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Apologies for cross-postings ---------------------------- RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2006 30 August - 1st September 2006 at the Royal Geographical Society with IBG, London Call for Papers: Cities and the Territorialisation of Identity Politics A Session Jointly Sponsored by the Political and Urban Geography Research Groups Ethnic diversity has become a key feature of cities, both in the developed world and in post-colonial settings. While in many instances this diversity has emerged out of recent global migration flows, in other cases ethnic ‘friction’ stems from long-standing conflation of different groups brought together in the course of wider geopolitical processes of nation-building. In such cases cities embed a wider geography of ethno-nationalism and (potentially) territorial conflict. Attempting to conceptualise and analyse these complex realities has resulted in lively debates about the merits of different models of regulating inter-group relations, ranging from ‘multiculturalism’ to ‘integration’ and ‘assimilation’. Recent concerns with urban terrorism and ‘security’ in Europe (and beyond) have re-amplified the centrality of urban institutions in the regulation of multi-ethnic settings. Yet relatively little has been said about the relational role of cities as terrains for the expression of identity politics within a complex confluence of local, national and transnational citizenship regimes. Urban political spaces are important sites of identity construction and of claim-making, at the same time that they are in constant dialogue with other scales of political organisation, group identities and governance. In this session we seek theoretical and empirical contributions on the politics of diversity and inter-group relationships as they relate to struggles over the meanings, uses, and governance of urban space. We hope to combine in this session contributions on different national settings, from developed as well as developing, post-colonial contexts. We are interested in papers that explore the tensions between inclusion and exclusion that emerge from debates about the appropriate role of ‘ethnic difference’ in public spheres and spaces. We wish to consider the ways in which minority groups make claims to the city and assert particular notions of citizenship and belonging. And we wish to explore how urban spaces become fields of conflict, as well as the resolution of conflict, in multi-group settings. The relational role of cities as terrains that embody the local, national and transnational dimensions of identity construction and mobilisation strategies is also of interest, and we would welcome contributions which attempt to decipher the scaled nature of contemporary citizenship. The following themes are suggested as possible contributions, although they are by no means exhaustive: · Ethnic movement politics and organisation in European cities; · The politics of multiculturalism in post-colonial and developing world cities; · Convergence, divergence and innovation in the local ‘regulation’ of identity politics; · Urban planning responses to the challenge of diversity; · Theoretical contributions on the territorialisation and rescaling of identity politics; · City spaces as performative platforms for the politics of difference; · Ethno-national conflict and city governance; · Cities and transnational ethnic politics; · The new security agenda, urban terrorism and identities. Paper proposals in the form of a 200 word abstract, using the IBG form (http://www.rgs.org/pdf/AC2006%20Abstract%20submission%20form.doc), should be submitted to Peter Hopkins ([log in to unmask]) by 20th January 2006. Please also submit your abstract to: [log in to unmask] Session convenors: Joe Leibovitz, Institute of Geography, The University of Edinburgh ([log in to unmask]) Peter Hopkins, Department of Geography, The University of Lancaster ([log in to unmask]) Caroline Nagel, Department of Geography, Loughborough University, ([log in to unmask]) _______________________________________________________ [log in to unmask] An urban geography discussion and announcement forum List Archives: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/URB-GEOG-FORUM Maintained by: RGS-IBG Urban Geography Research Group UGRG Home Page: http://www.urban-geography.org.uk