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CFP 2. RGS-IBG Annual Conference, University of Exeter, 2nd-4th September 2015
Losing Ground – Gaining Ground. The Emotional, Affective & Gendered Consequences of Loss / Recovery of Nature, Home & Place in Rural Modern / Non-modern Settings
Dr. Linda Price, Queen’s University Belfast ([log in to unmask])
Dr. Dan Keech, University of Gloucester ([log in to unmask])
Professor Owain Jones, Bath Spa University ([log in to unmask])
Sponsored by:
Gender and Feminist Geographies Research Group
Rural Geography Research Group
The session investigates processes and relationships of degraded or flourishing nature-culture assemblages in ‘ecologies of place’ of the Anthropocene. Degrading assemblages (a dominant trend in many areas) result, for example, from biodiversity loss; displacement of aboriginal people and cultures; displacement of modern communities through conflict or ecological crisis; through gradual demographic and technological shifts from ‘traditional’ to neo-productivist agri-culture; and rural-urban migration. These shifts manifest themselves at geo-social scales ranging from individuals, family, community and ethnic groups. Through them run common threads/questions about failures of successful performance of (shared) livelihood, identity and personhood (in a number of registers) potentially leading to (human) depression, physical ill health and addiction and even suicide.
The session seeks to address such processes of losing ground in a range of settings. However we are particularly keen to develop a focus on gender in exploring how these experiences, and individual and collective memories of histories of them, have been expressed in a range of research/creative narratives which might include surveys, ethnographies, art, literature, media culture, new nature writing. We are interested in work which draws upon gender theory, perhaps in relation to notions of place and ecology (three ecologies - Guattari; dwelling - Ingold; ‘ecologies of place’ - Thrift), to explore what we learn about feelings of belonging/unbelonging, subsequent attachment/detachment from the visceral qualities of the land; of sense of place/up-rootedness to and from land/soil; dis/connections to past generations in geology, flora and fauna.
Also it is evident that, in some settings, processes of “finding ground” - recovery, new communities of eco-social flourishing - are underway , so we also welcome accounts of renewing/recovering/reinventing personal, collective, gendered identities and human- non-human flourishing in the face of the above challenges.
Papers might address:
· Senses of dis/connection between agrarian/non-agrarian cultures, perhaps drawing, conceptually, on forces of global mobility, counter-urbanisation and commodification of the countryside.
· The hurt of indigenous peoples displaced by, for example, capitalist forces of mining industries or de-forestation as expressed in the cognitive mapping of their links to water, geology and nature in art
· The kinds of interdisciplinary methodological approaches we might take in engaging with literature, arts and media culture i.e. literary geographies, discourse analysis, creative methodologies/geographies
· Gendered challenges of farm succession, senses of destiny and generational emotional connections to the rural ecology of geology, flora and fauna and , for example, their narrative expression
· The implications of the continued pull of the land that attracts people to the lifestyle of farming and food production
· The challenges/opportunities neo-productivism poses to rural communities no longer dominated by social relations of an agrarian way of life as depicted, perhaps, on radio, television/in literature
· Human-animal relationships, for example issues of consubstantiation, belonging and destruction of patriarchal lineages/identities between farm/animals /nature as expressed, for example, in accounts of culls resulting from Food and Mouth disease.
Please send abstracts up to a maximum of 250 words and proposed titles (clearly stating name, institution, and contact details) to Dr Linda Price ([log in to unmask]) & Dr Dan Keech ([log in to unmask]) by 13th February 2015
Owain Jones; Professor of Environmental Humanities; School of Humanities and Cultural Industries:
Publications, presentations, projects and cv @ Academia.edu/OwainJones
The (Greatness Of The Magnificence) Fantasy Orchestra
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