CFP RGS-IBG Conference London 28-30th Aug 2013
Arguing About Cities
Sponsored by Urban Geography Research Group (UGRG) and Political Geography Research Group (PGRG)
Organisers: Sean Kennedy (Geography and Environment, University of Southampton) and Dr Nick Clarke (Geography and Environment, University of Southampton)
There was something of a discursive turn in Urban-Political Geography during the 1980s and 90s. This was part of a broader turn towards language, communication, judgement, framing, narrative, rhetoric etc. in social science more generally at the time – which was, in turn, a response to philosophical and theoretical developments associated with Derrida, Foucault, Habermas and others, but also to perceived developments in social policy (seen increasingly to be focused on ‘wicked problems’ characterised by complexity and uncertainty, and demanding of interpretation, deliberation, and governance). For many during this period, urban policy was approached as the outcome of argumentation. Urban research came to involve analysis of arguments in terms of their selectivity and assumptions. Urban change was pursued through participation in arguments and attempts to reform how argumentation proceeds in city institutions (e.g. communicative planning initiatives).
Recently, this ‘argumentative turn’ has been revisited in Policy Studies (see Fischer and Gottweiss 2012) where attempts have been made to clarify further concepts like discourse, interaction, and enabling/constraining institutions. We think something similar might be useful in Urban-Political Geography. Much has changed in the sub-discipline since the 1990s. For example, there have been attempts to rematerialise urban and political geographies. So how do approaches to urban politics and policy focused on discourse and argumentation look from the perspective of 2012? What have they contributed over the last three decades? How must they change in the light of more recent theoretical, methodological, and empirical developments? What light can they shed on recent empirical developments?
Potential topics for papers and discussion might include, but not be limited to:
• Discourse, interaction, and neoliberalism.
• The role of practice, performance, emotion, affect, non-humans etc. in urban policy argumentation.
• The rise of governance, participation, deliberation etc. and, alongside that, the emergence of critiques of post-politics and anti-politics regarding contemporary urban governmental arrangements.
• The relationship between argumentation and urban policy mobility, with mobile policies approached as discursive resources in arguments about urban policy (see Temenos and McCann 2012).
• The role of principles, metaphors, and justifications in arguments about urban policy – a focus in contemporary Political Studies (see Lakoff 2002) and Sociology (see Boltanski and Thévenot 2006, Fuller 2012).
Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent to Sean Kennedy ([log in to unmask]) and Dr Nick Clarke ([log in to unmask]) by February 4th, 2013.
References
Boltanski, L. and Thénevot, L. (2006) On Justification: Economies of Worth Princeton: Princeton University Press
Fischer, F. and Gottweis, H. (2012) The Argumentative Turn Revisited: Public Policy as Communicative Practice London: Duke University Press
Fuller C (2012) ''Worlds of justification' in the politics and practices of urban regeneration', Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 30(5): 913-929.
Lakoff, G. (2002) Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Temenos, C. and McCann, E. (2012) The Local Politics of Policy Mobility: Learning, Persuasion, and the Production of a Municipal Sustainability Fix Environment and Planning A 44(6) 1389 – 1406
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