Please see below a call for papers for a session in the RGS-IBG Annual
Conference 2008 (27-29 August).
Migration and Everyday Matters: Sociality and Materiality
Convenors: Madeleine Dobson and Elaine Ho (Royal Holloway)
The recent growth of interest in the everyday social practices and material
cultures of mobility is arguably symptomatic of a wider shift within human
geography towards the need to make sense of the way in which
meta-narratives, such as globalisation and transnationalism, are produced
through seemingly nondescript norms, values, objects and routines. This
session on ‘Migration and Everyday Matters’ responds to calls for ‘an
alternative conceptualization of migration which emphasizes its situatedness
within everyday life’ (Halfacree and Boyle, 1993), and an attentiveness to
‘the mundane and situated efforts by which people make their lives across
international borders’ (Conradson and Latham, 2005). Rather than being
consigned simply as ‘floating nomads’, migrants need to be understood as
making their lives in physical locations on a daily basis, just like those
with more sedentary trajectories.
We encourage contributions that explore:
· The everyday forms of social experience through which migration unfolds as
a way of life.
· The material cultures that (re)produce forms of everyday living for migrants.
· What the ‘everyday’ might mean when researching migration as well as the
methodological issues it presents.
In this way, the session hopes to bring social and cultural geography’s
prioritising of social experiences and material culture to bear on
investigations of migrant experiences, especially in the everyday realm. It
explores the potential of these approaches to produce new, richer
understandings of what it means to be a ‘migrant’, suggests alternative ways
to appreciate what matters to migrants and, therefore, what should matter to
migration geographers.
Please send your abstracts (150-200 words) to Madeleine Dobson
([log in to unmask]) and Elaine Ho ([log in to unmask]) by 10 January 2008.
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