 |
 |
2nd Call for Papers: Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), New Orleans, 10-14 April 2018
Public engagement as purpose: methods, practices and implications for geographical research
Session Organizers: Nadia Bartolini (University of Exeter) and Johanna Wadsley (Open University)
There has been a long-standing tradition of public engagement within geography (Pain 2004; Ward 2006; Saunders and Moles 2013). In recent years, however, geographers have been more and more involved in embedding principles and practices of engagement beyond the academy as cornerstones of research design (see, for instance, Dickens and Butcher 2016; Waterton and Tsouvalis 2015; Hawkins 2015; Kraftl 2013; Last 2012; Lopez-Galviz et al. forthcoming, and the special issues convened by Jacobs and Milne in 2016). This may be due to an increased interest in research councils (in the UK, in particular) to include public engagement as an essential component in funding proposals (see RCUK’s Public Engagement webpage). As such, there has been a desire within academia to explore an expanding repertoire of means and methods to engage a variety of different publics outside Higher Education Institutions: from professionals involved in policy development to communities experiencing social and/or environmental change.
This session seeks to capture emerging trends and themes, as well as critical considerations of techniques and methods that engage publics, however defined. We are also interested in reflecting upon the impact of the engagement and/or impact agenda within the academy. The session is not bound by specific areas of expertise within geography, but rather, it is aimed at gathering PhD students, early career researchers, artists, practitioners and established academics for an evaluative exchange on the ways through which they have embraced engagement as a principle and practice in the context of their work. In particular, through this session, we are encouraging an open and supportive environment where lessons can be shared about what has – and has not – worked when engaging publics.
Possible contributions can include, but are not limited to, the following:
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to Nadia Bartolini ([log in to unmask]) and Johanna Wadsley ([log in to unmask]) by 16 October. We will confirm acceptance by 19 October, and we expect you to register and submit your abstract on the AAG website by 25 October.
References:
Dickens, L. and Butcher, M. 2016. Going public? Re-thinking visibility, ethics and recognition through participatory research praxis. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 41(4): 528–540.
Hawkins, H. 2015. Creative Geographic Methods: Knowing, representing, intervening. On composing place and page. Cultural Geographies 22(2): 247-268.
Jacobs, J.; Milne, E-J. 2016 in the fourth issue of Area volume 48.
Kraftl, P. 2013. Beyond ‘voice’, beyond ‘agency’, beyond ‘politics’? Hybrid childhoods and some critical reflections on children’s emotional geographies. Emotion, Space and Society 9: 13–23.
Last, A. 2012. Experimental Geographies. Geography Compass 6 (12): 706-724.
Lopez-Galviz, C., Bartolini, N., Pendleton, M., Stock, A. (forthcoming) Reconfiguring Ruins: Beyond Ruinenlust. GeoHumanities.
Pain, R. 2004. Social geography: participatory research. Progress in Human Geography 28: 652–663.
RCUK Public Engagement URL: http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/pe/ [accessed 20/09/2017].
Saunders, A. and Moles, K. 2013. The spatial practice of public engagement: ‘doing’ geography in the South Wales valleys. Social & Cultural Geography 14(1): 23-40.
Ward, K. 2006. Geography and public policy: towards public geographies. Progress in Human Geography 30(4): 495–503.
Waterton, C. and Tsouvalis, J. 2015. On the political nature of cyanobacteria: intra-active collective politics in Loweswater, the English Lake District. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space (33): 477– 493.