Call for papers

 

Fear: critical geopolitics and everyday life

 

University of Durham, 11^th and 12^th July 2005

 

A two-day conference organised by the Social Wellbeing and Spatial Justice research cluster, Department of Geography, Durham.  

 

Confirmed speakers:

Cindi Katz                    City University of New York  

Corey Robin                 City University of New York

Jo Little                        University of Exeter

Nick Megoran              University of Cambridge

Alan Ingram                  University College London

Peter Hopkins              University of Lancaster

Susan Smith                  University of Durham 

David Campbell            University of Durham 

Steve Graham               University of Durham 

Rachel Pain                  University of Durham

 

This two-day conference provides a forum to take stock of current critical research on fear. It aims to promote dialogue between scholars working on fear at the levels of geopolitics and the everyday, to identify common theoretical, empirical and strategic directions and develop new perspectives. Researchers at all career stages are encouraged to take part.

 

‘Fear’ has greater currency in western societies than ever before. Through scares ranging from cot death, juvenile crime and internet porn to dirty bombs, immigration and disease epidemics, we are bombarded with messages about emerging risks, and patterns of living and working are increasingly regulated.

 

Critical social science engagement with fear has taken two largely separate trajectories. First, fear in everyday life, which has emphasised the social and spatial constitution and micropolitics of fear of crime, violence and abuse within urban and rural populations. Second, political geographies of fear at global and national levels, focusing on fear as a tool of governance and its employment in international processes including terrorism, national security and immigration.

 

What connects this work is the writing of fear as a metanarrative which justifies a range of exclusionary practices. Fear of terrorism and immigration have been analysed as persuasive tools in the recent US and UK elections. In domestic governance, various discourses of fear have been utilised to justify policies including harsher youth justice, restrictions on workplace rights and freedom of movement. Fear is increasingly deployed in the marketplace, as various threats are drawn into the development and advertising of new and old consumer goods. The media manufacture risks and inflate fears, but with consequences for well-being which are material and real. Moral panics about dangerous groups and places inform policing and community safety policies, and within urban development unjust fortressing and surveillance strategies clash with rhetoric about inclusive and peopled cities. Such exclusionary tensions and effects spill into everyday life, exacerbating social and spatial disparities, and are part of the demonisation of particular groups such as young people, immigrant workers and the homeless.

 

Both empirical and conceptual work at the interfaces of geopolitics, discourse and everyday life are relatively sparse. Relations between discourses of fear and cultures of everyday life tend to be assumed. What are the impacts of discourses of fear? What processes of absorption, resistance or reformulation of fear take place? What are the material implications? Do low profile fears shape lives more than the highly visible? How do analyses of fear shift in the context of the emotional/affect paradigm sweeping the social sciences? How do popular emotions shape political agendas? What of hope and well-being? There are also many unanswered questions about risk, often assumed to be less significant than fear, or imaginary. How are risks navigated? What of non-expert formulations and assessments of risk? What are the tangible threats to safety and well-being, outside of the fears of ‘mainstream’ society which grab the headlines? What are the fears of the feared? There is also considerable scope for developing understanding of where and how fears of terrorism, immigration, race, crime and threats to health/well-being arise.

 

This is a call for further papers. Contributions are welcomed from disciplines including but not restricted to human geography, sociology, political science, planning and criminology. While US/UK debates have tended to gravitate towards issues raised by 9/11 and the war on terror, we also welcome contributions and perspectives that buck this trend from North and South.

 

Areas of interest might include:

·         the use of fear as a governance discourse for a variety of end purposes

·         fear among those groups newly stigmatised and targeted in light of the war on terror, immigration debates, etc

·         the impacts of surveillance and planning strategies on civil liberties, social wellbeing and inequality

·         fear, the liveability of cities and sustainable lifestyles

·         the implications of representations of war, terror, violence and other risks for the material geographies of everyday life

·         media discourses and the manufacture of fear

·         fear and the formation of social identities

·         resistance to fear and counter-fear discourses

·         fear and social and political theory

·         hope, well-being and affect

 

We welcome offers of short papers, posters or discussion sessions. A dedicated session on postgraduate research is planned. Please send an abstract (100-200 words) to [log in to unmask] by  2^nd May 2005. Postgraduates should send their abstracts to [log in to unmask].

 

A small fee for attendance is payable to cover costs of lunches, tea and coffee, and accommodation is available in a College close to the Department of Geography (see booking form). The deadline for bookings is 1^st June.

 

More details on the Social Well-being and Spatial Justice research cluster can be found at: http://www.dur.ac.uk/geography/research/researchclusters/?mode=centre&id=283