*call for Papers*

Association of American Geographers, Annual Meeting, Washington DC, April 14-18, 2010

 

Geographies of Imprisonment: Penal Experience in Comparative Perspective

 

Organiser: Dominique Moran, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental

 

Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK (d.moran@bham.ac.uk)

 

Geographers are increasingly turning their attention to carceral spaces and developing understandings of the penal experience, for example, in terms of; internal spatial arrangements, flow control and the negotiation of prison spaces; social formations and the nature of social interactions within and beyond the penal boundary; ageing in prison; and prison as a gendered and gendering institution. However, research has largely focussed geographically on the global ‘North’. This session seeks to ‘decenter’ these debates and to encourage a comparative perspective, encouraging the presentation of research focussed on penal experiences both in the ‘North’ and beyond, but also those which see the penal experience as a liminal space between ‘North’

and ‘South’, such as through the experience of migrant detention. Papers

 

which explore the following are particularly welcome:

 

*       The penal experience, its conceptualisation and negotiation

*       The lived experience of imprisonment; negotiation of penal

spaces;

privacy and private spaces; understandings of confinement; penal trajectories

*       Social interactions within, between and beyond carceral spaces

*       Prisons as gendered and gendering institutions

*       Cultural practices and penal confinement

 

Papers could also explore the discourses and practices surrounding the introduction and operation of penal ‘norms’ within the global ‘South’.

 

Please register for the AAG and submit your abstract online, then please email d.moran@bham.ac.uk with your abstract and PIN number for inclusion in the session, by 25 October 2009. 

Association of American Geographers, Annual Meeting, Washington DC, April 14-18, 2010

 

Geographies of Imprisonment: Penal Experience in Comparative Perspective

 

Organiser: Dominique Moran, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental

 

Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK (d.moran@bham.ac.uk)

 

Geographers are increasingly turning their attention to carceral spaces and developing understandings of the penal experience, for example, in terms of; internal spatial arrangements, flow control and the negotiation of prison spaces; social formations and the nature of social interactions within and beyond the penal boundary; ageing in prison; and prison as a gendered and gendering institution. However, research has largely focussed geographically on the global ‘North’. This session seeks to ‘decenter’ these debates and to encourage a comparative perspective, encouraging the presentation of research focussed on penal experiences both in the ‘North’ and beyond, but also those which see the penal experience as a liminal space between ‘North’

and ‘South’, such as through the experience of migrant detention. Papers

 

which explore the following are particularly welcome:

 

*       The penal experience, its conceptualisation and negotiation

*       The lived experience of imprisonment; negotiation of penal

spaces;

privacy and private spaces; understandings of confinement; penal trajectories

*       Social interactions within, between and beyond carceral spaces

*       Prisons as gendered and gendering institutions

*       Cultural practices and penal confinement

 

Papers could also explore the discourses and practices surrounding the introduction and operation of penal ‘norms’ within the global ‘South’.

 

Please register for the AAG and submit your abstract online, then please email d.moran@bham.ac.uk with your abstract and PIN number for inclusion in the session, by 25 October 2009.

*Call for Papers*

 

Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Washington DC April 14-18, 2010

 

Session: Critical Geopolitical Histories of the Cold War

 

Session organisers: Sean Carter (Exeter University), Alasdair Pinkerton (Royal Holloway, London)

 

Twenty years have now passed since the fall of the Berlin wall and scholars from across the academy are offering critical reflections on both that event in 1989, and the era ‘the wall’ came to symbolize: the Cold War. And yet the relationship between critical geopolitical scholarship and the Cold War as historical period is an ambiguous one. Whilst critical geopolitics as a distinct approach to the understanding and analysis of global politics emerged in the context of Cold War geopolitical strategies, it did not do so until shortly before the collapse of that world order. Critical Geopolitics then, has largely developed in a post-Cold War context that has, of late, become dominated by the Global War on Terror. The Cold War period remains, however, a fruitful area of research for historians and others, not least because of the increasing availability of previously classified documents. In this session we aim to brig together those working on what might be termed Critical Geopolitical Histories of the Cold War. We welcome relevant abstracts on any topic related to this purposefully broad theme, but would be particularly interested in papers that explore;

•       Popular geopolitics and the Cold War

•       Geopolitical strategy

•       Everyday life and ‘banal geographies’ in the Cold War

•       The Cold War and the Developing (Third) World

•       Geopolitical knowledge, ‘area studies’ and the Cold War

•       Nature and Environment in the Cold War

 

Please submit your abstracts to both session organisers by October 14th 2009, in the required AAG format and style (http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/2010/papers.htm).

