Please find below a call for papers for the Annual Conference of the Royal
Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers, to be held
at the RGS, 31 August - 2nd September 2005.
Best
Caroline Bressey
Call for papers for RGS-IBG Session
'New' Geographies of Race and Racism
Session Organisers: Caroline Bressey, Department of Geography, University
College London & Claire Dwyer, Department of Geography, University College
London
Debates about the possibilities of multicultural Britain are central to
current political agendas. As Back et al. (2002) have argued, the policies
of New Labour have entwined concerns about terrorism and 'national
security' with an earlier rhetoric of assimilation and integration. Thus,
while concerns are raised about 'social exclusion' and marginalisation of
minority ethnic groups, the focus on terrorist threats has reanimated
racist discourses about allegiance and belonging. The results of this are
new geographies of exclusion - for example, the 300 per cent increase in
the number of people of Asian descent 'stopped and searched' in London has
provoked widespread mistrust. At the same time, the targeting of specific
regions by far-right political groups is another emerging 'new' geography
of racism.
Yet, the political agenda has also been challenged by attempts to re-define
multicultural Britain through the shaping of new visions of Britishness
such as those articulated by the Parekh Report (2000). The possibilities of
multicultural life in Britain, particularly evident within youth cultures,
have inspired some theorists to argue for the potential of new
cartographies of 'convivial culture' (Gilroy 2004). Geographers might
interrogate the mapping of these new cartographies at every scale from
local constructions and contestations of racialised spaces to the
renegotiation of belonging and nationhood, and the examination of the links
and flows between these spaces - such as the media and its role as one of
the many mechanisms which circulates ideas of who belongs to the nation.
This session provides an opportunity to explore the realities and
possibilities of multicultural Britain through a discussion of current work
on the geographies of race and racism. Papers are invited which contribute
to this debate and which might also address the following themes;
understandings of the 'everyday' practices and performances within which
racialised identities are constructed and contested; theorising the
connections between postcolonial theory and the 'everyday' geographies of
multicultural cities and spaces; critical perspectives on disciplinary
traditions of studying 'race' and space.
Abstracts should be sent to Caroline Bressey ([log in to unmask]) by 14th
January 2005. Please contact Caroline or Claire
(<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]) for further
information.
Dr T Caroline A Bressey
Department of Geography
University College London
26 Bedford Way
LONDON
WC1H OAP
020 7679 7586
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