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Rachel Will I have to register separately for the AAG, or do you as convenor register all participants? Cheers Paul _____ From: Discussion list on participatory geographies [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rachel Pain Sent: 16 September 2009 13:10 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Emotions/participation AAG CFP AAG Washington 14-18 April 2010 "Embodied, emotional and affective geographies of participation" Convenors: Mike Kesby (St Andrews University) and Rachel Pain (Durham University) <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] and <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] Participatory and community-based research involve processes of collaborative knowledge production that resituate those normally positioned as the objects of investigation to become co-architects and users of research (see Fine et al 2007). In their parallel pursuit of social justice and more fully social geographies (kinpaisby-hill forthcoming) - and following a long tradition of participatory praxis elsewhere within and beyond the academy - geographers such as Gerry Pratt, Marie Cieri, Caitlin Cahill, Sara Kindon and their community collaborators have drawn on and engaged with emotional and affective registers. Moreover, participatory geographies are well known for their non-verbal, non-textual, tactile and visual techniques which arguably engage participants' affective, emotional and cognitive capacities simultaneously. This session seeks to explore the embodied, emotional and affective dimensions of PAR methodologies but also of the wider processes of participatory knowledge production, political action and social change (see Askins 2009; Goodwin et al 2001; Pickerill 2008). The aim is to add to the growing body of critical and conceptual work on participation in order to understand and inform practice. We welcome papers that explore the possibilities for productive interactions between (i) the theory, practice and politics of participation, and (ii) understandings of emotion/affect in geography and other disciplines. Our interest in this session is especially participatory action/activist research, but we also welcome papers that address participatory praxis in teaching and University administration and politics. Papers might address the following issues: * How do desire, frustration, passion and optimism motivate participatory initiatives? How does anger facilitate participants' formulation of research questions, or hope sustain their involvement? And what are the benefits and dangers of emotional/affective engagement with research? * In what ways does participation work - or fail - through personal relationships? How do affection, trust, obligation, patience and so on between collaborators and co-researchers shape praxis? * In what ways do the tactile, material and embodied dimensions of participatory methods (such as participatory mapping, theatre, video, art, diagramming and photovoice) mobilise affective capacities and harness them for social change; linking 'affect with effect' (Kindon 2009)? * To what extent do the products and outputs of participatory projects produce or inspire an emotional/affective response in audiences, and how might this help sustain, reproduce and distanciate the effects of participation? How can these affects/effects be traced or known? * What are the embodied, emotional or affective dimensions of the discourse/practices that are so central to participation; such as equality, conscientization, empowerment, emancipation? * In what ways does the 'failure' of participatory initiatives lead to despondency, depression and disaffection that limits further research and/or the capacities of participants, and/or in what ways does failure inspire further action? Please send suggestions for feedback, or abstracts, to both convenors by Friday October 9th 2009: <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] and <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] Rachel Pain Department of Geography University of Durham Durham DH1 3LE UK +44 (0)191 3341876 Website: http://www.dur.ac.uk/geography/research/researchclusters/?mode=staff <http://www.dur.ac.uk/geography/research/researchclusters/?mode=staff&id=352 > &id=352