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Apologies for cross-posting *2nd Call for Papers* Investigating the migration/citizenship nexus: a ‘geographies of democracy’ approach RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, London, August 30th - September 2nd 2016 Sponsored by the Political Geography Research Group Session convenors: Jenny McCurry (QMUL) and Kuba Jablonowski (University of Exeter) Abstract ‘Nexus thinking’ has been used in geography to investigate and articulate interdependencies and tensions between research areas, processes, or scales. While much of the recent focus has been on resource governance (such as energy, environment, water and food security), we see this approach as an opportunity to interrogate the relationships between migration, citizenship, and democracy. Although migration and citizenship have been addressed extensively in geographical research, such work has tended to focus on how citizenship ‘shape(s) differential access to material and symbolic resources from states’ rather than how globalization might influence the ‘rights of political citizenship and the practices of mobilization and engagement these enable’ (Barnett and Low, 2004:2). In addition, the tendency to view migrants as economic rather than political actors presents an obstacle to investigating the range of ways in which diverse groups of migrants may exercise political agency, often moving beyond more explicit forms of mobilisation and protest. In particular, work by Isin and Nielsen (2008) and Isin and Saward (2013) has highlighted the ways in which migrants may become citizens through the process of claiming rights. However, scholars employing these ideas tend to focus on the most marginalised groups and most visible acts of resistance, often overlooking the ways in which political agency may be expressed through everyday interactions, or what Carrel and Neveu (see Neveu 2014) have referred to as the ‘feeble signals of citizenship’. As a result, we argue that there is a need to reinvestigate the migration/citizenship nexus with an explicit focus on how studying migration offers the potential to engage with wider debates on democracy and democratic theory in geography. We particularly invite papers which take a place-based, case study approach in order to examine how migrants’ political engagements may vary across specific socio-political contexts and scales. Applicants should submit an abstract of no more than 250 words, including a title and the affiliation of the author(s), to Jenny McCurry ([log in to unmask]) and Kuba Jablonowski ([log in to unmask]) as soon as possible, and no later than Wednesday 10th of February. References cited Barnett, C. and Low, M. (2004) ‘Introduction: Geography and Democracy’, in Barnett, Clive and Low, Murray (eds.) Spaces of Democracy: geographical perspectives on citizenship, participation and representation, London, UK: Sage Publications, pp. 1–22. Isin, E. F. and Nielsen, G. M. (eds.) (2008) Acts of Citizenship, London, UK: Zed Books. Isin, E. F. and Saward, M. (eds.) (2013) Enacting European Citizenship, New York: Cambridge University Press. Neveu, C. (2014) ‘Practising citizenship from the ordinary to the activist’ in Isin, Engin F. & Nyers, Peter (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Global Citizenship Studies, pp. 86-95.