This is our second call for papers for a session on the Geographies of
Corruption at this years RGS/IBG. We are already building up a good set of
papers with involvement from key activists and political scientists in the
field as well as geographers and we are already negotiating the possibility
of a journal special edition with the papers.
With this second call, we are particularly looking for engagement from
further critical geographers who might be interested in exploring
corruption from different angles from those we have initiated. Please get
in touch with either of us if you would like to get involved.
thanks,
Ed Brown and Jon Cloke.
The annual meeting of the Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of
British Geographers) will take place in London in 2006 from 30th August to
1st September.
Session title: Geographies of Corruption
A session sponsored by the Economic Geography research group of the RGS-IBG.
Session conveners: Ed Brown (Loughborough University) and Jonathan Cloke
(University of Newcastle)
One of the major features of recent mainstream pronouncements on global
development challenges has been an emphasis upon corruption as a major
explanation for the failures of globalization to deliver improved quality
of life for many of the peoples of the global South. Such concerns have
also been reflected in the emergence of a veritable anti-corruption
industry over recent years in the form of new international agreements,
major international conferences and the funding of good governance reform
programmes in many countries.
This growing preoccupation with corruption has, however, been characterized
by a series of important limitations including: a tendency to
underplay the global dimensions of corruption, a failure to treat corruption
within the broader political economy of North-South relations, an
over-emphasis on the state sector as the location of corruption (and market
reforms as 'treatment') and an over-simplification of the meanings and
causation of corruption.
Recently critical geographers have begun to engage with other
disciplines(such as political sciences, cultural studies and critical
management studies) in exploring alternatives to the dominant econocentric
approaches towards corruption. It is intended that this session will provide
a forum to explore further the specific contribution that critical geography
can make in exposing the limitations of mainstream approaches and
outlining possible directions for more nuanced and effective approaches
towards corruption.
Potential topics include (but are not limited to):
- corruption as social capital,
- the meanings of corruption in different cultural settings,
- corruption and global financial flows,
- corruption and theories of the state,
- historical explorations of the changing significance attached to
corruption etc.
Discussions are already underway about a potential journal special
edition on the basis of the session.
Proposed papers in the form of a 200 word abstract (using the RGS-IBG
pro-forma available from www.rgs.org/ac2006) should be submitted to the
session convenors by (and preferably before) 31st January 2006.
For more details and to submit an abstract, please contact:
Ed Brown
Department of Geography,
Loughborough University.
[log in to unmask]
or
Jonathan Cloke
Department of Geography
University of Newcastle
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