Centre of African Studies & Politics and international Relations Conference, University of Edinburgh

This conference examines how the proliferation of new political actors and/or new modes of political action have affected political order in Africa and beyond. It explores how new trans-boundary connections, particularly those related to transnational, corporate, non-governmental (NGOs) and para-statal actors, shape political topographies: What new topographies of power and authority have they cultivated at local, national and transnational levels? How ‘new’ are these developments in practice? How is legitimacy constructed and contested under these conditions? How do these developments shape our understanding about statehood in ‘most of the world’ (Chatterjee 2004)?

The vibrant debates that surround new political topographies in Africa are the springboard for this workshop. We will be building on explorations of re-spacing, authority and governance beyond the state in Africa and relate it to cutting-edge work on transnationalised sites in a range of other regional contexts. We will also engage with new work in international political sociology and geography tackling method(ologies) for mapping emerging political topographies. Together, these various strands provide the basis for thinking through new political topographies from Africa/'most of the world’ and the implications of such thinking for a better understanding to the future of global politics.

Organiser: Jana Hönke with Kathy Dodworth (University of Edinburgh)

If you are interested in presenting a paper, please send a title and abstract to [log in to unmask] by 30 January 2015. For a number of presenters we will be able to offer support for travel and accommodation.

More info on our work on new political geographies on http://www.newpoliticalgeographies.com./
Updates will be available on http://www.cas.ed.ac.uk/events/annual_conference/2015.

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Jana Hönke
Lecturer in International Relations
University of Edinburgh
@PoCoSecurity
http://www.pol.ed.ac.uk/people/academic_staff/jana_hoenke

Transnational Companies and Security Governance. Hybrid Practices in a Postcolonial World, London: Routledge. New Political Topographies. Mining companies and indirect discharge in Southern Katanga (DRC), Politique Africaine N°120.Governing (In)Security in the Postcolonial World: Transnational Entanglements and the Worldliness of ‘Local’ Practice', Security Dialogue 43(5)