Call for Papers

Peripheral visions: Security by, and for, whom?

Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, 21-25 April 2015 - Chicago, Illinois

Organizers:

Kathrin Hörschelmann (University of Durham, UK,

and Leibniz-Institute for Regional Geography Leipzig, Germany),

Catherine Cottrell (University of Aberystwyth, UK),

Peter Hopkins (University of Newcastle, UK)

Matt Benwell (University of Newcastle, UK)

Deadline for abstract submissions:

15^th October 2014

“Security” has become a key concern in many areas of western politics since 9/11. As a concept, it is used prolifically in public,

political and scholarly discourses to describe responses to all manner of perceived and actual risks, from population health,

crime and economic crisis through to terrorism and dissent in the ‘homeland’ as well as geopolitical instability. Despite this wide

range of areas to which the term is applied, however, western security discourses frequently (re)produce assumptions that narrow

significantly our perspectives on experiences, priorities and understandings of (in)security (cf. Philo 2012, Brassett et al 2013).

This narrowing of perspectives risks contributing to the reinforcement of the very geometries of power that critical geographers

might argue to be a major cause of insecurity.

In order to contest the logics of security that underlie such narrow visions, this session aims to explore what security and insecurity
means from the perspective of those who are marginalised and/or constructed as subjects, populations, places and regions of risk
in dominant security discourses. Presenters may wish to consider, amongst other issues:

- how the relationship between (in)security and peripherality is constructed discursively, politically, and economically

- which conceptualisations of space, time and subjectivity underpin dominant and marginalised security discourses

- how security is practiced and insecurity tackled by those who are marginalised in dominant security discourses

- how security and insecurity are experienced, interpreted and their causes and consequences understood by marginalised social actors

- how different political actors respond to both insecurities wrought by socio-spatial peripheralisations and the peripheralities and exclusions
  produced by security politics and discourses

- how futures of security are envisaged and contributed to in the diverse socio-spatial practices of peripheralised and excluded
  social actors, in different global contexts

If you wish to contribute to the session, either with a full length paper or a shorter 10-minute discussion piece, please send your abstract to

Kathrin ([log in to unmask]) and Catherine [log in to unmask], indicating which type of paper you are interested in presenting.