THE POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF PRIVATE-SECTOR RECRUITMENT AND EMPLOYMENT IN CONFLICT SETTINGS (sponsored by the PolGRG)
This panel invites contributions from those exploring - empirically and/or theoretically - issues relating to private-sector recruitment and employment of third country nationals in conflict settings.
Providing the human resources for warfare is difficult. It is expensive and subject to public criticism, as the disputed legitimacy of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq leads the public to increasingly question the acceptability of exposing 'their' military to risk. One response to this problem is outsourcing to private contractors. Of these, many, particularly those in low-skilled jobs such as base support (perimeter security, catering, cleaning etc), were recruited in the Global South, often from countries with their own experience of conflict.
Papers submitted to this panel may address (but are not limited to) the following questions:
- What ideas are raised by applying a spatial lens to private sector recruitment, in terms of globalised recruitment and relations between different countries?
- How and why have particular countries become an attractive source of recruits in conflict settings, in other words why do we see a national/ethnic segmentation of particular roles?
- What is the importance of historical (e.g. colonial) links between those doing the outsourcing and the subcontracted employees?
- Can previous conflict experience explain the recruitment from particular populations?
- What spatial and power hierarchies exist between recruiters and recruited, in terms of the exposure to risk, and why are there differential levels of acceptable risk for different groups?
- What role does this recruitment and employment have in terms of absorbing what Mark Duffield refers to as 'surplus life' from countries of the Global South?
- What are the lived experiences of those involved in this recruitment and employment?
- How do these kinds of recruitment and employment practices change the conduct and effects of contemporary war?
Please send a title and abstracts of no more than 250 words to Ceri Oeppen ([log in to unmask]) and Christina Oelgemoller ([log in to unmask]) by 1st of February 2013.
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