Call for Papers
American Association of Geographers
San Francisco
April 17-21 2007
Travelling Technocrats, Travelling Techniques
Convenors: Wendy Larner (University of Bristol, United Kingdom)
Nina Laurie (University of Newcastle, United Kingdom).
Too many analyses of new forms of governance remain based on the assumption
that neoliberalism is a monolithic Anglo-American project, born in the
Thatcherite-Reaganite years, then diffused to the rest of the world via the
activities of international organisations, think tanks and the like. This
session will challenge this assumption. Privatisation, ethno-development,
workfare, standards, codes of conduct, diaspora strategies and
participatory budgeting, to give but a few examples, all have much more
heterogeneous geographies and sociologies. As both discourse and practice,
these new forms of governance have travelled across South/North, East/West
and South/South divides, and they are also embodied in distinctive ways.
Analyses of these processes are often bounded and sector specific, focusing
on either policy transfer, institutional innovation, or technical
expertise. Our aim is to promote discussion across these sectors in order
to bring together analyses that examine the untold stories of travelling
technocrats and techniques. We are interested in the geography, political
economy and performance of new governmental forms. How do governing
discourses and techniques travel transnationally? What kinds of political
and technical networks result? What geographies of learning are involved?
Do they retain any local embeddedness? What kinds of bodies are these
discourses and techniques attached to, who and where do they emerge from,
why do they travel, where do they go?
Please send titles and abstracts for proposed papers to either Wendy Larner
([log in to unmask]) or Nina Laurie [log in to unmask] by 20
October 2006.
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Wendy Larner
Professor of Human Geography and Sociology
School of Geographical Sciences
University of Bristol
Bristol BS8 1SS
United Kingdom
Tel +44 117 928 8306
Fax +44 117 928 7878
[log in to unmask]
www.ggy.bris.ac.uk
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