Forwarded on behalf of Mary Corcoran
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GeoJournal
An international journal of Geography
Special Interdisciplinary Edition
Sustaining Communities
Call for Papers
The political project of urban restructuring at the turn of the
twenty-first century has given rise to a widespread debate on how to
sustain communities when faced with the challenges posed by poverty,
inequality, poor levels of community participation, and environmental
degradation. We are interested in starting a debate on how communities
construct themselves in the contemporary urban context, how they operate
within civil society and how they are framed within national political
and policy contexts. To this end, we are seeking contributions on the
broad theme of ‘sustaining communities’ for a special issue of
GeoJournal, intended for publication in 2009. In particular, we are
interested in contributions that explore the project of sustaining
communities in national or cross-national contexts. How is community
conceptualised, how does it manifest itself in practice, and how is it
framed within wider policy discourses? We are seeking papers that
contribute to an exploration of the interfaces between the academic,
political, and policy strands of community development across the globe.
Focusing on urban settings and possibly invoking case studies,
contributors are asked to explore the dominant socio-economic and
political frameworks for understanding what ‘sustaining communities’
means within their particular national (or cross national) contexts.
In gathering papers with a wide geographic spread, we hope to
promote a comparative debate on the theoretical underpinnings and policy
formulation of, and responses to, the issue of sustaining communities.
We recognize the complexity of the term community and the myriad ways in
which the term is deployed across academic disciplines. We also
recognize that community practice can range across a wide field from
consultative initiatives to local democracy to emancipatory projects.
Our intention is to assemble a set of papers reflecting national and
cross national experiences of ‘sustaining communities’ as a means of
generating a dialogue on the process’s diverse conceptualizations,
applications and policy manifestations.
We are seeking contributions within two broad categories: (i)
Papers that explore the ‘sustaining communities’ question within
particular national arenas; focusing on policy frameworks pertaining to
community development and the dominant theoretical discourses
underpinning their formulation within specific political frameworks.
(ii) Papers that use a community case study(ies) approach as a point of
departure in order to engage in a broader analysis of the manner in
which community is conceptualized, shaped and deployed across academic,
political and policy contexts.
We would welcome a contribution from you along the lines suggested
above.
The proposed timeline for the Special Issue is as follows:
Call for Papers issued November 17, 2008
Papers to be submitted by March 17, 2009
Referee process March- May 2009
Final submission of papers July 31, 2009
Publication date: late 2009
If you would like more details on the journal please see:
http://www.springer.com/geography/human+geography/journal/10708.
Manuscript submission guidelines are accessible on the website, and also
on the back inside page of the journal. As this is a special issue it
is our preference that you submit your paper directly to the editors
listed below, and not online on the website.
If you would like to discuss your proposed contribution with one of the
Special Issue editors please feel free to contact us:
Mary P. Corcoran, Professor of Sociology and Research Associate
National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA) National
University of Ireland, Maynooth, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland. Tel:
00-353-1-708-3789 email: [log in to unmask]
Cian O’Callaghan, post-doctoral fellow, NIRSA, National University of
Ireland, Maynooth, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland. Tel:
00-353-1-708-6210 email: [log in to unmask]
Ms. Wendy Fuller, doctoral candidate, Department of Sociology and
NIRSA, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Maynooth, Co. Kildare,
Ireland. Tel: 00-353- 708-6731 email: [log in to unmask]
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Christopher Niedt
Academic Director, National Center for Suburban Studies
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
205 Davison Hall
Hofstra University
Hempstead, NY 11549
Tel (m): 443-306-5700
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