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Apologies for cross-posting. We still have some space in our RGS-IBG session, so we have extended our deadline for abstracts until midday on Friday 27th January. Please see our final CFP below: --------------------------- RGS-IBG Annual Conference, Edinburgh, 3rd-5th July 2012 GEOGRAPHIES OF PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION IN INSECURE TIMES Sponsored by the Geographies of Justice Working Group Session organisers: Louise Waite and Nichola Wood (School of Geography, University of Leeds) The current Global Financial Crisis is considered by many economists to be the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s. In many developed countries economic growth has stagnated, banks have restricted lending, unemployment has risen and consumer wealth has declined. Macroeconomic downturns often lead to enhanced precarity in people’s lives and associated increases in prejudice, discrimination and bigoted violence against minority groups, who are perceived to be responsible for the country’s economic ills. For example, the Great Depression in the US has been linked to the lynching of African-Americans in the deep South (Green et al 1998), concerns over unemployment and declining housing and welfare provision have led to anti-immigrant discrimination across Europe (Stolcke 1999) and economic recession has been related to increases in anti-Roma violence by both state and non-state actors (Rorke 2009). This session will explore the relationships between the current economic crisis and attitudes and behaviours towards minority groups. To this end, the session will question whether lived experiences of injustice and oppression for certain groups are becoming more acute in increasingly insecure and precarious times. Themes that might be explored include (but should not be restricted to): • the usefulness of contact theory in exploring contemporary prejudice; • whether current insecurities are resulting in increasingly precarious and discriminatory labour market experiences for minority groups; • the role of migrants’ socio-legal statuses in deepening insecurity and injustice; • the outcomes of public sector cuts in terms of enhanced pressure on front line service provision and resulting ‘competition’ between different groups for scarce resources; • the relationships between the economic recession and the rise of far right politics; • the extent to which the ‘Big Society’ discourse and related activities provides possibilities and spaces for prejudice erosion and anti-discrimination measures in mixed communities. Please email abstracts (including name/contact details) of no more than 200 words to Louise Waite ([log in to unmask]) and Nichola Wood ([log in to unmask]) by midday on Friday 27th January 2012. -------------------------------------- Dr. Nichola Wood Lecturer in Critical Human Geography School of Geography University of Leeds Woodhouse Lane Leeds LS2 9JT United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)113 343 3348