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(Apologies for cross-posting) Call for Papers: 100th Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Philadelphia, 14th-19th March 2004 Fabricating difference: mundane urban geographies Inspired by Martin Parr’s photographic essays such as ‘Boring Postcards’, and the Patrick Keiller’s film Robinson in Space this session seeks to explore and examine the geographies of mundane and quotidian spaces. In particular we are interested in exploring the uses of and different senses of belonging to unspectacular, ordinary and non-cosmopolitan spaces. Mundane landscapes of both production and consumption could often assumed to be bland, banal – their design and architecture associated with sameness, homogeneity and uniformity. Yet, we would like to investigate how these spaces are often made spectacular or extraordinary through a variety of practices and forms of habituation. Thus it is a key theme of this session to understand the variety of ways of engagement with these spaces and how such spaces are invested with meaning that transcends their association with banality. Indeed, how groups and individuals identify with these geographies despite the perceived disidentification that such spaces engender is a key concern. Furthermore, we are concerned with how difference is configured and reproduced within such spaces. Therefore, we are interested in how difference is negotiated, transformed and performed in these spaces, and not eradicated through a simple repetition of homogeneity. To this end we also welcome contribution on mundane geographies of consumption and retailing (for instance, out of town shopping centres, retail parks, Wal-Mart, Ikea, cultures of DIY – B and Q, Home Depot and garden centres) as well as landscapes associated with production, construction and distribution (for instance, warehouses, distribution centres and call centres). However, we are seeking fresh and original perspectives on these spaces, which might go beyond the consumption-production dichotomy. We welcome abstracts that address the following themes: - Practices and uses of banal spaces. - The ordinary in the extraordinary. - Identification/disidentification with the mundane. - Productive and distributive spaces. - Configuring difference and sameness in banal spaces. - Heterotopic transformations of the ordinary. - Technologies of management and control of space. - The architecture of banality(e.g. transport – motorway service areas, restrooms) - Materialities of banal geographies. - The investment in provisional and temporary spaces of urban transformation (e.g. building sites and cranescapes) - Banal cosmopolitanism Expressions of interest (with a brief indication of the paper's topics) or abstracts should be sent to [log in to unmask] by Thursday 18th September. Further details of the conference are available at www.aag.org where registration forms can now be downloaded.