RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, Exeter, 1-4 Sept 2015

CFPs 'Gentle Geographies'

Sponsored by the Participatory Geographies Research Group (PyGyRG)

Participatory and feminist approaches to research have given explicit attention to a range of political, ethical and practical issues involved in the processes of research themselves. More recently they have been linked to militant and activist geographies and a willingness to mix into/with the milieu, often shadowing those with whom research takes place, at the forefront of the action. Yet such approaches named as activist and militant, as well as calls for more impact in research, appear to other more gentle approaches. Indeed, while ‘action’ and ‘activism(s)’ come in different shapes and sizes (Horton and Kraftl, 2009), a gentle geographies approach is particularly emblematic of the ‘quiet politics’ discussed by Askins (2014), and draw on the use of gentle, softer, subtle and less intrusive ways of engaging with people in geographical research (Jeffries, 2014).

We seek papers/contributions that explore:

• What 'gentle geographies' might offer geographical scholarship and those taking part in research (whether academic geographers or other participants)?
• Whether gentle approaches imply a retreat from the political or rather a different kind of politics?
• In what contexts gentleness might be vital or antithetical to ethical research?
• What accounts could be given where gentleness is the subject of research?
• How gentle geographies might differ from geographies of care, love or peace in intimate and/or geopolitical relations?
• Where has the imperative to ‘be gentle’ restricted or opened out ways of living in the world?
• What kind of spatialities and temporalities are produced, through a slow, meandering uptake, a willingness to wait for change, for action, for activities, an (un)making of the research process, side by side with people’s lives?
• What scope is there in current conditions of academic research for gentle geographies and the topics/experiences/feelings/people that require ‘more’ time, ‘more’ light treading and ‘more’ from the process/experience?
• The gendering of participatory research and divisions of academic labour
• The gendered assumptions of a gentle/militant research binary

We are happy to receive expressions of interest in the form of full (15 minutes) or short interactive papers (5 minutes) and are open to suggestions for alternative formats, including creative and ‘more gentle’ ways of exploration. *Please get in touch if you would like to discuss anything*

Special thanks to Kye Askins, University of Glasgow who will act as a respondent.

This session is being organised by Jayne Jeffries ([log in to unmask]) and Matt Finn ([log in to unmask]). Please submit abstracts of up to 250 words, with an indication of the format of your paper/contribution and full contact details to both organisers by 6th February 2015.

Askins, K. (2014) “A quiet politics of being together: Miriam and Rose”, Area, 46 (4): 353-354

Horton, J. and Kraftl, P. (2009) “Small acts, kinds words and “not too much fuss”: implicit activisms”, Emotion, Space and Society 2: 14-23.

Jeffries, J. (2014) Becoming Disabled, (Doctoral dissertation, Durham University).