 

If you have any questions please contact the organizers; s.carter@ex.ac.uk or a.d.pinkerton@rhul.ac.uk

*Call For Papers:*

 

The British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES) Annual Conference, March 27-29, 2010, Cambridge

 

“Geographies of In/Security in the Caucasus – Local and Global Perspectives”

 

Session organised by: Drew Foxall (University of Oxford)

 

Geographers have had a long-standing concern with security: appropriating ideas from philosophy, security studies, regional studies, and other disciplines to rethink geographical conceptualisations of how security is enacted and enforced, produced and consumed in space and spatiality. Geographers have also been sensitive to the scalar politics of security, emphasising its local, regional and national dimensions. In Russia, for the first-half of the post-Soviet period the guarantor of security was unproblematically seen as the state and its constituent institutions. Yet, all this changed with the rise to power of Vladimir Putin. Influential ‘conspiracy theories’ surrounding high profile events such as the apartment bombings of 1999, the Second Chechen War, the Nord-Ost Theatre Siege, and not least the Beslan hostage siege, have challenged the assumed primary role of the state as the protector of its own citizens. Here, Max Weber’s definition of the state as possessing a ‘monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force’ is particularly intuitive. While the locations of these events were geographically diverse, each has its roots what is often seen as Russia’s most ‘insecure’ region, the North Caucasus.

 

This session is broadly conceived and provides a forum for papers which seek to explore the ‘Geographies of In/Security in the Caucasus’. Possible themes include:

 

· How do Russian security/insecurity narratives circulate in the North Caucasus?

 

· What role does the mass media play in the production and consumption of Russian security narratives?

 

· To what extent are traditional core-periphery relations altered or transformed by the security architecture in Russia?

 

· How do ‘other’ social structures (ethnic or kinship groups, for example) provide security networks in the absence of state security? And to what extent are these culturally embedded?

 

· What does the existence of this Russian security narrative in the North Caucasus mean for states in the South Caucasus?

 

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to the convenor by 15 September 2009.

 

Convenor: Drew Foxall, School of Geography, University of Oxford – andrew.foxall@ouce.ox.ac.uk <mailto:andrew.foxall@ouce.ox.ac.uk>

Call for Papers

 

Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Washington

DC April 14-18, 2010

 

 

Session: Geographies of State Bureaucracy

 

Session organisers: Fiona McConnell (Queen Mary University of London), Alex Jeffrey (Newcastle University)

 

 

Recent scholarship in geography, political science and anthropology has pointed to the significance of studying the everyday practices of the state. This anti-essentialist approach has sought to explore the lived experience of statehood and develop this account to challenge the established image of the state as a unified political agent detached from the social context ?over? which it governs. This session seeks to build on this work by exploring specifically the geographies of state bureaucracy. We feel that that studying bureaucracy provides a range of insights into the mechanisms, materials and agents that reproduce state (and state-like) practices and perform its functions on an everyday basis. As classic studies such as Hannah Arendt?s account of the trial of Adolf Eichmann have shown, bureaucracy is an arena within which political objectives are naturalised through languages, materials and routines. Indeed, critical approaches to bureaucratic practices can provide a productive challenge to Max Weber?s ideal of an efficient bureaucracy underpinning a model of rational-legal authority. We are particularly keen to explore the operation of bureaucracy across a range of geographical settings, historical periods and political entities (states, non-state polities, inter-governmental organisations)

 

We keen for the session to explore the following questions:

 

– How can geographers contribute to the theorisation and empirical exploration of state bureaucracies?

– By following paper work and paper workers how does this illuminate the division of administrative labour, the policy process and standardisation of state(like) practices?

