Apologies for cross-postings

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RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2006
30 August - 1st September 2006
at the Royal Geographical Society with IBG, London

Call for Papers:

Cities and the Territorialisation of Identity Politics

A Session Jointly Sponsored by the Political and Urban Geography Research
Groups


Ethnic diversity has become a key feature of cities, both in the developed world
and in post-colonial settings. While in many instances this diversity has
emerged out of recent global migration flows, in other cases ethnic ‘friction’
stems from long-standing conflation of different groups brought together in the
course of wider geopolitical processes of nation-building. In such cases cities
embed a wider geography of ethno-nationalism and (potentially) territorial
conflict. Attempting to conceptualise and analyse these complex realities has
resulted in lively debates about the merits of different models of regulating
inter-group relations, ranging from ‘multiculturalism’ to ‘integration’ and
‘assimilation’. Recent concerns with urban terrorism and ‘security’ in Europe
(and beyond) have re-amplified the centrality of urban institutions in the
regulation of multi-ethnic settings.  Yet relatively little has been said about
the relational role of cities as terrains for the expression of identity
politics within a complex confluence of local, national and transnational
citizenship regimes.  Urban political spaces are important sites of identity
construction and of claim-making, at the same time that they are in constant
dialogue with other scales of political organisation, group identities and
governance.  

In this session we seek theoretical and empirical contributions on the politics
of diversity and inter-group relationships as they relate to struggles over the
meanings, uses, and governance of urban space. We hope to combine in this
session contributions on different national settings, from developed as well as
developing, post-colonial contexts. We are interested in papers that explore
the tensions between inclusion and exclusion that emerge from debates about the
appropriate role of ‘ethnic difference’ in public spheres and spaces.   We wish
to consider the ways in which minority groups make claims to the city and
assert particular notions of citizenship and belonging.  And we wish to explore
how urban spaces become fields of conflict, as well as the resolution of
conflict, in multi-group settings. The relational role of cities as terrains
that embody the local, national and transnational dimensions of identity
construction and mobilisation strategies is also of interest, and we would
welcome contributions which attempt to decipher the scaled nature of
contemporary citizenship.

The following themes are suggested as possible contributions, although they are
by no means exhaustive:

·	Ethnic movement politics and organisation in European cities;

·	The politics of multiculturalism in post-colonial and developing world
cities;

·	Convergence, divergence and innovation in the local ‘regulation’ of identity
politics;

·	Urban planning responses to the challenge of diversity;

·	Theoretical contributions on the territorialisation and rescaling of identity
politics;

·	City spaces as performative platforms for the politics of difference;

·	Ethno-national conflict and city governance;

·	Cities and transnational ethnic politics;

·	The new security agenda, urban terrorism and identities.

Paper proposals in the form of a 200 word abstract, using the IBG form
(http://www.rgs.org/pdf/AC2006%20Abstract%20submission%20form.doc), should be
submitted to Peter Hopkins ([log in to unmask]) by 20th January 2006. 
Please also submit your abstract to: [log in to unmask] 

Session convenors:

Joe Leibovitz, Institute of Geography, The University of Edinburgh
([log in to unmask])

Peter Hopkins, Department of Geography, The University of Lancaster
([log in to unmask])

Caroline Nagel, Department of Geography, Loughborough University,
([log in to unmask])

 

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