RGS-IBG Annual Conference - London

31  August – 2 September 2011

 

 Radical re-imaginings: anarchism and the geographical imagination

 

Convenors - Adam Barker ( University of Leicester) & Kerry Burton (University of Exeter)

 

Sponsored by the Participatory Geographies Research Group

 

Anarchism, in both philosophy and practice, is necessarily imaginative, creative, political, and participatory; in proposing alternatives to state, capital, and other hierarchical social relationships, anarchists have and do articulate possible spaces of equality and social justice.  Anarchism, as philosophy, focus of enquiry, and ethical-political praxis, has a long history of contributing to geographical imaginations of place and space, from the cultural representations of utopia, to the practiced spaces of solidarity. Recent works, in seeking methods to reveal obscured forms of hierarchy, domination, and issues of social injustice, call on theoretical and philosophical strands that build upon classical and poststructuralist understandings of anarchism, from the ‘mutual aid’ of Kropotkin to the ‘equality’ of Ranciere. Whilst strands of radical human geography have always looked to anarchism recent considerations have offered insights into the transformative aspects of the radical re-imagining of space. Recent examples include work within the ongoing practices of creating practical utopias, prefigurative and post-capitalist spaces; creative resistances and cultural activism; methodologies that seek to transform rather than represent, through active participation and militant methodologies, participatory action research, and radical pedagogical praxis. These insights also contribute to the ongoing radical re-imagining of the institutions in which we work and the approaches through which we research, teach, and act with others in solidarity and affinity. This session seeks contributions that look to these radical re-imaginings. The aim of this session is to open discussion on how we can radically re-imagine, and transform, our geographic relationships, through engagement with anarchist thought and practice thus contributing to ongoing debates and struggles in and beyond Human Geography.

 

We welcome papers and alternative forms of presentation. If you would like to participate in this session please send abstracts or ideas to Kerry Burton [log in to unmask] and Adam Barker [log in to unmask]

 

Areas of interest include, but are not restricted to…

 

Creative Resistance

Autonomous spaces

Cultural Activism

Radical Pedagogy

Militant methodologies