We are delighted to invite for a 2-day symposium on the work of Barker, Wright, and the Midwest Psychological Field Station, at Roskilde University, Denmark.
The symposium will form the basis for a new international research network centered around a shared interest in behavior settings research, linking senior scholars, mid-career academics, and early career researchers.
Background and context
For 25 years between 1948 and 1973 a number of psychological researchers undertook observations and recording of goings on in a small rural down in Kansas, known as Midwest. Their extensive examination of the behavior of people and the places in which they lived offers us some of the deepest insights into the relationship between behavior and the environment available to psychological science.
The research team developed a theory of how places and people are related according to structures they term “behavior settings”. The theory is a detailed account of how people’s actions are motivated, shaped, and supported by the physical and social characteristics of the situation in which the behavior is evoked. Behavior settings theory systematizes our understanding of how the real places in which people live and work play a substantial role in explaining those people’s behavior and experience.
Despite the potency of the theory as demonstrated by the work of the Midwest team the theory is not well known within mainstream psychological research. In recent years this has begun to change, as the value of the work is increasingly appreciated and relationships to other growing approaches to psychological research are recognized.
The two-day symposium “Being Where” is intended to act as a bridge between the history and future development of behavior setting theory. Harry Heft (Denison University), and Jytte Bang and Sofie Pedersen (Roskilde University) will open our discussions on the particular work on the Field Station team, their methods, and analytical techniques. This will include insights from visiting the Field station archives and the broader theoretical and methodological contributions of this work. The second day will be led by talks from Louise Barrett (University of Lethbridge), and Ludger van Dijk (University of Antwerp), looking forward on how new research work is extending behavior setting theory, and putting it to work in new contexts, with new tools, integrated with new theoretical and philosophical approaches.
Format
A two-day symposium located at Roskilde University, Denmark, alternating between presentations, flashtalks (brief presentations of maximum 10 minutes, with a single slide) and small group discussions.
Participants are encouraged to submit a brief abstract for a flashtalk, indicating how behavior setting theory may relate to or inspire their work (could also be a presentation of a specific idea or a question).
Abstract should be no more than 250 words.
Conference fee
Conference fee: 340,00 Dkr, incl. VAT.
Conference fee covers catering (coffee/tea, lunch, afternoon coffee/tea,cake and card fee) on both days.
We will be organizing an informal, shared dinner (at participants’ own expense) on Monday the 25th, in Copenhagen. Please indicate interest in participating (non-binding) when you sign in.
We have received a grant from the Carlsberg Foundation (Carlsbergfondet) to host this event, and therefore we have the possibility to offer financial support for early career researchers. Please indicate interest in financial support when you sign in and we will contact you regarding the matter.
Registration
Abstract submission is closed. Registration will remain open until April 19th 2022.
Organizers
Sofie Pedersen, Roskilde University
Jytte Bang, Roskilde University
Marek McGann, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick
Cillian McHugh, University of Limerick