Apologies for cross-postings…..
Call for Papers
Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers
Washington, DC April 14-18, 2010
Theorizing Petro-capitalism: Oil, Accumulation, Struggle
Matthew T. Huber, Department of Geography, Maxwell School of Syracuse University
Byron Miller, Department of Geography, University of Calgary
The political economy of oil offers an entry point into a number of issues
that concern geographers – economic/ecological crisis, resource
sovereignty/nationalism, geopolitics, environmental justice,
financialization, and (sub)urban spatial restructuring. While a number of
these topics have been examined in isolation, oil’s stickiness to multiple
geographical themes suggests a broader opening to theorize the central role
of petroleum resources (and the struggles that produce them) in shaping the
production and reproduction of capitalist social relations.
This call for papers seeks contributions aiming to theorize the political
economy (and ecology) of what Michael Watts calls “petro-capitalism.” While
we welcome historical and contemporary examples, we seek papers that use oil
to ask broader conceptual questions about political economy, nature, and
space. Examples of possible approaches include ecological Marxism, critical
geopolitics, theories of imperialism, the regulation approach,
governmentality, and theories of materiality.
Possible topics of interest include:
- rent and (petro)state formation
- petrodollars and financialization
- the political ecology of oil extraction
- oil, violence, and environmental justice
- oil consumption, social reproduction, and everyday life
- oil, automobility, and (sub)urban spatiality
- oil, carbon, and the politics of climate change
- peak oil, scarcity, and the production of geological knowledge
This session is sponsored by the Socialist and Critical Geography Specialty
Group and The Energy and Environment Specialty Group.
Questions and/or abstracts of no longer than 250 words should be sent to
either Matt Huber ([log in to unmask]) or Byron Miller
([log in to unmask]) by October 21st 2009.
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