Apologies for cross postings
Call for Papers
New Zealand Geographical Society Conference 2010, with the Institute of
Australian Geographers, 5-8 July 2010, Rydges Hotel, Christchurch, New
Zealand http://www.nzgs2010.org.nz/.
Session Title: Beyond the ‘OE’? Temporary Mobility or Temporary Migration?
Session Convenor: Tara Duncan, University of Otago
The ‘OE’ (Overseas Experience) can perhaps be seen as an iconic New Zealand
practice. The OE, along with the Gap Year, backpacking and other similar and
emerging terms are everyday terms and phrases in many places around the
world. Yet, in becoming mainstream, so the terms seem to be losing meaning.
Myths surrounding what the OE or Gap Year ‘is’ versus the reality of the
experience are challenging notions of home and away, here and there, ‘us’
and ‘them’ as those who undertake these trips move through a succession of
fluid social, cultural, local, regional, national and global formations.
This session seeks papers that will critically examine what the OE is and if
such an experience is still possible. As the literature grows on theoretical
debates such as transnationalism and mobility, perhaps these types of longer
term travel need to be challenged to illustrate the multiple belongings, fluid
social and cultural worlds and changing senses of self (extending beyond the
scope of ‘traditional’ (nation-based?) citizenship) that exist.
The session would aim to attract papers that could include, but are not limited
to issues such as:
o both the immobility and mobility inherent in much longer term (budget?)
travel,
o the blurrings between temporary mobility and temporary migration,
o the changing nature of such travel, spatially, temporally and demographically,
o the embedded geographies of the corporeal mobilities of different
individuals/groups,
o where is home, where is away? And;
o who is or becomes the other?
Please send abstracts (of approx 250 words) to Tara Duncan
([log in to unmask]) by Friday March 26th, 2010.
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