The question deals with two fundamental crises afflicting human societies on a global scale: a crisis of the global biosphere and a crisis of the regeneration of resources, especially energy, food and water. One of the most controversial ways of dealing with the problem of resource-finiteness in the past has been by controlling the growth of human populations. A wide range of population politics in all its variants, from birth control to migration regulation to city planning have characterised modern societies.

To what extent, and on what justification, will population politics determine the future development of societies around the globe? What, in particular, is the relation between population politics and one of the most important signifiers of contemporary political vocabulary: sustainability? Can global capitalism only become "sustainable" if human populations are stabilized or even reduced?

We invite contributions that deal with questions including:
-discourses about population and overpopulation
-means of regulating population and (the construction of) "environmental crimes"
-planning and transformation of cities in the context of over-population
-issues of environmental justice and morality
-feminist responses to issues of population control and sustainability
-issues of climate chaos, environmental refugees and resource distribution.

For a more detailed version of this call and for details on our formatting style please see the In-Spire website at: www.in-spire.org.

Articles, including a 200-word abstract, should be submitted in word format (or equivalent) to the managing editor, at l.j.thompson@pol.keele.ac.uk no later than 30th April 2009.