 |
 |
From: Jamie Cross <[log in to unmask]> CFP: Rethinking Economic Zones in South Asia Panel @ the 21st European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies July 26th-29th, 2010, University of Bonn, Germany Free trade zones, export processing zones and special economic zones have become controversial sites of planning, investment, and enterprise across South Asia. For anthropologists they have also come to be seen primarily as sites of `neoliberal governance', in which national territory and working populations are oriented specifically in relation to their potential for growth and productivity. This panel invites papers that rethink how economic zones operate and what they do. Key questions and themes that the panel hopes to address include: * To what extent are `neoliberal imaginaries' realized in economic zones and translated into the production of neoliberal subjects? * How have local histories of social transformation and trajectories of development planning shaped the implementation of economic zones? * Are disciplinary regimes that hinge on the insecurity, flexibility and precariousness of labour be desribed as exceptional? * What differences or continuities exist between economic zones and other spaces that are governed in relation to the global market (this may include sites of mineral extraction, private sector manufacturing and state run enterprise)? * How have market-oriented modes of governance shaped notions of competition and individuality or solidarity and mutual-aid? We invite papers based on current or recent empirical research in the fields of anthropology, geography, sociology, history, political science and development studies. For further information, please contract the panel organisers: Jamie Cross, Department of Anthropology, Goldsmiths College, London - [log in to unmask] Christian Strueempell, South Asia Institute, Ruprecht Karls University Heidelberg - [log in to unmask]