Fenner Conference on the Environment we do not wish to rehearse old, discipline-bound, orthodoxies. Rather, we want to get representatives of the disciplines that are key to the debate to meet and discuss the priorities, strengths, assumptions and limitations (blind spots) of their disciplinary perspectives on this topic.

As part of this understanding of disciplinary differences, the conference plans to explore the historical, professional and cultural reasons for the boundaries that seemingly exist between the various disciplines. For example: Why do most demographers not consider environmental carrying capacity? Why do many economists assume an open system wherein all problems can be solved via markets? Why do many ecologists discount or ignore human needs and the role of economic development? Why are most sociologists uninterested in the environmental and biophysical underpinnings of human societies?

The conference will commence with two plenary presentations that examine the underlying bases for this lack of communication - one from the perspective of the historical and contemporary context of disciplinary differences and the other from the perspective of argument complexity and mapping. These should provide a solid foundation from which to explore the contribution of each discipline to the debate in greater depth. This in turn should help us all understand better the intellectual and conceptual divergence between major participants in the ongoing debate and hopefully enable the bridge-building process to start.

The conference will also include a session dedicated to media perspectives, with representatives from several key media organisations. An interactive component scheduled for the second day of the conference is designed to achieve a focus of the outcomes from the event. These will culminate in an open forum led by a panel of 'experts' to assist the delegation to discuss outcomes, a way forward and hopefully develop a conference action plan.

This face-to-face conference builds on the online conference Population and Environment in Australia, which ran from September 2003 to the end of January 2004 and was sponsored by the Population and Environment Research fund of the Australian Academy of Science. You can still access the papers from the online conference at www.conference.science.org.au.