Call for Papers: RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2011 – New Welfare Geographies
With apologies for cross-posting, colleagues are invited to submit
abstracts for consideration for inclusion in a double session exploring New
Welfare Geographies, sponsored by the Geography of Justice Working Group and
Urban Geography Research Group, at the 2011 RGS-Annual
Conference.
The 2011 conference will be held in
NEW WELFARE GEOGRAPHIES: THE REMAKING OF THE BRITISH WELFARE STATE?
The British welfare
state has always been open to both American and Continental European influences:
on the one hand, reflecting Americanized entrepreneurialism and
individualization, while on the other hand, reflecting more Continentalist urges
towards social welfare, redistribution and community solidarity. However, the
unprecedented October 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review threatens to
fundamentally remake the British welfare state. With the introduction of
significant cuts to benefits and eligibility, growing conditionality, increased
emphasis upon both individual responsibility and the role of charity in welfare
provision, and the (re)
introduction of a much more explicitly moral dimension to the welfare debate,
the balance is perhaps tipping towards the American model. Such developments
potentially represent a sea change in how the British government relates to its
vulnerable populations and places.
In this session we are
interested in conceptual and empirical research - both current and
future-oriented - that may help us better grasp the profound geographical
impacts of this restructuring. Potential foci for
papers might include:
·
the geographically uneven
impacts of welfare cuts and public sector job losses (including
the capping of housing
benefits and its relationships with urban change/state-sponsored
gentrification);
·
specific impacts upon the wellbeing and citizenship of vulnerable
populations (social housing tenants, the working poor, the long term sick and
disabled, homeless people, asylum seekers, recent immigrants);
·
representations
of welfare and the new
morality (the deserving and the undeserving poor/places, individualisation and
self provision);
·
the Big Society, role of charitable provision, the changing relationships
between the 3rd sector, local communities and the state, and new
regimes of welfare governance;
·
relationships
to 'roll-out' and 'roll-back' actually-existing
neoliberalism;
·
the potential Americanization of the
·
implications for comparative welfare studies;
·
alternative visions and practices, and resistance to the new welfare
geographies;
·
the methodologies that
might be best suited to grasping the critical changes to the welfare state at
different scales.
Format: A
double, paper based session consisting of 2 x four 20 minute papers to leave
time for discussion.
Interested colleagues should submit an abstract of c200-250 words
together with the title of their proposed paper and the names and affiliation of
authors to Geoff or Jon not later than Friday 4th February
2011.
Geoff
DeVerteuil,
Jon May,
Queen Mary University of London, [log in to unmask]
Dr Geoff DeVerteuil
Lecturer, School of
Geography
University of Southampton
Highfield
Southampton UK, SO17
1BJ
Tel: +44 (0)23 80 599622
Fax: +44 (0)23 80 593295
email:
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