From: Craig YOUNG [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
CFP: Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, San Francisco, USA,
April 17-21
2007.
Imagining the 'new Europe': visions of Europe during 'eastern' European
Union enlargement
Convenors: Dr Craig Young (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK), Dr Chad
Staddon (University of the West of England, UK), Dr Marianna Pavlovskaya
(Hunter College - CUNY, USA).
Sponsored by: The Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British
Geographers Post-Socialist Geographers Research Group and the following AAG
Speciality Groups: Russian, Central Eurasian, and East European; Cultural
Geography; European; and Political Geography.
Three years since the 'accession-eight' countries of East and Central Europe
(ECE) joined the European Union (EU), and in the year (2007) that Romania
and (probably) Bulgaria will follow them, it is timely to critically reflect
on the process of EU enlargement to 'the east'. If Turkey successfully
enters EU accession negotiations this will dramatically change what is
thought of as the eastern border of 'Europe', and if followed by Croatia and
other parts of ECE the question of 'what is Europe?' will remain the subject
of much debate.
These sessions seek to attract papers which will present critical
geographical engagement with processes of 'eastern expansion'. In
particular we seek papers which engage with the socio-cultural re-imagining
of Europe as much as the institutional or economic, or which examine the
interaction between these different 'visions of Europe'.
What is 'Europe' when its original historico-geographical origins in the
oppositions between East and West, between Capitalist and Communist, between
Catholic/Protestant and Orthodox have been largely if not completely erased?
Some cultural theorists argue that 'Europe' has always been founded on a
denigration of its 'other' eastern extremities, but is this still plausible
with expansion to the 'east'? How does Russia and the other parts of ECE
which may yet enter EU negotiations play a role in such imaginings of
Europe? And what role is played by the increasing presence of migrant labour
and transnational networks and flows and how these processes are imagined
(eg. in media representations) and the position of 'Europe' in local, urban,
regional and global geopolitics?
Please send titles and abstracts of up to 200 words of papers to be
presented and your contact details to Craig Young ([log in to unmask]) and
Chad Staddon ([log in to unmask]) by 9th October, 2007. We may also
conclude the sessions with a panel discussion or series of very short
opinion pieces and debate so please indicate if you might wish to
participate in a panel.
Full details of the conference can be found at www.aag.org and then
following the link on the home page to the 2007 annual meeting.
Please note that once we contact you to say your paper has been accepted for
the session then it is your responsibility to register for the conference by
the closing date and submit your abstract on-line (we can only put the
sessions together not register you or submit your abstract). Once you have
registered you must send us your PIN number which you will be given so we
can register you in the session. Thank you.
Dr Craig Young
Programme Leader - Human Geography
Senior Lecturer in Human Geography
Manchester Metropolitan University
Dept of Environmental and Geographical Sciences
Institute for Culture, Gender and the City
John Dalton Building
Chester St.
Manchester M1 5GD
0161-247-6198/1601
Fax 0161-247-6318
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