Re-forwarded for Justin Beaumont
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CALL FOR PAPERS
(Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this message)
Association of American Geographers (AAG) 2007 Annual Meeting, San
Francisco, CA, United States
Faith, politics and social (in)justice in the city
Justin Beaumont, Urban and Regional Studies Institute (URSI), Faculty
of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, The Netherlands,
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This proposed paper session explores the problematic relations between
faith, politics and social (in)justice in cities. Today marks the fifth
anniversary of 9-11 in New York City. The event and the calamitous
Bush-Blair "Axes of Evil" and "War on Terror" aftermath in Kabul,
Baghdad, London and elsewhere remind us of tense and highly problematic
relations between beliefs (progressive as well as fundamentalist and
moderate of all faiths), institutional representation of diverse faiths
and political action on the world stage, in national arenas and within
cities. At the same time national governments, particularly in the US
and in the UK, have increasingly revalorized faith based actors in
domestic politics of social and spatial (in)justice as the neoliberal
assault on welfare continues unabated. Alongside the Clinton, then
Bush, faith based agenda and emergency relief by largely Christian
charities in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in the US, it is now
over 20 years since the Faith in the City report exposed the realities
of injustice and posited the role of faith actors in addressing social
ills in UK inner cities (Faith in the City 1985). The report was
condemned by Thatcher at the time of publication as "Marxist", creating
a flurry of political debate and the establishment of the Church Urban
Fund, but little else. While the recent Commission on Urban Life and
Faith (2006) report reveals a less radical and structural analysis,
where urban, contextual and Latin American liberation theologies have
given way to a concern for practical social problems in "partnership"
with government in a somewhat tamer and depoliticized fashion. Far less
is known about these issues and their changes in time in diverse
socio-institutional contexts. The session addresses contemporary
geographies of faith, politics and social (in)justice in cities from an
international comparative perspective by addressing the following
questions:
* What are the social and organizational geographies of faith
politicization against social injustices in cities?
* How can we account for the ideological and political ambiguity of
faith actors in urban politics?
* Do these activities reveal faith actors as subordinated partners in
the delivery of contracted state services, or are faith groups joining
forces with political parties, trade unions and other civic
associations as part of new contentious politics within cities?
* What is the role of faith actors in the politics of welfare reform
and particularly urban regeneration and their changes in time in
different countries?
* Do faith actors have a legitimate role to play in the achievement of
the "just city" or do their activities, despite well-intentioned and
enlightened theologies, serve to consolidate prevailing social and
spatial injustices rather than to radically challenge the status quo?
* Which theoretical and conceptual tools are at our disposal, from
urban political economy, politics of welfare, urban policies and
geographies and sociologies of religion, for explaining the
hypothesized changing role of faith actors in urban social and
political issues and their variations by socio-institutional contexts?
You should submit your expression of interest and topic of your paper
right away and your abstracts (250 words max.) by 25 September 2006 to
[log in to unmask] Please consult the AAG website (www.aag.org) for
online registration and abstract submission instructions.
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Justin Beaumont
URSI-RUG
University of Groningen
www.justinbeaumont.com/
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