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Apologies for cross postings. Final call for papers: 'Who' are the gentrifiers in contemporary urban and rural space?' Co-convened by Darren P. Smith ([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> ) University of Brighton, UK, Wendy Shaw ([log in to unmask]) University of New South Wales, Australia, and Joanna Sage ([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> ), University of Brighton, UK Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Las Vegas, Nevada March 22-29, 2009 2009 marks the silver jubilee of Damaris Rose's (1984) seemingly prophetic comment that conceptualisations of gentrifiers will need to be continually refined and disaggregated, in light of the inherent dynamism of gentrification processes. Over the last three decades, Rose's assertion has been consistently substantiated by the identification of more diverse 'geographies of gentrification' (Lees, 2007). As deeper levels of the socio-spatial plurality of contemporary global gentrification are identified (Atkinson and Bridge, 2005), it is pertinent and timely to revisit Rose's assertion. Recent studies, undoubtedly, confirm that historical representations of prototypical gentrifiers (e.g. Filion, 1991) are narrow and out-dated. Yet such dominant imagery continues to hold currency in some media and policy discourses. Indeed, it can be argued that critical perspectives of 'who' and 'what' constitutes a gentrifier may have gone astray on the radar of scholars of gentrification. This is surprising given the use of new terms to describe gentrifiers (e.g. financifiers, super-gentrifiers, studentifiers and greentrifiers) within studies of gentrification. At the same time, there may be merit in revisiting the value of the relevance of particular dualisms (e.g. producer versus consumer) for conceptualising contemporary gentrifiers, for instance the role of 'occupier gentrifiers' (N. Smith, 1992) within expressions of 'positive gentrification' and 'new build' gentrification. We therefore seek papers which explicitly engage with such issues, and which draw upon empirical studies of gentrification, to challenge the conceptual boundaries of 'who' and 'what' constitutes the modern-day gentrifier in critical ways. Please send expressions of interest to the session organisers, and/or forward an abstract by October 25th 2008.