Call for papers: AAG Boston 2008
The politics of the (neoliberalizing) rural
Organisers:
Dr Mark Scott, University College Dublin
Dr Alistair Fraser, National University of Ireland, Maynooth
Recent work in rural studies has argued that there has been
a shift from ‘rural politics’ to ‘the politics of the
rural’ (e.g. Woods, 2005, 2006). Neoliberalism (or,
perhaps more accurately, neoliberalization) is among the
forces giving rise to this shift. Yet analyses of
neoliberalization, particularly the notion of ‘neoliberal
urbanism’, which has been widely discussed in the recent
geography literature, tend to downplay the significance of
neoliberal ideas, policies, and projects to the unfolding of
social and spatial life in rural areas. Instead, the
overriding sense, especially in the critical geography
literature on neoliberalization, is that cities are _the_
laboratories, incubators, and ultimate frontiers of
neoliberalism. Arguably, however, roll-out or roll-back
neoliberalism has just as much, if not more, relevance in
rural areas. The question with which we are interested
therefore asks where, precisely, rural areas stand in the
imaginaries of (critics, analysts and, indeed, implementers
of) neoliberalism? What, moreover, is the relation between
urban and rural space under neoliberalizing conditions? For
this AAG session, then, we call for papers that engage with
‘the politics of the rural’ – that is, with rural
identities, rurality, emotive or political relations with
rural places, or the cultural politics of the rural – and
which also seek to develop an understanding of ‘the
politics of the neoliberalizing rural’. We welcome
abstract ‘thought pieces’ as well as findings from
empirical research; papers based on research within the
so-called ‘first’ or ‘third’ worlds; and papers
based on qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods.
Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words by Oct
13th to [log in to unmask]
or [log in to unmask]
Further details on paper requirements and registration for
the AAG meeting can be found at
http://aag.org/annualmeetings/2008/index.htm
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Alistair Fraser
Department of Geography
National University of Ireland, Maynooth
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