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Apologies for cross-postings. ********** Call for papers Session title: ‘Rescaling the Political Economy of Social Justice/Injustice: the Urbanisation and Regionalisation of inclusion/exclusion’ Convenors: Ramon Ribera-Fumaz and Stijn Oosterlynck (Lancaster University) Session sponsored jointly by Economic Geography (EGRG) and Political Geography Research Group (EGRG) RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2006 30 August - 1st September 2006 at the Royal Geographical Society with IBG, London Recent literature in urban and regional development theory and research is largely dominated by concerns about agglomeration economies, learning regions and the geographies of inter-space competition. Urban and regional economic development strategies aim at imaging and producing places that are first and foremost attractive sites for capital accumulation. In this sense, there exists a large body of research and theory looking at the development impact of rescaling economic governance mechanisms to the urban and regional level. On the other hand, most of the literature on local social justice is focused on processes of gentrification and on the privatisation of public space and its exclusionary character at the neighbourhood scale. Yet, there is little research available that actually looks at the rescaling of social justice/injustice at the urban and regional level. This session aims to look at urban and regional development strategies and the economic imageries informing them from a social justice, rather than from a competitiveness perspective. The session hopes to contribute to our understanding of how certain actors’ actions and the imaginaries that inform their actions aim at rescaling development strategies to the urban and regional level in an attempt to produce new scales of political intervention on which they have stronger capacities to act. We invite papers that analyse how regional and urban development strategies and the associated imaginaries work to include certain social groups and social interests while excluding and marginalising others. Please send your abstract by January 15th 2006 to: Ramon Ribera-Fumaz <[log in to unmask]> Stijn Oosterlynck <[log in to unmask]> Conference webpage: http://www.rgs.org/templ.php?page=AC2006 -- Stijn Oosterlynck PhD Student Dept. of Sociology, Lancaster University tel: 0032 473915919