*Apologies for cross postings*
CfP for Paper Session in the RGS-IBG 2014 Annual Meeting, London
INTERGENERATIONAL GEOGRAPHIES OF FAMILY AND INTIMATE RELATIONS
Organisers: Anna Tarrant (Open University, UK), Emily Cooper (Lancaster University, UK) and Canny Liu (Royal Holloway, UK)
Sponsored by GFGRG (Gender and Feminist Geographies Research Group)
Feminist geographers have identified intergenerational relations as a crucial research agenda and area of policy concern (Holloway and Pimlott-Wilson 2011; Vanderbeck 2007) and are now seeking to centre family as a unit of geographical analysis (Valentine 2008). The family has hence been re-defined as both a ‘spatial project’ (Luzia 2012) and ‘a locale for collective activity arranged over spatial and temporal configurations’ (Holdsworth, 2013, p.13). It is therefore a rich and significant research space in which to consider the spatio-temporalities and coproduction of identities, relations, norms and practices. Whilst parenting is clearly a central inter-generational relation, family life is not reducible to it. Existing research has shown, for example, how family caring work is being done through grand-parenting in global contexts such as Africa (Evans 2010), the UK (Tarrant 2010) and China (Jiang et al 2007). Such work raises questions about the impacts on inter-generational family life of dynamics from population changes, employment dynamics, ageing populations, domestic space provision, and new forms of consumer culture. Furthermore, interdisciplinary theorising about family represents an opportunity to reimagine concepts of relevance to geographers through the lens of intergenerational relations. Of particular significance for example are: distance/proximity, belonging, inclusion/exclusion, social inequalities, citizenship, othering and mobility.
We invite papers focusing on a range of global contexts which have a theoretical, empirical and/or methodological focus. Papers with a commitment to feminist methods, theories and praxis are particularly welcomed. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- The material culture of family and family life,
- How family life is ‘done’/’undone’, ‘made’ and ‘unmade’, through intergenerational relations,
- Transformations to practices of intimacy, in diverse contexts, and the forces shaping them,
- Families and intimate mobilities
- Reflection on the discourses, policies and spatial practices that construct family identities,
- How dominant ideologies of family operate to constrain or control particular groups,
- Experiences of extended and non-normative families (i.e. (great)grandparents, transnational families, same-sex headed families)
- The production and socio-spatial deployment of familial norms and orders
- The interiority of intimate family life in a global context
- Innovation in methodologies for researching the spaces of family and intimate relations
- How notions of distance and proximity are reconfigured in the context of changing intimate relations
Please send an abstract of 250 words with full contact details by Friday, 31st January 2014 to Anna Tarrant ([log in to unmask]), Emily Cooper ([log in to unmask]) or Canny Liu ([log in to unmask])
Dr Anna Tarrant
Research Associate
Horlock Building
Faculty of Health and Social Care
Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
Twitter:@dratarrant
Personal site: http://dratarrant.wordpress.com/
Recently Published
Tarrant, A. (2013) 'Negotiating multiple positionalities in the interview setting; researching across gender and generational boundaries', The Professional Geographer
Tarrant, A. (2013) ‘Grandfathering as spatio-temporal practice: conceptualizing performances of ageing masculinities in contemporary familial carescapes’, Social and Cultural Geography, 14(2): 192-210.
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