Call for Papers – Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, New Orleans, USA, 4-8th
March 2003.
Proposals for papers are invited for a session entitled:
Competing Geographies of Identity in Post-Socialist Europe
Convenors: Denisa Kostovicova (Cambridge University, UK) and Craig Young (Manchester
Metropolitan University, UK). Sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British
Geographers Post-Socialist Geographies Research Group (UK).
Session themes:
The collapse of communism in the former Eastern Europe and Soviet Union has been accompanied by a
powerful assertion of national identity accompanied by affirmation of national boundaries. However,
post-socialist identities in the region have been moulded as strongly by the European Union accession
process which itself is premised on easing the pull of national identities and softening the idea of national
borders. Similarly membership of security and economic alliances has exerted other pressures on identity
as has integration into international markets and consumerism. The emergence of contested forms of
‘European’ identities and the shedding of the attribute ‘Eastern’ or ‘Communist’ has been a part and
parcel of a much broader immersion of the former socialist region into the global processes of economic
and cultural integration. The coincidence of new nationalisms and new integrationist efforts has given rise
to new identities and their geographies reflecting political, cultural, economic as well as emotional needs
and agendas at the national, regional, European and global level.
This session seeks to analyse aspects of the seemingly contradictory dynamics of identity formation in
East and Central Europe and the FSU after the ‘fall of Communism’ as exemplified by a simultaneous
assertion and erosion of the national identification. It explores the construction, contestation and co-
existence of new geographies of identity in the context of multiple spatial scales affecting identity
formation. The post-socialist identity is often being pulled in opposite directions dictated by national but
also global considerations with stark policy implications. As a consequence, the interplay between
spatial dimensions of identity and identity politics becomes relevant. Have the twin processes of national
assertion and international/global integration been formative of each other in the emergence of new
geographies of identity in the ‘post-socialist’ countries? How do new nationalisms and trans-nationalisms
fit within or contest a ‘European’ identity, and, hence, broader processes of EU enlargement? How has
a globalisation of identity influenced the processes of regional integration in Europe as exemplified by the
issues of border controls, immigration policies and organised crime?
If you would be interested in submitting a paper for consideration for presentation in this session please
submit an abstract as below:
1. send an abstract of a maximum of 250 words plus keywords and your name, affilitation and
contact details (including email) to either of the convenors as detailed below (an electronic
format is preferable – email attachment or disk, Word format)
2. consult the AAG website for details of the conference and how to format your abstract
(http://www.aag.org)
3. you must ALSO register on-line at the AAG website – when you do this you will receive from
the AAG by e-mail a participant number. You ALSO need to let us have this participant
number with your details – otherwise we cannot register you as part of this session if we accept
your paper (http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/intro.html).
Deadline for submission of abstracts, details AND your participant number to us:
Friday 6th September, 2002.
Convenors contact details:
Dr. Denisa Kostovicova – University of Cambridge, Wolfson College, Cambridge, CB3 9BB, United
Kingdom. E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Dr. Craig Young – Manchester Metropolitan University, Environmental and Geographical Sciences,
John Dalton Building, Chester Street, Manchester, M1 5GD, United Kingdom. Phone: UK (0)161-247-
6198. Fax: UK (0)161-247-6318. E-mail: [log in to unmask]
