CFP: RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2017
RESISTANCE, ACQUIESCENCE AND JUSTICE IN GLOBAL ‘AUSTERITY URBANISM’
‘Austerity urbanism’ (Peck, 2012) has spread throughout the world, beginning some time ago in the Global South and USA (see, for example, Lustig, 2010; Bond, 2015), and now becoming a generic feature in cities of the Global North. The manifestation of this is the retreat of the nation state, and continuing devolved responsibility to urban governing agencies and citizens. These processes are characterised by moral discourses framing a need for austerity because of an overextended state impeding the free market, lack of responsible citizens, and an immoral underclass not fulfilling their societal responsibilities. Such discourses are based on certain conceptions of ‘justice’, particularly in relation to a common good (see Clarke and Newman, 2012), but we must recognise that forms of justice vary considerably within both the Global North and South (see, for example, Kohl and Farthing, 2006; Magalhaes Wallace, 2016). This leads to important questions concerning the geographies of austerity urbanism, not least in terms of the disparate ability of urban actors to resist austerity measures imposed by the nation state (see Petras (2016) on Latin America), and why particular urban actors acquiescence to austerity measures.
This session examines the extent and nature of acquiescence and resistance to austerity urbanism across the globe, recognising its long history in the Global South, by focusing on how justice is socially constructed and deliberatively enacted by actors. Central to this is a need to explore the geographical variability of such social conceptions and practices across the globe, including the role of inherited institutional legacies (Peck, 2016), and by doing so critically engage recent debates on the explanatory possibilities and scope of comparative urban analysis. The session welcomes papers that address the following questions in regards to both the Global South and North:
• How is social justice constructed in the everyday of austerity urbanism?
• What is the role of justice in resistance to austerity urbanism?
• Why do actors acquiescence to austerity? Are there particular conceptions of justice that acquire hegemonic status and how do they achieve this?
• How can we compare the individual austerity arrangements and experiences of urban areas across the globe?
• Can resistance strategies from the Global South be utilised by urban actors in the North that are now experiencing austerity?
• How can resistance to austerity be mobilised across the globe?
• What are the research strategies and methodologies that can be used in the analysis of global austerity urbanism?
Please send a title and abstract (250 words) to [log in to unmask] by the 10th February.
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