Call for papers: RGS-IBG 2014
Geographies of surplus populations: (co-)producing and contesting expulsions, excess and humans-as-waste
Dr Tom Gillespie (University of Leeds) and Dr Kate Hardy (University of Leeds)
In contrast to previous stages of capitalism, characterised by the incorporation of proletarianised subjects into capitalist production processes as labour power, theorists have begun to argue that contemporary patterns of accumulation are increasingly premised on the ‘expulsion’ of surplus populations (Sassen 2010). In a global historical context characterised by deepening economic crisis, savage welfare retrenchment and resurgent extractive neocolonialism, new forms of primitive accumulation appear to depend on placing vast swathes of people outside, rather than incorporating them into, circuits of capital and the wage relation.
Variably referred to as the ‘lumpenproletariat’ (Marx 1852; Fanon 1967), ‘wageless life’ (Denning 2010), the ‘informal proletariat’ (Davis 2006) or the ‘waste products of globalisation’ (Bauman 2004), the political agency of these surplus populations remains highly contested. Characterising them as ‘unproductive’ for capital, Marx (1852) was dismissive of the revolutionary potential amongst such groups due to their position outside relations of capitalist valorisation. Writing on the contemporary Global South, Davis (2006) is also skeptical about the emancipatory potential in the political activities of the informal proletariat. In contrast, Franz Fanon (1967) argued that the lumpenproletariat were a key revolutionary subject in the struggle for decolonisation and, more recently, Denning (2010) has drawn attention to extant forms of organising amongst informal workers.
In this session we seek to explore the production of surplus populations in particular places and across different spatial scales, the governance and disciplining of surplus populations, and questions of political agency and organisation. Seeking to move beyond largely abstract discussions of surplus populations and wagelessness, we are interested in work that combines theoretical approaches with concrete empirical geographic research. We welcome papers on the displaced, the dispossessed, the unemployed, the imprisoned, workfare(rs), ‘slum’ dwellers, informal workers, the homeless, itinerants, ‘vagabonds… swindlers… pickpockets, tricksters, gamblers … ragpickers [and] beggars’ (Marx 1852). Themes that may be addressed include (but are not limited to):
- Austerity and new geographies of surplus populations in the Global North
- Pauper/proletarian relations
- The social reproduction and biopolitics of surplus populations
- Wageless life
- Gendering surplus populations
- Feminist engagements with surplus populations
- Expulsions
- Synthesising theoretical approaches with empirical research on surplus populations
- Political agency amongst surplus populations
- Rebellion in wageless life
Please submit abstracts for papers or any questions by February 5th to: [log in to unmask] and [log in to unmask]
References
Bauman, Z. (2004) Wasted lives. University of Cambridge Press, Cambridge.
Davis, M. (2006) Planet of Slums. London, Verso.
Denning, M. (2010) ‘Wageless Life’ New Left Review 66 http://newleftreview.org/II/66/michael-denning-wageless-life#_edn23
Marx, K. (1852) ‘The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte’ 1852 http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/
Sassen, S. (2010) ‘A Savage Sorting of Winners and Losers: Contemporary Versions of Primitive Accumulation’ Globalizations 7(1): 23-50.
Thomas Gillespie
School of Geography
University of Leeds
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