AAG 2005, Denver, Call for papers: Epistemic Spaces

The aim of this session is to expand our understanding of the relationship
between processes of knowledge production and the settings in which they
take place. Work in the social studies of science has long been interested
in the spatiality of processes of scientific knowledge production and
geographers have recently sought to develop a more sustained attempt
to ‘put science in its place’ (Livingstone, 2003). It is hoped that the
papers in this session will push forward the current debate on the
relationship between knowledge production, politics and geography and will
invite reflection on what a geography of science might look like.

Scholars with an interest in science studies, in the history of geography,
as well as those interested in pseudo or quasi-scientific forms of
knowledge production and truth determination are invited to submit papers
to this session. Papers might examine a range of scientific practices
therefore, be these drawn from high-energy physics and biotechnology, or
the social sciences, psychology or geography itself. Empirically based
papers will be particularly welcomed. The papers submitted might like to
reflect upon some of the following issues, though this list is by no means
exclusive.

o How are scientific practices geographically constituted and how does this
effect the production of scientific truths?
o How are systems of truth validated and acknowledged in different places
and across space?
o How is uncertainty negotiated at the margins of ‘regimes of truth’?
o How do new arenas of ‘truth-validation’ (clinical trials, for example)
expand the relationship between science and politics to new scales of
action?
o How have these broader political-economic shifts, such as processes of
trans-nationalism and globalisation, shaped the meaning of scientific
knowledge?
o What, in turn, does it mean to create and to be part of transnational
spaces of scientific interaction and acknowlegdment?
o Which kind of (geo)politics are implied in different practices within
higher education and research?
o What kind of socio-scientific practices are related to different
epistemic spaces?
o To what extent is the relationship between ontological and
epistemological questions geographically structured?

We hope the session will contribute to the recent interest in critical
historical geographies of knowledge production while bringing together a
variety of conceptual frameworks and ideas circulating within
interdisciplinary science and cultural studies.

If you are interested in participating in this session, please contact one
of the session organizers:
Simon Reid-Henry ([log in to unmask])
Richard Powell ([log in to unmask])
Alexander Vasudevan ([log in to unmask])
Heike Joens ([log in to unmask]).

Final abstracts of no more than 250 words will be required by the session
organisers by 18th October. For the AAG abstract specifications, see
http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/Denver2005/abstract.cfm