After the delights and pleasures of Charlotte (cough), I guess people haven't
the energy to talk about the meeting that was held to discuss the possibility of
holding a critical geography conference in Vancouver in August 1997.
Gerry Pratt (UBC) and Nick Blomley (SFU) have been good enough to volunteer to
'co-ordinate' -- with other, I stress -- a conference on/for critical
geography/ers. They chaired a meeting at the AAG, where a number of issues were
raised. From memory, these were:
* about the need to involve postgraduates (which begs questions of funding, of
course)
* about the need to involve critical geographers from across the world (i.e. not
just the English-speaking world)
* about a desire not to replicate the AAG/IBG style of conferencing: in
particular, there was criticism of the way AAG/IBG conferences ignore the place
they are held in, and especially the social/political questions most pressing in
those places -- but this also raised the next issue...
* about the style of the conference -- it was felt that the conference should be
innovative, integrative and fun (or at least that's my sense!) in ways that
could provide critical geographers with a (imagined) sense of 'community'
(again, my interpretation!).
I'm bad on numbers, but maybe 40 poeple were there and -- although fears were
expressed about the potential of having a son-of-AAG meeting -- there was a
great deal of enthusiasm for holding a critical geography conference in
Vancouver in August 97.
It was agreed that Gerry and Nick should co-ordinate the meeting (with others),
while Neil Smith agreed to collect the names of contacts who might be interested
in attending. Volunteers to help them will be appreciated, I'm sure.
If you would like to go, have other reactions (I realise that I have missed out
certain issues that were raised in the meeting), volunteer to help, have
suggestions for appropriate ways to "do" the conference (*please*), then you can
either use the forum or contact Gerry, Nick or Neil direct.
I would like to say that I think this is an excellent idea and I hope that you
will put this in your dairies for 97. I believe this offers us the opportunity
to meet each other and talk to each other about critical geography in ways that
the AAG and RGS insititutionally and practically foreclose.
See you in Vancouver?
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