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    Development, Culture Topics of 2 Conferences

    By BILL SCHLOTTER

    Two groups of scholars will be on campus to attend very different conferences, both of which are on Friday and Saturday, March 7 and 8.
    "The Challenge of Sustainable Development," a symposium organized jointly by the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, UCSB Arts & Lectures, the Worldwatch Institute and other organizations, will examine environmental challenges and solutions facing the 21st century world. Meetings, free and open to the public, will be held in the MultiCultural Center Theater.
    "Cultural Turn IV: Instituting and Institutions," sponsored by the Department of Sociology with co-sponsorship from the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, the Department of Philosophy, and the deans of social science, and humanities and fine arts, is the fourth biennial meeting to examine intersections of the humanities and social sciences.
    Friday's free, public plenary session will be held in the Corwin Pavilion. Saturday's events, which require registration, will be split between the McCune Conference Room in the Humanities and Social Sciences Building (HSSB 6020) and the UCen. Schedule and registration information can be found on the conference Web site <www.soc.ucsb.edu/cu4/>.
    "Sustainable Development" topics to be discussed include "Oil, War, and Carbon: Why a Hydrogen Economy is Necessary (and Possible);" "From Monterrey to Johannesburg to Cancun: Reshaping Global Governance for Sustainable Development;" and "Putting the Brakes on Urban Sprawl."
    Speakers include Christopher Flavin, president of Worldwatch Institute; Robert Wilkinson, a lecturer in the UCSB Environmental Studies Program; Hilary French, director, Global Governance Project; and Molly O'Meara Sheehan, senior researcher, Worldwatch. For a complete conference schedule, visit A&L's Web site <www.art sandlectures.ucsb.edu/pr/worldwatch.asp>.
    The focus at this year's Cultural Turn conference will be on institutions–religion, science, the family, government, business–and on a new tendency to reexamine their structure and limits. Among the speakers and their subjects are John R. Searle, professor of philosophy at UC Berkeley, "Language, Social Ontology, and Political Power;" Elisabeth Weber, professor of German at UCSB, "Being Called to Testify: Sciences of Symbolic Identity and the Ethics of Singularity;" and Trevor Pinch, professor of science and technology studies and of sociology at Cornell University, "Technologies as Institutions: What the Social Studies of Technology Can Tell Us."