Royal Geographical Society – Institute of British Geographers Annual Conference 2017
London, 29th August-1st September
"Trump-etting" Population Geography in Brexit and US Presidential Election Debates?
Sponosred by the Population Geography Research Group
Convenor: Darren P. Smith, Loughborough University, UK
Type: Panel session
Please send expressions of interest with a 150-250 word Abstract to Darren P. Smith ([log in to unmask]) by the 10th of February.
Abstract
In the UK, arguably, there was a surprising 'silence' from Population Geographers during the Brexit debate (Boyle, 2016). Issues such immigration (Deacon et al., 2016; Smith, 2016), labour migration ('taking "our" jobs'), fertility and health (over-crowding of "our" hospitals and schools/public services), and conspicuous place-changing demographic, cultural and lifestyle differences were largely dominant in national media and political discourses (e.g. Ambinakudige and Cappelo, 2016; Bachmann and Sidaway, 2016; Dorling, 2016; Harris and Charlton, 2016). Yet, despite these themes of the Brexit debate often being the mainstay of population geography and the emotive effects of changing/perceived population geographies on voting geographies, population geographers appeared to be reticent to shape and inform media and political debates in marked ways. The main aim of this panel session is to reflect on this contention and to consider its salience and / or possible mis-representation; the wider status of academic knowledge within political, media and lay debates such as Brexit, and; how population geographers may more fully inform Brexit and similar movements/debates in the future. Equally, some of these questions may also be pertinent to the recent US context (and US-based population geographers and elsewhere) and the emotive debates tied to the US Presidential Election, with the high profile rhetoric of the need to control flows of international migration (immigration) via the building of "the Wall" and increased surveillance "to keep out" so-called "unwelcome' migrants" and terrorists/enemies of the State, as well as the key themes noted above. Panel discussants are sought to provide brief 10 minute commentaries on the above issues, and identify some possible future directions of travel for population geography to deliver impactful and policy-informing research for societal changing debates.
|