Call for Papers
Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Washington
DC April 14-18, 2010
Session: Geographies of State Bureaucracy
Session organisers: Fiona McConnell (Queen Mary University of London),
Alex Jeffrey (Newcastle University)
Recent scholarship in geography, political science and anthropology
has pointed to the significance of studying the everyday practices of
the state. This anti-essentialist approach has sought to explore the
lived experience of statehood and develop this account to challenge
the established image of the state as a unified political agent
detached from the social context ?over? which it governs. This session
seeks to build on this work by exploring specifically the geographies
of state bureaucracy. We feel that that studying bureaucracy provides
a range of insights into the mechanisms, materials and agents that
reproduce state (and state-like) practices and perform its functions
on an everyday basis. As classic studies such as Hannah Arendt?s
account of the trial of Adolf Eichmann have shown, bureaucracy is an
arena within which political objectives are naturalised through
languages, materials and routines. Indeed, critical approaches to
bureaucratic practices can provide a productive challenge to Max
Weber?s ideal of an efficient bureaucracy underpinning a model of
rational-legal authority. We are particularly keen to explore the
operation of bureaucracy across a range of geographical settings,
historical periods and political entities (states, non-state polities,
inter-governmental organisations)
We keen for the session to explore the following questions:
-- How can geographers contribute to the theorisation and empirical
exploration of state bureaucracies?
-- By following paper work and paper workers how does this illuminate
the division of administrative labour, the policy process and
standardisation of state(like) practices?
-- How can scholars go about accessing and researching bureaucracy
both ethnographically and historically?
-- How do inconsistencies, human errors and failing processes have a
material impact on decision making further down the line?
-- What mechanisms serve to obscure the function of bureaucracy from
citizens and civil society?
-- How is the bureaucracy of the state confronted and reproduced by
citizens in their everyday lives?
-- How can geographers confront the ?distance? that bureaucracy offers
agents from their actions?
-- What can a critical focus on bureaucracy lend to theories of
networked/ hierarchical/ scaled relations, processes and practices?
Please submit your abstracts to both session organisers by October 9th
2009, in the required aag format and style
(http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/2010/papers.htm). If you have any
questions please contact the organisers [log in to unmask] or
[log in to unmask]
--
Fiona McConnell (PhD Student: Governments-in-exile)
Department of Geography
Queen Mary, University of London
Mile End Road
London
E1 4NS
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Mobile: 07989 748375
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