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Please see 2nd Call for Papers below which may be of interest to list
members - deadline in one week, *Friday 19th February*. (*Whilst we would
like to receive papers that are about present anti-capitalist protest
movements, we would also like to receive papers that are more broadly
historical and are about socialism and a 'transition' to capitalism,
comparing the past and the present, including experiential and
historical accounts of *Spaces of Post-Socialism*).

Please could those who wish to contribute, submit an abstract (max 300
words) ASAP. We hope the session will provide the basis for an edited
collection on, *Spaces of Post-Socialism*.

Send abstracts to: [log in to unmask]

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RGS-IBG Annual International Conference in London, 30 August - 2 September
2016:


*Spaces of Post-Socialism:*

*A Geography of Non-Alignment*



James Riding, *University of Sheffield*

Damir Arsenijevic, *De Montfort University *and *University of Tuzla*



*Founded in Belgrade in 1961, t**he Non-Aligned Movement was largely
conceived of as a middle course for states in the Developing World to **ensure
the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security
of Non-Aligned Countries, in their struggle against imperialism,
colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression,
occupation, domination, interference or hegemony. *

Here we seek to map a Non-Aligned Geography of *Spaces of Post-Socialism*,
documenting a history of socialism and its decline, while also reimagining
a socialist future; describing emancipatory struggles in former socialist
states, which articulate a radically democratic vision of society (see
Arsenijevic, 2011; Horvat and Štiks, 2015; Riding, 2015). In the desert of
post-socialism, up until recently, only rarely did we hear about the
consequences of the endless ‘transition’ to capitalism for states rendered
formerly socialist. This session will explore that ‘transition’ – arguing
it is an ideological construct based on the narrative of integration into a
core, which actually hides a monumental neo-colonial transformation of
places into dependent semi-peripheries (see Horvat and Štiks, 2015). It is
no surprise that – given ‘transition’ has meant general impoverishment,
huge public and private indebtedness, widespread deindustrialisation,
social degradation, depopulation through diminished life expectancy and
emigration, and general unemployment – the past year or two has seen a
rebirth of radical politics in the post-socialist Balkan states;
contributors may wish to consider these uprisings, other *Spaces of
Post-Socialism* where anti-capitalist movements are at work, or importantly
to understand what these movements arose out of, we seek papers that write
historically and experientially of socialism and the ‘transition’ to
capitalism, documenting and describing *Spaces of Post-Socialism*. In
charting this Non-Aligned Geography of *Spaces of Post-Socialism*, the
session aims to reproduce a form of subaltern studies; an anti-essentialist
approach, one of history, or indeed geography from below, usually
associated with post-colonial studies (see Legg, 2007).





*Arsenijevic*, D. (2011). *Mobilising unbribable life*. In Mousley, A.
(Ed.), *Towards a New Literary Humanism* (pp. 166-181). Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan.

Horvat, S., & Štiks, I. (Eds.) (2015). *Welcome to the Desert of
Post-Socialism: Radical Politics after Yugoslavia*. London: Verso.

Legg, S. (2007). *Spaces of Colonialism*. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.

Riding, J. (2015). Landscape, memory, and the shifting regional geographies
of northwest Bosnia-Herzegovina. *GeoHumanities *1(2) 378-397.

-- 
Dr James Riding
Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow
Department of Geography
University of Sheffield
Winter Street
S10 2TN
*New Regional Geographies (For Sarajevo)*
newregionalgeographies.wordpress.com
Free access to *GeoHumanities* article:
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/dIfhU5nx2PgWSvzw9Saa/full