– How can scholars go about accessing and researching bureaucracy both ethnographically and historically?

– How do inconsistencies, human errors and failing processes have a material impact on decision making further down the line?

– What mechanisms serve to obscure the function of bureaucracy from citizens and civil society?

– How is the bureaucracy of the state confronted and reproduced by citizens in their everyday lives?

– How can geographers confront the ?distance? that bureaucracy offers agents from their actions?

– What can a critical focus on bureaucracy lend to theories of networked/ hierarchical/ scaled relations, processes and practices?

 

 

Please submit your abstracts to both session organisers by October 9th 2009, in the required aag format and style (http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/2010/papers.htm). If you have any questions please contact the organisers f.mcconnell@qmul.ac.uk or alex.jeffrey@ncl.ac.uk

Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers, 14-18^th April 2010, Washington DC.

Call for Papers – “Geographies of the hidden citizen”

Recent work by geographers on citizenship has moved away from what can be considered more ‘mainstream’ manifestations of the concept towards what has been differently understood as the everyday, mundane or new geographies of citizenship.  We argue, however, that alternative citizenships are still obscured in the literature, and that alternative subjectivities merit attention.   These include groups that have, so far, been neglected both as members of communities/society and subsequently in academic literature, such as young people, senior citizens and prisoners.  There is also a need to examine the counter-public spaces in which acts of citizenship occur, such as homeless shelters, halls of residence, chatrooms, and Scout huts, which further challenge established notions of publicity (Staeheli and Mitchell 2008).  Furthermore, these alternative spaces and practices may highlight normative citizenships that do not conform to the hegemonic or mainstream norms in society (such as traveller communities) and, in doing so, open up discussions on how geographers think about and conceptualise citizenship.

 

In this session we wish to bring together papers that excavate the geographies of the hidden, concealed or ‘out-of-sight’ citizen.  What analytic purchase does citizenship give us when considering those obscured and marginalised in a variety of social and spatial settings?  There is also a need to examine the spatialities of such alternative citizenships.  These may also be hidden if their acts are played out in counterpublic spaces that do not sit neatly within the public/private divide, or may occur in softer, more social settings than has previously been credited.  This session aims to reveal some of the more enigmatic geographies of citizenship, the marginalised areas of research which interrogate the more mundane, nuanced or multi-faceted aspects of citizenship and its spatial manifestations.

We particularly would like to welcome papers on the following themes:

• Citizenship and the lifecourse

• Citizenship and language

• Citizenship and religion

• Sexual citizenship

• Subterranean spaces and counterpublics of citizenship

• ‘Deviant’ and offender citizenships

• Medical citizenship

 

If you would like to participate, please send an abstract (maximum 250 words) to Rhys D. Jones (rdj06@aber.ac.uk) or Sarah Mills (slm06@aber.ac.uk) no later than October 14^th 2009.

 

Reference:

Staeheli L.A and D. Mitchell (2008) The People’s Property?  Power, Politics, and the Public; London: Routledge

Feedback on first PolGRG workshop

The first PolGRG Practising Political Geographies workshop took place at UCL on 12th-13th May 2009. Attached here you can see comments from people who attended and suggestions for next time.

Also attached are the slides from the first day’s presentation by Eric Neumayer on research design and quantitative methods.

Alan Ingram

Secretary, PolGRG

workshop feedback

Research Design presentation for UCL workshop_04

positions in Switzerland…

There are various jobs coming up in Switzerland:

- an *Assistant Professorship *in Political Geography, at the University
of Neuchâtel:

- a *PhD studentship* (fully funded) at the University of Geneva, on the
regionalisation of environmental governance (to work with Profs Fall and
Debarbieux). Contact: bernard.debarbieux@unige.ch
*http://www.unige.ch/ses/geo/index.html

- a PhD studentship at the University of Berne on* Bridging Places
Across Borders: Constitution, Maintenance and Meaning of Transnational
Social Space (Prof. Dr. Janine Dahinden, PD Dr. Yvonne Riano (University
of Neuchâtel), Prof. Dr. Michael Nollert, Dr. Marina Richter (University
of Fribourg). Contact : Yvonne.riano@unine.ch *

Practising political geographies programme

a5-ppg-programme-proof

Practising Political Geographies, 12th-13th May 2009

A workshop organized by the Political Geography Research Group of the RGS-IBG

at the Department of Geography, UCL

This PolGRG workshop will be a focal point for discussion of political geography. It will be of interest to established, mid- and early career scholars and to those undertaking PhD research within, or related to, political geography.

