Apologies for cross-posting
Call for Papers, Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Boston
April 15-18 2008
Resources and Empire
Organised by Gavin Bridge and Tomas Frederiksen (Society and Environment
Research Group, University of Manchester)
This session seeks to take forward efforts to understand and theorize the
restless expansionary dynamic associated with resource sectors like forestry,
fisheries and minerals. An expanding resource frontier is often attributed to
the effects of resource depletion or the inability of existing supplies to keep
pace with growing demand. Rarely, however, is the relationship between material
expansion (the proliferation of commodities and raw materials) and the
geographical extension of resource extraction so straightforward. This session
will explore how the spatiality of resource extraction is influenced by the
politics of inter-state competition, the relative strength of financial, trade
and industrial capital, and by social movements which challenge the 'resource
imaginary'. 'Empire' here speaks to the challenge of establishing forms
of territorial control over distant resources - resources that often are
already embedded in national regimes of ownership, regulation and cultural
systems of meaning - to secure their orderly and predictable flow in ways
that serve dominant power.
Two recent contributions have re-ignited a theoretical interest in the 'race
for resources.' First, geographical scholarship querying the role of oil in
motivating the US-led invasion of Iraq refuses the popular, yet simplistic
formulation of a 'resource war' and highlights the importance of
explanations that situate resources in the larger landscape of capital
accumulation (Retort 2005; Harvey 2003; see also Arrighi 1994). Second, the
extension of dependency theory into a theory of ecologically unequal exchange
indicates how the scramble of extractive capital to the ends of the earth can
arise out of competition between states for trade dominance (Bunker and
Ciccantell 2005; Muradian and Martinez-Alier 2001). And beyond these specific
contributions, a rich body of empirical work from communities at the 'sharp
end' of forestry and mineral resource development in the Andes, West Africa,
Australia and Indonesia attests not only to the expansive dynamics of the
extractive sector, but also to the need for analyses which go beyond proximate
causes of expansion.
We invite papers that explore the geographical and temporal dynamics of
extractive industries. Our focus on empire highlights the problematic of
territorial control rather than a formal administrative arrangement or a
specific period and papers may address contemporary or historical themes. Our
preference is for papers that attempt to theorize the relations between
territoriality and capital accumulation in some form, perhaps by building on an
empirical study of a specific case or by re-working existing
conceptualizations. More broadly, we encourage papers that seek to understand
relationships between resources and empire as part of a wider engagement with
the cultural, economic and political process through which components of the
biophysical world become understood and regulated as 'natural resources.'
Interested participants should send expressions of interest, questions and/or
title and abstract of 250 words or less to Gavin Bridge
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Tomas Frederiksen
PhD Student
Geography
School of Environment and Development
University of Manchester
Manchester
M13 9PL
United Kingdom
Society and Environment Research Group, University of Manchester
Geographical Political Economy Research Group, University of Manchester