 |
 |
The following is a call for papers from Ben Page. Please reply to him at the address below if you're interested. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Erik Swyngedouw and I would like to convene a session at next years AAG meeting on the theme of commodification and would be very pleased to hear from anyone who would be interested in participating. Please send abstracts to: [log in to unmask] as soon as possible. Desiring commodities: the social geography of things In this session we want to expand the analysis of commodification by outlining ‘a social geography of things’ which uses an analysis of the production and consumption of commodities to commentate on social relationships. We want to move beyond the ‘moral outrage’ that analyses of the commodification process so often generate in order to understand the wide variety of outcomes that can take place when a thing becomes (or indeed ceases to be) a commodity. We are also looking for papers which consider the different meanings of commodification in different contexts and which extend the range of commodities dealt with in the geographies of commodification. We would like to broaden analyses of the commodity fetish to capture the elements of desire and excitement as well as those of exploitation and mystification. As we see it discussions of 'the social geography of things' are a means of respecting the current interest in the consumption of commodities without neglecting the importance of understanding the production of commodities and which overtly seek to breakdown the apparent autonomy of 'things' by questioning the distinction between ‘people’ and ‘things.’ Ben Page School of Geography Mansfield Road Oxford OX1 3TB 01865 271 919 01865 711 451 (home) [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%