My apologies to all list subscribers for a message that was intended
just for Daniel (my student).
Tom Slater wrote:
> Well done - looks great.
>
> Daniel Zhang wrote:
>> in case you are interested. Im organising a session in Beijing this June.
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 2:40 PM, Yunpeng ZHANG
>> <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>
>> Apologise for cross posting
>>
>> Regional Studies Association Global Conference 2012
>> Sustaining Regional Futures, 24th - 27th June 2012, Beijing, China
>>
>> Call for papers for a session entitled:
>>
>> Sustaining Whose Futures? Megaprojects, territorial politics and
>> social injustices
>>
>> Organisers:
>> Yunpeng Zhang, PhD student, Institute of Geography, The University of
>> Edinburgh, UK, email: [log in to unmask]
>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> Huifang Cong, PhD student, School of Built Environment, Heriot-Watt
>> University Edinburgh, UK email: [log in to unmask]
>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> Xiang Feng, PhD, Managing Director of Sino-European Comparative Urban
>> Research Centre, Shanghai Normal University, China, email:
>> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>
>> Session Introduction
>>
>> The ascendancy of neoliberal ideology worldwide witnessed a shift,
>> what David Harvey portrays, from managerialism to entrepreneurialism
>> in urban governance, prioritising policy concerns on competitiveness
>> and attractiveness of places to footloose capital investment over
>> social settlements on welfares and redistribution. A prominent
>> strategy of such entrepreneurial urbanism focuses on the production
>> and reproduction of spaces at various scales, or 'spatial fix' to
>> use Harvey's words, in order to exploit locational advantages.
>> Megaprojects are one of the spatial fixes. In this session, we
>> advise megaprojects include: large scale infrastructural projects,
>> major urban regeneration/gentrification programmes, new town
>> development, and one-time off mega-event such as Olympics or World
>> Expo, etc. This broad view of megaprojects is based on our
>> conviction that the spatial-temporal criteria of scale and the
>> financial yardstick of cost cannot be adopted as the defining
>> features of megaprojects for the firm connections of megaprojects
>> with wider political-economic changes and spatial (re)structuring,
>> such as, inter alia, the shift towards post-Fordism economy, the
>> dominant power of fictitious finance capital, the hegemony of
>> neoliberalism, and state rescaling.
>> Whilst much academic input has been invested in examining the
>> contextual changes giving rise to megaprojects as an entrepreneurial
>> strategy and the impacts upon the city/region (often based on
>> ex-ante predications), theoretical polemics and empirical
>> investigations have overlooked the complicated process and the
>> realpolitik of territoriality in developing and managing
>> megaprojects. Filled with a plethora of celebratory accounts laying
>> much weight on the contribution of megaprojects to urban/regional
>> economic development and improvement of place images, existing
>> scholarship fails to highlight the inherent irrationalities and
>> contradictions in developing megaprojects and social inequalities
>> and social injustices generated and exacerbated by them, especially
>> in non-western context. What required are independent and critical
>> examinations of the actual impacts upon the city/region in general
>> and the citizens in particular as the latter are the human agents
>> bearing the direct intended or unintended consequences of
>> megaprojects. More importantly, there is a moral and ethical
>> imperative to examine how megaprojects impact the vulnerable
>> populations such as the displacees, the migrant workers, the urban
>> poor, etc. Take the issue of displacement in China as an example,
>> millions of farmers were displaced and relocated in order to develop
>> the Three Gorges Dam and more than 18000 households gave away their
>> beloved homes and communities to make way for the Expo 2010,
>> however, existing studies seem oblivious to the impacts upon their
>> personal lives, families, and communities.
>> The proposed session provides an opportunity for critical
>> contribution from a wide range of disciplines such as sociology,
>> anthropology, geography, political sciences, and legal studies to
>> offer inter-disciplinary insights on the study of megaprojects. We
>> ask contributors to critically think about questions what kind of
>> futures megaprojects are promising; for whom such futures are
>> created and sustained, and whether the promised futures are well
>> delivered. We invite both theoretical exploration and empirical case
>> studies from different regions in the world on the following themes:
>>
>> * The underlying logics of megaprojects ;
>> * The territorial politics and strategies in legitimating and
>> developing megaprojects;
>> * Legal and policy frameworks for land use in developing
>> megaprojects;
>> * Evaluation of the impacts of megaprojects;
>> * Social injustices and social inequalities in megaprojects ;
>> * Involuntary displacement and forcible evictions caused by
>> megaprojects (policy frameworks, representations of displacement,
>> and mechanics of displacement process);
>>
>>
>> We welcome abstracts of 400-800 words along with paper titles and
>> full contact details of all participating authors to be submitted to
>> Huifang ([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>) and Yunpeng
>> ([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> ) by Monday
>> 20 February 2012 (it is possible to extend the deadline to Mondy 27
>> February 2012 ). Please see
>>
>> http://www.regional-studies-__assoc.ac.uk/events/2012/__globalconf-june/abstract-__submission.pdf
>>
>>
>> <http://www.regional-studies-assoc.ac.uk/events/2012/globalconf-june/abstract-submission.pdf>
>>
>> for detailed instructions for abstract submission. Those submitting
>> abstracts to this special session must also register for the
>> conference via the RSA online registration website in order to be
>> confirmed and included in the conference programme. The uploading
>> of abstracts is inclusive of the online registration process.
>>
>>
>> Yunpeng Zhang
>> PhD Candidate
>> Institute of Geography
>> University of Edinburgh
>> Drummond Street
>> Edinburgh EH8 9XP
>> Scotland, UK
>> Web: www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/__s0977814
>> <http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/s0977814>
>>
>> -- The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body,
>> registered in
>> Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
>>
>> _________________________________________________________
>> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> An urban geography discussion and announcement forum
>> List Archives: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/URB-__GEOG-FORUM
>> <http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/URB-GEOG-FORUM>
>> Maintained by: RGS-IBG Urban Geography Research Group
>> UGRG Home Page: http://www.urban-geography.__org.uk
>> <http://www.urban-geography.org.uk>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Yunpeng Zhang
>> PhD student
>> Institute of Geography
>> School of GeoSciences
>> The University of Edinburgh
>> Drummond Street
>> Edinburgh, EH8 9XP
>> Scotland, UK
>>
>> www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/s0977814
>> <http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/s0977814>
>>
>> _______________________________________________________
>> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> An urban geography discussion and announcement forum List Archives:
>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/URB-GEOG-FORUM Maintained by: RGS-IBG Urban
>> Geography Research Group UGRG Home Page:
>> http://www.urban-geography.org.uk
>
--
Dr. Tom Slater
Senior Lecturer in Human Geography
http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/tslater
Chair, RGS-IBG Urban Geography Research Group:
http://urban-geography.org.uk/
http://www.advancedurbanmarginality.net/
School of Geosciences,
University of Edinburgh
Drummond Street,
Edinburgh EH8 9XP, U.K.
Tel: +44 (0)131 650 9506
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
_______________________________________________________
[log in to unmask]
An urban geography discussion and announcement forum
List Archives: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/URB-GEOG-FORUM
Maintained by: RGS-IBG Urban Geography Research Group
UGRG Home Page: http://www.urban-geography.org.uk
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