Apologies for X-posting.
Call for papers for the upcoming AAG meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada 

CALL FOR PAPERS 
Seeking Democratic Alternatives to the Neoliberal State: Geographies of
Grassroots Democracy and Community Resistance to Neoliberalism. 

DeFilippis et al. note the concept of community has a “central place
in capitalist political economies” as communities are “vital area[s]
for social change [and also] arenas that are constrained in their
capacities to host such efforts (DeFilippis et al. 2006: 674).  On the
one hand urban governments have turned to a neoliberal logic of
community-a logic that offers up an unwavering belief in market forces,
has reduced or eliminated social services for the economically
marginalized, reduced government regulation and provided a vision of
community which focuses on individual competition and pits street
against street, block against block, and community against community-in
an effort to ‘redevelop’ urban areas. On the other hand grassroots
democratic organizations deploy an understanding of community which
celebrates and relies on collective action and resistance to neoliberal
logics of community. Activists engage with and deploy concepts of
community which stand as powerful counterpoints to the elimination of
social services and are working to find alternatives to neoliberal
economic and government schemes. Even so, while communities are expected
to take on more responsibilities for their own economic and social
well-being and pool efforts to mobilize and take action, many often lack
the capacity to meet the obligations that come with devolution.
Seeking a wide variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to
understanding grassroots democratic resistance to neoliberalism this
call for papers is open to both activists and scholars who are engaging
with questions of neoliberalism, community, and/or grassroots democracy.
 Some questions for consideration include, but are not limited to: 

1.)	How do communities form and collectively resist their
incorporation into plans and structures of community governance under
neoliberalism?
2.)	 How can state actors produce “geographies of political and
economic equity” (Herbert 2005: 862) and can government designs also
engage communities to counteract their further neoliberalization? 
3.)	Can communities effectively seek democratic alternatives to
their neoliberalization, if so, then how?
4.)	 In what ways does community-based democratic resistance to
neoliberalism engage with or detract from efforts to mobilize against
injustices based on race, class, gender, ability, sexuality or issues
including poverty, food security, and environmental degradation? 

A primary goal of this organized session (or sessions) is to assist in
networking and connecting individuals who are engaged in research on
grassroots democracy, neoliberalism and community and to contribute to
existing conversations across multiple disciplines regarding these
topics.  Please feel free to contact Dr.  Joshua Inwood:
[log in to unmask] or Dr. Leela Viswanathan:
[log in to unmask] with any questions.  As the AAG deadline
is October 16, 2008, we would like a copy of your abstract by October 1
to enable us to organize the session.  



Dr. Joshua Inwood
Department of Geology and Geography
Auburn University
0316N Haley Center
Auburn, AL 36849-5305

Telephone: 334-844-4229

"To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system;
thereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor.  Noncooperation
with evil is as much a moral obligation as cooperation with good."
Martin Luther King Jr.