**Apologies for cross-posting**
Call for Papers: Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, San
Francisco, USA, April 17-21 2007.
"From Inequality to Difference: Exploring connections in changing
spaces of post-socialism"
Session Organisers: Megan Dixon (University of Oregon, USA), Sergei
Shubin (University of Aberdeen, UK)
Sponsored by: Russian, Central Eurasian and East European Speciality
Group of the AAG
The processes differentiating multiple spaces in post-socialist countries
have become a central theme in social studies since the transition began
in late 1980s. Numerous analyses have sought to understand local
socioeconomic changes within the context of changing political, social,
economic and cultural environments, and the subsequent transformation of
people's lives. However, influenced by changing networked vision of space
(Massey, 1991; Castells, 1996; Murdoch, 2000) and resource networking
(especially in the form of social capital, for an overview see Anderson
and Bell, 2003), the focus of works on difference in transition countries
has shifted towards network analyses of the flows of materials and
meanings which reproduce potentially problematic sociality of life in
spaces of post-socialism.
The main concerns of this session are connections between different
actors embedded in social contexts in the post-socialist countries,
different forms of associations between local people, and ways in which
specific forms of interrelations frame *experiences* of marginalisation
and difference.
This session welcomes papers which attempt to further interconnect the
material, social and cultural aspects of difference and disadvantage in
post-socialist countries.
Some possible areas:
-Identity, social capital and difference
-Cultural transformation and cultural competence
-Development from networks: dealing with social change
-Informal networks and disadvantage
-Re-articulating difference: emerging subterranean spaces
Please send titles and abstracts up to 200 words and your contact details
to Sergei Shubin
[log in to unmask] and Megan
Dixon [log in to unmask] by
9th October 2006.
Abstracts should be in accordance with AAG guidelines. For AAG abstract
specifications, see
http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/SF2007/call4papers.cfm
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Dr. Sergei Shubin
Department of Geography & Environment off. +44 (1224) 273691
University of Aberdeen [log in to unmask]
Elphinstone Road fax +44 (1224) 272331
Aberdeen AB24 3UF, UK