Call for Papers: RGS (IBG) Annual International Conference, August26-28
2009, Manchester UK
Governmentality, Social Exclusion and the Future of the Welfare State
Over the last decade a growing number of human geographers have taken up
Foucauldian perspectives of governmentality as a means to elucidate the
different ways particular populations and individuals are deemed problematic,
amendable and governable by different actors. On the backdrop of neoliberal
globalisation and welfare-state restructuring, governmentality has provided
and continues to provide critical insights into community and urban
regeneration, homelessness and social exclusion, and has opened up new
avenues of research and political engagement.
This session seeks papers which ask how changing relations and practices of
government (state and non-state actors), in different spaces and scales,
come to constitute transformations in the welfare state, with particular
reference the notions inclusion and exclusion. With this in mind, this session
invites papers which explore this theme in relation to:
• Subjectification: with particular attention to the processes of
governmental and ethical self-formation, and its role in welfare state
reconstitution
• Notions of inclusion and exclusion (in relation to welfare policies of
contemporary governments and/or ‘everyday lives’ of individuals, groups and
nations).
• Neoliberalism: evolving logics and moral landscapes in contemporary
government.
• The role of voluntary, community and faith-based actors working to
varying degrees within, alongside or counter to neoliberal rationalities,
technologies and subjectivities.
• How the use of ‘governmentality’ could be strengthened by a fusion
with other theoretical perspective (for example, using non-representational
theory, theories of agency, ethics, and materiality) with particular emphasis
on an exploration of the Welfare State. What are the conceptual and
analytical implications of such a potential fusion?
• Spaces of post-capitalist production and social exclusion
This session will give researchers an opportunity to discuss and generate ideas
relating the multiple mentalities of governing evident in dissipate social policies
and areas of welfare. It will also allow time for discussion to be had reflecting
how current theoretical, research, practices, and pedagogies regarding the
above can be considered within the broader conference themes of Geography,
Knowledge, and
Society.
Please send all enquiries and completed abstracts to Kim Ward
([log in to unmask]) or Andrew Williams ([log in to unmask]) by the
18th of February 2009. When submitting your abstract please ensure you
include: your name, institutional affiliation, contact email, title of proposed
paper, abstract (no more than 250 words), and any technical requirements.
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