Apologies for cross-posting. Please see the call for papers below.
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Andrew Jones
School of Geography
Birkbeck College
University of London
Malet Street
LONDON WC1E 7HX
tel. +44 (0)207 631 6471
fax. +44 (0)207 631 6498
email: [log in to unmask]
web: www.bbk.ac.uk/geog
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AAG2007 CALL FOR PAPERS
Global Economic Practices: Theories, Methods and Evidence
San Francisco, 17th-21st April 2007
http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/SF2007/call4papers.cfm
Organisers:
Andrew Jones, School of Geography, Birkbeck College, University of London,
UK
Henry Wai-Chung Yeung, Department of Geography, National University of
Singapore, Singapore
In recent years, there has been emerging discussion of a 'practice-
centred' turn in economic geography. The new economic geography has become
increasingly interested in what kinds of economic actors can be understood
to exist in the global economy, and how they interact and produce new
spatial outcomes. Social practices (both individual and collective) have
thus become a growing area of empirical and theoretical attention as
researchers seek to understand how firm success or failure and
local/regional development is shaped by different kinds of economic
practice. In particular, a debate has developed as to the varying
significance of certain kinds of economic practices - face-to-face
interaction, knowledge practices and technologically-mediated practices -
that shape intra-firm and inter-firm transactions.
This interest in practice has drawn on a range of sociological and
management schools of thought including critical sociology, actor-network
theory, network analysis and organization studies. Yet ever greater
interconnectedness and complexity in the global economy poses difficult
challenges for mapping economic practices and developing conceptual and
methodological tools that are transferable and have policy relevance.
Critics of the practice-turn point to the difficulties of generalization
encountered by focusing on the micro-scale of social practice and argue
that economic geographers need to return their attention to
wider 'structural' influences such as institutional contexts, labour and
capital markets and varieties of capitalism.
This session therefore seeks to critically assess the direction the new
economic geography is taking with regard to the 'practice turn'. It is
envisaged that papers might address a wide range of themes in relation to
debates about the nature and significance of economic practice and how
this can inform theories of the global space economy. These may include
one or more of the following:
Theorising Economic Practice in the Global Economy
. theoretical and empirical understandings of economic practice and their
role in firm and regional economic success; . the spatial form of economic
practices and how they exists within and across different scales in the
contemporary global space economy; . the role of different forms of
practices including, for example, knowledge practices, face-to-face
interaction, technological practice and transactional practice; . the
epistemological and philosophical debates underpinning understanding of
economic practices. . the limitations of a practice-centred approach and
the 'practice-turn';
Economic Practice, Power and Agency
. how power is exercised through practices in national/transnational firms
and the global space economy; . the practices that constitute inter- and
intra-firm networks and how agency is developed by individuals and groups
in those networks; . practices of management and control in
national/transnational firms; . the role of and interrelationship between
formal and informal practices in economic activity; . cultural practices
and their relationship to firm-level and regional economic success;
. Researching Economic Practice
. the methodological issues around mapping economic practices in the
contemporary global economy; . the contrasts between different approaches
for researching economic practice - for example, sociological,
anthropological or actor-network approaches
These more specific areas are given as a guide only and enquiries from
potential presenters who think that their paper would fit with the overall
themes of the session would be welcome. Meanwhile, the organisers are
exploring the possibility of publishing a special issue of selected papers
in a leading geography journal.
The AAG website <http://www.aag.org> provides more information about the
annual meeting. Accepted papers will need to be registered online (paper
title and short abstract of no more than 250 words and with 3 keywords).
If you are interested in participating, please send your abstract (of not
more than 250 words) for possible inclusion in this session to Andrew
Jones ([log in to unmask]) or Henry Yeung ([log in to unmask]) by 19 October
2006.
Abstract instructions:
http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/SF2007/abstract.cfm
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