There's a very interesting conversation on emotional geographies taking place on the Canadian Geographers list at the moment, which bears cross-posting.... See below
Dr Jon Cloke
LCEDN/MEGS Research Associate
Geography Department
Loughborough University
Loughborough LE11 3TU
Office: 01509 228193
Mob: 07984 813681
________________________________________
From: [log in to unmask] [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Matthew Hatvany [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 27 June 2012 19:07
To: Lawrence Berg; CAG List
Subject: Re: [Caglist] FW: 4th Conference on Emotional Geographies
Dear Mr. Blatherwick,
Just because emotions can not be measured in the traditional sense in the spatial sciences does not mean that they are not "real" and as much a part of the world as populations, transport systems, buildings and natural objects. Your ontological certainty as to what constitutes the "real world" is a form of epistemological reductionism that renders the world a flat plane made up of Cartesian coordinates. To be a "geographer" means to have a "holistic" vision of the world that takes into consideration the material and the immaterial. If I may, I am quite intrigued to know how you "chime in on spatial impacts of decision making" when it comes to people and places (like Ottawa, where you are headquartered) if you have not taken into account people's sentiments in regards to home, place of work, transport systems, environment, community, etc.? Frankly, the theoretical revolutions that have taken place in cultural geography since the 1990s have undoubtedly made geography considerably more relevant to decision makers who rely on the spatial sciences.
I do not deny that your field of applied geography plays an important role in society – it certainly does. But, because of the constraints imposed by your clientele (engineers, municipalities, politicians, etc.), applied geography is often in the business of simplifying spatial concerns to a limited number of variables. Is that a true reflection of the "real" world to which you make allusion? I think you'll agree that in most cases there is a lot of grey, complexity and, ultimately, uncertainty out there…. As Canadian geographers, therefore, let us thank the generosity of Canadian society that we are a rich and intelligent enough nation to support a small corpus of "ivory tower types" who are purposely not constrained by external pressures and are encouraged to think independently and originally in order to explore geography in its fullness and not according to the political whims, economic imperatives or other exigencies of the "hour."
Dr. Berg – the geographical community has "got your back." Please continue to advocate your vital work. Geographers recognize that the world is a diverse place and must be analyzed in all of its rational and irrational complexity.
Sincerely,
Matthew Hatvany
Département de géographie, Université Laval
Member of the CAG
De : Lawrence Berg <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
À : CAG List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Objet : [Caglist] FW: 4th Conference on Emotional Geographies
Perhaps this is a good example of emotional geographies in action.
------ Forwarded Message
From: <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 21:00:50 -0700
To: Lawrence Berg <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [Caglist] 4th Conference on Emotional Geographies
Dear Lawrence:
Please stop sending me this drivel. A conference on emotional geographies? Give me a break. As a professional in the applied geography field (for all you ivory tower types that means working in the real world) I can only shake my head in disbelief over what has been happening to my chosen profession since the mid '90s. You may not realize it but we are the ones who have to chime in on the spatial impacts of decision making, etc., etc. In other words, we matter. Period. This artsy-fartsy Birkenstock and Volvo crap puts all of us in the "largely irrelevant" category of the social sciences. Unacceptable, Mr. Berg.
Regards,
John Blatherwick,
Principal
Geospace Research Associates
491 Edgeworth Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario
K2B5L2
613.829.2629
________________________________
From: Lawrence Berg <[log in to unmask]>
To: CAGList <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2012 2:38:02 PM
Subject: [Caglist] 4th Conference on Emotional Geographies
4th Conference on Emotional Geographies
Posted on behalf of Bettina van Hoven. Please contact her for details.
Cheers,
Lawrence
Fourth International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies
1-3 July 2013 at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands
CALL FOR SESSIONS
The Fourth International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies will be held 1-3 July 2013 at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, hosted by the Faculty of Spatial Sciences. After the success of the first three conferences (in Lancaster, UK, 2002; Kingston, Canada, 2006; and Adelaide, Australia, 2010), this fourth conference provides a forum for a range of people from different disciplinary backgrounds as well as societal partners and artists to creatively explore the role of emotion in thinking about and experiencing space and society.
We are facing spatial and social transformations as a result of climate change, financial crises, geopolitical instabilities and digital revolutions, which evoke emotional responses. These events led Vermeulen and Van den Akker (2010) to introduce the concept of metamoderism; a “spacetime that is … neither ordered nor disordered” (p.12) and that is characterized by the oscillation “between a modern enthusiasm and a postmodern irony, between hope and melancholy, between naïveté and knowingness, empathy and apathy, unity and plurality, totality and fragmentation, purity and ambiguity” (p.5-6).
We seek papers that investigate the multiplicity of spaces and places that produce and are produced by emotional and affective life, representing an inclusive range of theoretical and methodological engagements with emotion as a social, cultural and spatial phenomenon. Themes include but are not limited to: migration, landscapes, development, governance, arts, ageing, embodiment, cities, population decline, ruralities, wellbeing, real estate, non-human actors, memory, entrepreneurship, methods.
Key note speakers:
Rosi Braidotti (University of Utrecht)
Nigel Thrift (University of Warwick)
Divya Tolia-Kelly (Durham University)
Deadlines:
Deadline for session proposals: October 15th, 2012
Deadline for abstracts: January 20th, 2013
Contact:
Dr. Bettina van Hoven, Dept of Cultural Geography, University of Groningen. Email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Lawrence D. Berg BA (dist.), MA, DPhil
Professor and Co-Director | UBC Centre for Social, Spatial & Economic Justice
Community, Culture, & Global Studies | The University of British Columbia
Arts 368-368D | 3333 University Way | Kelowna, BC, Canada, V1V 1V7
Phone +1 250 807 9392 | Fax +1 250 807 8001
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://web.ubc.ca/okanagan/ccgs/faculty/berg.html
Editor: ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies
http://www.acme-journal.org <http://www.acme-journal.org/>
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