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Apologies for cross-postings

2nd CFP: 2013 AAG Paper Session, Los Angeles, CA: "Asia On The Move"

The mobilities turn has had increasing currency in the way societies are
being understood today. No longer are they thought of as self-existing
units within which activities/actions take place; they are seen as
formations constituted by the very condition of flux and restlessness. From
the corporeal exertion of the body, to the daily rhythms of the city, and
how international travel is regulated, scholars have outlined the disparate
ways by which places are animated, made meaningful, and molded out of
mobile ideologies and practices. The resulting scholarship is also one that
does not seek to locate stasis, but that tries to unfix apparent
'fixities', and finds significance in their moving parts. Yet, despite this
ontological thrust, the mobilities literature has curiously neglected to
move itself very far beyond the Anglo-American context. Its disposition, it
seems, remains to valorize, even universalize, Western-centric theories,
perspectives and linguistic signs in the expression of mobilities, so much
so that 'Other' potential interpretations become silenced or clouded over.
This panel is interested in retrieving this lost knowledge, by examining,
tracing and giving weight to the development of (alter-)mobilities in the
non-Western world, through a variety of explorations. In particular, an
emphasis is given to 'emerging Asia', a context which is not to be taken as
referring to just another 'region' or a comparative foil for established
ideas, but a (collective of) center(s) for re-understanding and
re-theorizing mobilities. In short, this panel seeks to cosmopolitanize the
articulations of mobilities by taking on another vantage point; it makes a
conscious attempt to contemplate how
societies in 'Asia' move and how these mobilities in turn inform,
are informed by, and interact with the rest of the world.

The organizers of this session invite papers that speak to these lines of
argument, and/or are interested in forwarding a 'non-Western' agenda in
mobilities studies. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
• Aeromobilities
• Urban travel, practices, and its cultural meanings
• Ocean and maritime geographies
• Infrastructures of, and organizational methods in mobilities
• Regulatory regimes of (im)mobilities (e.g. borders, surveillance)
• Geopolitics of regional and/or international transport
• Transnational migration and related cultural concepts
• Tourism mobilities, practices and meanings
• Mobile practices, rituals and expressions (e.g. in the arts, religion)
• Embodied mobilities and their expressions (e.g. through dress/uniform,
dance)
• Mobilities of ideas, policies and other cultural transfers
• Historical geographies of mobilities
• Gender/race/class and mobilities

If interested, please submit a short abstract by October 02 to Weiqiang Lin
at [log in to unmask] Queries, if any, can also be directed
to the above address. Thank you.