Day one will feature:

• a keynote talk from Professor Stuart Elden (Department of Geography, Durham University) reflecting on key issues in political geography
• responses from scholars in the field
• reading groups on recent agenda-setting research

Day two will focus on methodological and early career issues, with panels on:

• key issues in methodology
• completing a PhD
• making the transition to an academic career
• writing and publishing

There will be plenty of time for plenary discussion and networking on both days.

The workshop will begin with lunch at 12pm on Tuesday 12th May and conclude with tea/coffee at 3pm on Wednesday 13th May. It’s free to attend, but registration is required (contact: Alan Ingram a.ingram@ucl.ac.uk). Refreshments and lunch will be provided on both days. Further details will be posted on the PolGRG website.

We hope you will be able to take part and look forward to seeing you in May.
Sean Carter, Jason Dittmer, Klaus Dodds, Drew Foxall, Alan Ingram
RGS-IBG Political Geography Research Group

Inaugural lecture by Professor Klaus Dodds

Geopolitics: An  A-Z Guide

Inaugural Lecture

Tuesday 25 November 2008

Professor Klaus Dodds
Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London
Windsor Building Auditorium, 6pm

Geopolitics appears to be back in fashion. Political leaders are talking again about ‘spheres of influence’, the return of the ‘Cold War’ and even a ‘global security envelope’. While geographical reasoning remains at the heart of foreign and security policies, it is also manifested in popular culture including film, TV and radio.  In this lecture, Klaus Dodds offers an A-Z guide on the subject and along the way will take in Antarctica, James Bond and much more.

The lecture will be followed by a reception in the Windsor Building Foyer at Royal Holloway, University of London.

All welcome.

RGS-IBG 2009: call for session proposals

The Political Geography Research Group of the RGS-IBG is pleased to extend an invitation to sponsor sessions at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference in Manchester 26-28 August 2009. The chair of the 2009 conference is Professor Stuart Lane (Durham University) and the theme ‘Geography, Knowledge and Society’ (a more complete description of the theme can be found at www.rgs.org/ac2009
The deadline for Research Groups to receive proposed session ideas is the 18th of November 2008. Calls for papers will be posted on the RGS web shortly after. The final deadline for submission of the full session information (with abstract of papers) is due on the 3rd of February. The full timeline for submitting sessions and abstracts for the 2009 RGS-IBG conference is on-line at http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Timeline.htm
The Political Geography Research Group (PolGRG) brings together geographers and others interested in a wide variety of phenomena connected with relationships between space and power.

Areas of interest within political geography include: territoriality, states, nationalism, geopolitics, sovereignty, social movements, citizenship, political economy, political ecology, diaspora, elections, boundaries, globalization, imperialism, governance, peace, conflict and security. The mutual geographical construction of these phenomena with gender, race, class, sexuality and religion is a particular focus of interest. Much recent work  has sought to uncover the historical dimensions to political geography, and the history of the subdiscipline itself has been an active area for research. Research by members of the Group is informed by a range of theoretical and methodological positions and by engagement with wider debates. The Group seeks collaborations and conversations with other areas of geography and other disciplines as we continue our work on these and other topics.

Research group sponsorship can help promote your session, manage timetable clashes and enable you to bid for money for Research Group guests.To put forward your session for PGRG sponsorship, please send your session abstract (max 400 words), contact details and session format (including details of how many sessions you envisage and if sponsorship has also been sought from other research groups) to Sean Carter (s.carter@exeter.ac.uk) by 18/11/08.
As with any research group, we only have a limited number of sessions that we are able to sponsor – however, we will work with the RGS-IBG to try to get those sessions that we are unable to formally sponsor onto the programme.