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CALL FOR PAPERS (CFP)
Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) 2018
New Orleans, LA
April 10-14, 2018
New Geographies of Spectacle
Sponsored by the Political Geography Specialty Group; Cultural Geography Specialty Group; Economic Geography Specialty Group; Urban Geography Specialty Group
Organized by Jacob C. Miller (University of Arizona) and Vincent del Casino Jr. (University of Arizona)
In the early twenty-first century of hyper-consumption of media and the proliferation of new political media cultures, we think there is no better time to reconsider the prospect of a “society of the spectacle” as an evolving
mode of power and psycho-political condition to be confronted by radical/critical geographic thought. While Guy Debord and the Situationist International are often discussed as putting forth a dialectical theory of the spectacle, insofar as it also creates
the spaces for resistance in the everyday landscape, other recent versions of the spectacle have launched into new theoretical territory of hyperreal and/or relational ontologies of what could be considered contemporary landscapes of spectacle and their emerging
political potential. Urban theorists have examined embodied and affective dimensions of the urban landscape that correspond to the dynamics of spectacle (Hetherington and Cronin 2008; Lee 2015), while others have elaborated on the geopolitics of spectacle
as corporate and state media craft the foundations for ongoing conflicts (Retort 2005; Chu and Sanyal 2015). Other feminist and gender theory scholars like Grace (2000) and Toffoletti (2007) see great potential in the move towards hyperreality as an opening
to more radical futures where queer, transgender and post-humanist subjectivities, for instance, might thrive. The spectacle, then, carries with it dense theoretical, methodological and conceptual challenges that this session would like to give expression
to.
Any topic is invited, as long as there is some serious link to developing or critiquing “spectacle” as a theoretical concept relevant for geographic thought and research. Topics might include:
Urban landscapes and consumer culture
Geopolitics and spectacle
Spectacle, gender and sexuality
Digital geographies of spectacle
Critiques/criticism of spectacle and/or hyperreality
Please send your abstracts to Jacob Miller ([log in to unmask]) and Vincent del Casino Jr. ([log in to unmask]) by October 20 and we will respond
by October 22.
References
Chu C L and Sanyal R 2015 Spectacular cities of our time Geoforum 65: 399-402
Grace V 2000 Baudrillard’s Challenge. A Feminist Reading Routledge, London and New York
Hetherington K and Cronin A M 2008 Introduction. In Cronin A M and Hetherington K (eds) Consuming the entrepreneurial city: image, memory, spectacle Routledge New York
Lee K-W 2015 Technical frames of affect: Design-work and brand-work in a shopping mall. Geoforum 65: 403–412.
Retort 2005 Afflicted Powers. Capital and Spectacle in a New Age of War. Verso
Toffoletti K 2007 Cyborgs and Barbie Dolls. Feminism, Popular Culture and the Posthuman Body I.B. Tauris, London and New York