The following is posted on behalf of Rosie Cox (Birkbeck, University of
London, UK) and Laura Venn (Coventry University, UK). Please reply to
Rosie and Laura.
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Call for papers
Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Denver 5-9 April
2005
GEOGRAPHIES OF DIRT AND PURITY
Apologies for cross-posting and short deadline 1st October 2004
Please circulate widely
Since the publication of Mary Douglas's 'Purity and Danger' dirt has
been understood as 'matter out of place'. However, despite this
implicitly geographical definition, geographers have rarely explicitly
discussed and theorised the meanings and practices surrounding dirt and
purity. Shared and contested understandings of dirt and disgust;
cleanliness and purity shape our everyday lives, in public and private
spaces, alone and with others. Notions of dirtiness and purity are
profoundly implicated in ethnic, national and gender hierarchies as well
as in banal practices such as washing, cleaning and cooking. Dirtiness
and purity may also not be simple polar opposites. The soil on
home-grown food might symbolise its purity- both moral and physical -
compared to the scrubbed produce on supermarket shelves.
This session seeks to bring together a broad range of papers that are
interested in understandings and practices surrounding dirt and purity.
Topics covered could include but are not restricted to:
Concepts of cleanliness and scientific practice
Dirty work
Housework and cleaning
Purity in the food chain
Bodily cleanliness
Public sanitation and health scares
Waste, dirt, recycling and re-use
Sensory experiences of dirt and cleanliness
Abstracts of about 200 words should be submitted to Rosie Cox
[log in to unmask] and Laura Venn [log in to unmask] (please send all
abstracts to both of us) by 1st October 2004. Participants will need to
register for the conference and receive an Identification Number before
14th October. Apologies again for the tight deadlines.
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