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Call for Papers: RGS (IBG) Annual International Conference, August26-28 2009, Manchester UK Governmentality, Social Exclusion and the Future of the Welfare State Over the last decade a growing number of human geographers have taken up Foucauldian perspectives of governmentality as a means to elucidate the different ways particular populations and individuals are deemed problematic, amendable and governable by different actors. On the backdrop of neoliberal globalisation and welfare-state restructuring, governmentality has provided and continues to provide critical insights into community and urban regeneration, homelessness and social exclusion, and has opened up new avenues of research and political engagement. This session seeks papers which ask how changing relations and practices of government (state and non-state actors), in different spaces and scales, come to constitute transformations in the welfare state, with particular reference the notions inclusion and exclusion. With this in mind, this session invites papers which explore this theme in relation to: • Subjectification: with particular attention to the processes of governmental and ethical self-formation, and its role in welfare state reconstitution • Notions of inclusion and exclusion (in relation to welfare policies of contemporary governments and/or ‘everyday lives’ of individuals, groups and nations). • Neoliberalism: evolving logics and moral landscapes in contemporary government. • The role of voluntary, community and faith-based actors working to varying degrees within, alongside or counter to neoliberal rationalities, technologies and subjectivities. • How the use of ‘governmentality’ could be strengthened by a fusion with other theoretical perspective (for example, using non-representational theory, theories of agency, ethics, and materiality) with particular emphasis on an exploration of the Welfare State. What are the conceptual and analytical implications of such a potential fusion? • Spaces of post-capitalist production and social exclusion This session will give researchers an opportunity to discuss and generate ideas relating the multiple mentalities of governing evident in dissipate social policies and areas of welfare. It will also allow time for discussion to be had reflecting how current theoretical, research, practices, and pedagogies regarding the above can be considered within the broader conference themes of Geography, Knowledge, and Society. Please send all enquiries and completed abstracts to Kim Ward ([log in to unmask]) or Andrew Williams ([log in to unmask]) by the 18th of February 2009. When submitting your abstract please ensure you include: your name, institutional affiliation, contact email, title of proposed paper, abstract (no more than 250 words), and any technical requirements.