By way of thanking all participations in our recent seminar series, and also to foster further research and collaboration, on 2 December 2010 the Oxford Martin School will host the final event in its Michaelmas Term Seminar Series on Certification and Sustainability. Over the past seven weeks we have discussed a range of applications, including sustainable forestry, blood diamonds, labour standards, fair trade, and credit ratings, and also considered the issue of third party certification from the perspective of the consumer, the producer and society.

In this final event of the seminar series we invite participants to engage in a facilitated discussion to explore the common themes that have emerged across the several applications. Themes could include the purpose of certification schemes, the structure of information, the role of expertise, the incentives of participants, the role of accountability, and measures of success. Participants will be invited to suggest ways to frame the inquiry as well as additional themes and applications that could be explored in future research.

The workshop will be held at the Oxford Martin School from 3.30 til 5pm on Thursday 2 December 2010.

To reserve a place, please register at: www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/registration