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Call for papers

AAG 2005: April 5-9, Denver

Rethinking Cosmopolitan Identities

Last call for papers...

We are organising a session for the next AAG meeting on cosmopolitan identities, and would like to hear from people interested in presenting.  Please note that abstracts need to be registered by October 21st... 

There has been increased interest within geography in the theme of cosmopolitan identities (Held, 1990; Gidwani and Shivaramakrishnan, 2003). Reflecting this emerging research area, this session explores why people in different settings construct themselves as "cosmopolitan." Rather than focusing on transnational cosmopolitans, as much research seems to, we would like to explore how "local" people in various parts of the world (such as India) imagine themselves as cosmopolitan and the politics of these imaginings (c.f. Gidwani and Shivaramakrishnan, 2003). Contributors might for example, investigate the connections between cosmopolitan identities and notions of citizenship, education, development, or political resistance. Similarly, rather than assuming that ideas of "being cosmopolitan" depend upon transnational cultural styles, papers might reflect on the diverse means through which people develop ideas of themselves as cosmopolitan": for example through advertising their ability to traverse boundaries between the 'modern' and 'traditional' or through making claims to possess particular knowledges regarding politics, development or the state. We particularly encourage papers that combine theoretical reflection with ethnographic field research and that provide a counterpoint to work on transnational elites. 

Please reply be email to Colin... 

Organisers:
Craig Jeffrey, Lecturer in Human Geography, Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh. Email: [log in to unmask]

Colin McFarlane, Postdoctoral Fellow, Geography, Open University. Email: [log in to unmask]