Immature Geographies / Immature Geographers
Co-sponsored by the Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Working Group and the Postgraduate Forum.
Convenor: Lesley Gallacher
Immaturity tends to be viewed as a negative attribute: an unfortunate state of dependency, silliness, and inadequacy that should be overcome, grown out of and eliminated. Furthermore, to be immature is to be unfinished; it is to be in the process of maturing. The end point of this process, maturity (independence, stability and competence), is to be preferred over immaturity. Because of these negative associations geographers have not exactly been drawn towards immaturity as a concept. This is particularly the case for those working with children and young people, for whom 'immaturity' seems all too easily to reinforce the subordination of childhood to adulthood.
It could be said that children and young people are defined by their immaturity. Whether this immaturity is conceived of as biological or social, or both, young people are considered to be growing, learning and maturing. Similarly, postgraduates might be said to be immature researchers; they are still learning and in need of supervision. But immaturity cannot be said to belong only to the young and inexperienced. Older people can be immature in various ways, and the experienced are not infallible.
Conceptualising immaturity entirely negatively seems somewhat unhelpful. Apart from anything else, this implies that stability, fixity and independence are to be aspired to, while open-endedess, change and (inter)dependence are to be avoided. This session aims to explore immaturity without denigrading it, without understanding it solely as a misfortune to be transcended. In this way, the session, seeks to join those who have begun to explore the critical potential of immaturity: conceptual, methodological, political and ethical (for example, Lee 2001; Horton, 2001). It wants to critically rehabilitate—rather than to judge or hide—immaturity, dependency, frivolousness and fallibility.
I welcome offers of papers or other contributions which explore all manner of immature geographies, and by 'immature geographers' (at whatever stage of their career they may find themselves). Papers can be empirical, conceptual, or somewhere in between. They might consider, but are by no means limited to, themes such as:
– the geographies of the immature (whatever age they may be).
– the various immaturities of the 'mature'.
– immaturity as a concept.
– the relationships between immaturity and maturity.
– methodological immaturity.
– immaturity and ethics.
If you would like to present a paper in this session, please send a title and an abstract (of no more than 200 words) to [log in to unmask] by 31st January 2007.
Lesley
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lesley-anne gallacher
institute of geography
university of edinburgh
drummond street
edinburgh
eh8 9xp
tel: +44(0)131 650 2528
+44(0)783 814 0686
fax: +44(0)131 650 2542