Call for Papers: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2013, London 28-30 August 2013
Beyond Securitisation: Military actors in development
Sponsored by the Developing Areas Research Group
Organisers: Matt Baillie Smith, Uma Kothari, Nina Laurie and Rachel Woodward
Recent years have witnessed the growing presence of the military in international development. This session will explore how military organisations and personnel, whose security roles often result in them taking part in development-related activities, might be considered as actors in the field of development. While scholarship highlights how development is being re-configured through a blurring of the boundaries between development, poverty and security (e.g. Duffield 2007, Smith 2010), very little research has looked beyond the security-development nexus. This session aims to explore how and where military roles foster development engagements and generate new development actors. It aims to address the diverse development roles undertaken in historical and contemporary settings and analyse the place and contribution of military cultures and knowledges to development theory and practice through conceptual and empirical analyses.
The historical involvement of armed forces in state-building and development work in imperial, colonial, independence and revolutionary contexts points to a long tradition of military involvement in development-type activities. Contemporary geopolitical shifts are re-orientating many national armed forces and although in this context their development roles are often viewed as politically problematic, there is growing evidence that the 'can do' culture of the military, and the resources, skills, experiences and aptitudes of military institutions and serving and ex-military personnel are being sought after by development organisations. This is as much the case for military institutions (national and supra national) from the global North adjusting to post conflict and stabilisation scenarios, as it is for peace time militaries in the global South where environmental protection activities are increasingly complimenting long stating traditions of compulsory military service personnel undertaking infra structure construction and maintenance.
The session invites papers which focus on serving (full time and reservist) personnel as well as ex militaries in diverse historic and contemporary settings. We are interested in work that explores how the military engage with established development networks, cultures and knowledges as well as the ways in which new understandings and practices are forged through military development encounters. Papers are sought which analyse the development engagement of military actors from a variety of national and supra national armed forces.
Please submit proposed titles and abstracts of not more than 250 words to Nina Laurie ([log in to unmask]) by 8 February 2013.
Nina Laurie
Professor of Development and Environment
School of Geography, Politics and Sociology
Newcastle University, UK
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/staff/profile/nina.laurie
tel: +44 (0) 191 2226346 fax: +44 (0) 191 222 5421
Recent and current research projects:
Securitisation and development: the military as new development actors http://research.ncl.ac.uk/military-research/themes/development.html
Post Trafficking Livelihoods in Nepal: Women, Sexuality and Citizenship: www.posttraffickingnepal.co.uk; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC33zEZcCnc
Youth transitions, international volunteering and religious transformations
Recent publications: "Indigenous Development in the Andes" (Duke 2009)
http://www.dukeupress.edu/books.php3?isbn=978-0-8223-4540-4
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