Second call for papers: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, 27-29 August 2008
Paper session: Cities in the world - Responsibility beyond place and politics beyond the local
Organisers: Nick Clarke (University of Southampton) and Paul Cloke (University of Exeter)
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Deadline for titles and abstracts (c200 words): 11 Jan 2008
In World City (2007), Doreen Massey notes that lines run out from cities (trade routes, investments, political and cultural influences etc.), actions in cities have effects elsewhere, and 'the global is locally produced'. She also notes that, on the one hand, spaces and places are increasingly the product of global flows, while, on the other, politics remains framed by a territorial imagination and structure. In view of this, she calls for the acknowledgement of 'responsibility beyond place', and the construction of 'a politics of place beyond place'.
This session is inspired by Massey's arguments. It also seeks to build on them in three ways. First, while Massey focuses on London, this session considers responsibility and politics as they relate to a variety of towns and cities. Second, while Massey focuses on the period since the early 1980s, this session considers examples of 'a local politics that thinks beyond the local' from the contemporary period but also from the history of municipal internationalism (see Saunier 2002). Third, while Massey focuses on the specific responsibilities that attach to both actors and the beneficiaries of actions, this session considers the roles of various modes of responsibility, and other factors too, in motivating 'a more outward-looking politics of place'.
Papers are sought on the following topics:
* The geographical imaginations that frame understandings of cities and their relationships with other places.
* The production of these geographical imaginations.
* The relationship between these geographical imaginations and action.
* The effects of towns and cities in the country and/or the world.
* Examples of 'a local politics that thinks beyond the local' from the contemporary period (e.g. the Fairtrade Foundation's Fairtrade Towns campaign - see Malpass et al 2007) and/or the history of municipal internationalism (e.g. the municipal foreign policy movement - see Kirby et al 1995).
* The various modes of responsibility and/or other factors that help to motivate 'a more outward-looking politics of place'.
References:
Kirby A, Marston S and Seasholes K (1995) 'World cities and global communities: The municipal foreign policy movement and new roles for cities', in P Knox and P Taylor (eds) World Cities in a World System (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press) pp267-79
Malpass A, Cloke P, Barnett C and Clarke N (2007) 'Fairtrade urbanism? The politics of place beyond place in the British Fairtrade City campaign', International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 31(3): 633-45
Massey D (2007) World City (Cambridge, Polity)
Saunier P-Y (2002) 'Taking up the bet on connections: A municipal contribution', Contemporary European History 11(4): 507-27
Dr Nick Clarke
Lecturer in Human Geography
School of Geography
University of Southampton
Highfield
Southampton SO17 1BJ
Tel. 02380 594618
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