RGS-IBG Conference, London, August 31 - September 2, 2011.
Call For Papers: Reproblematizing Regeneration
Sponsorship: Urban Geography Research Group (UGRG)
Since the 1980s, regeneration has been a pivotal concept in neoliberal urban and regional policy. However, although critics have highlighted the political limitations of both the practice and the wider discourse of regeneration, not enough work has yet pushed beyond its basic presuppositions and metaphyics. Successfully challenging the grip of narrowly framed regeneration discourse upon urban policy requires not just demonstrating the limits of these theoretical presuppositions, but also seeking a way beyond them. What kind of a problem does the notion of urban regeneration pose? What sort of ontological commitments is it based upon? What metaphysics of growth, rebirth and emergence does (or should it) it make use of? Has urban regeneration discourse succeeded in freeing itself from its historical connections with biology and theology, or is it a medium through which biopolitical and/or spiritual geographical imaginations persist in urban policy? To what degree should the regeneration problematic be separated from these discourses and values?
This paper session opens up a space in which the concept of regeneration can be pushed beyond its usual collusion with rationalities of economic growth and community empowerment. Theoretical and empirical papers are welcomed that challenge or expand dominant frameworks through which regeneration is usually problematized. Papers might unravel some of the broader philosophical, scientific, and theological registers of regeneration as a concept and as a value. They might explore regeneration’s rich genealogy, its emergence out of discourses in biology, theology, philosophy, and mathematics. They might consider to what extent, and how, these ontological foundations continue to constrain, delimit or enable urban regeneration discourse, and perhaps, the government of the city. Or they might imagine ways in which a transformed concept of regeneration might contribute to the development of a new urban ethos of care and solidarity. Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:
• Novel vocabularies and ontologies of urban vibrancy and vitality
• Genealogies of regeneration
• The place of spiritual or theological values in urban regeneration discourse and practice
• Regeneration and social pathology
• Regeneration, organicism, and urban ecology
• Regeneration as urban ethos
• Materialist, speculative and/or vitalist accounts of urban liveliness
Session organiser: Julian Brigstocke ([log in to unmask])
The session allows 20 minutes for each paper. Please send abstracts (c. 250 words) to the organiser by February 11, 2011.
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Dr Julian Brigstocke
[log in to unmask]
School of Geography, Politics and Sociology
Fifth floor, Claremont Tower
Newcastle University
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
www.julianbrigstocke.com
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