Fourth International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies

1-3 July 2013 at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands

The Fourth International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies will be held 1-3 July 2013 at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, hosted by the Faculty of Spatial Sciences. After the success of the first three conferences (in Lancaster, UK, 2002; Kingston, Canada, 2006; and Adelaide, Australia, 2010), this fourth conference provides a forum for a range of people from different disciplinary backgrounds as well as societal partners and artists to creatively explore the role of emotion in thinking about and experiencing space and society.

We are facing spatial and social transformations as a result of climate change, financial crises, geopolitical instabilities and digital revolutions, which evoke emotional responses. These events led Vermeulen and Van den Akker (2010) to introduce the concept of metamoderism; a “spacetime that is … neither ordered nor disordered” (p.12) and that is characterized by the oscillation “between a modern enthusiasm and a postmodern irony, between hope and melancholy, between naïveté and knowingness, empathy and apathy, unity and plurality, totality and fragmentation, purity and ambiguity” (p.5-6).

We seek papers that investigate the multiplicity of spaces and places that produce and are produced by emotional and affective life, representing an inclusive range of theoretical and methodological engagements with emotion as a social, cultural and spatial phenomenon. Themes include but are not limited to: migration, landscapes, development, governance, arts, ageing, embodiment, cities, population decline, ruralities, wellbeing, real estate, non-human actors, memory, entrepreneurship, methods.

Open call for papers

We welcome abstracts even if they cannot be fitted into existing sessions (see http://www.rug.nl/research/ursi/events/emospa/calls-papers). We will organise open sessions in order to provide space for additional presentations. If you feel you have a contribution to make to the conference but have not yet found a suitable session, please submit your abstract (300 words) to the conference organisation committee at [log in to unmask] before February 20th 2013.