RGS-IBG Annual Conference, Edinburgh, 3rd-5th July 2012
EXPLORING TWO DECADES OF URBAN UNREST AND UBRAN INSECURITY : FROM LOS
ANGELES 1992 TO LONDON 2011 AND BEYOND
Sponsored by the Urban Geography Research Group
Co-convened by Geoffrey DeVerteuil (University of Southampton) and
Paul Kirkness (University of Edinburgh)
PAPER SESSION (1 session)
Urban unrest over the past two decades can be understood in terms of
its relationship to urban insecurity. The assumption is that urban
unrest and the multiple forms taken by urban insecurity ? of
neighborhoods, livelihoods, and life chances - are positively related,
and have been compounded by neoliberalization and policies that
?punish the poor'. Indeed, Wacquant?s chapter on ?The Return of the
Repressed? in Urban Outcasts (2008) argues that the anatomy of urban
unrest lies in the combined logics of ?ethnoracial injustice? and
?economic deprivation and widening social inequalities?. More
specifically, we use the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles
unrest/uprising (1992) ? but also the more recent resurgence of unrest
in cities of advanced economies (e.g. Paris, London, Athens) as well
as those of the Global South (e.g. Tunis, Cairo) - as a springboard to
critically review and update this relationship. We are concerned with
gaining a greater understanding for the motivations that have led to
much of the urban unrest since 1992 in order to critically examine the
idea of urban unrest itself. We aim to unravel the multiple ways in
which 'unrest' has been discursively constituted and we question
whether there may be more appropriate ways of describing such
phenomena. One of our endeavors is to render an interpretation of
urban unrest, spanning over different periods and regions, which is
inclusive of those voices that usually remain unheard: the
perpetrators of the urban unrest who are framed as 'mindless rioters'
and 'looters'.
We are looking for papers that critically examine and expand our
understandings of the relationship to include:
- Explorations of the complex and multiple motivations that underlie
periods of urban unrest;
- Interpretations of unrest as it is framed from the dominant
perspective but also from that of partisan politics (ie. what the
conservative and left-leaning interpretations of urban unrest might be
and whether they are appropriate understandings of such periods);
- The stigmatization of specific places and the challenges to
stigma-labels that emanate from their residents;
- The racialization of the poor and of the neighborhoods in which they reside;
- The link to transformative politics in this age of the ?post-political?;
- Consumption practices and varying interpretations for urban unrest
in neoliberal societies, especially the current economic crisis and
the parallel upsurge in discourses of insecurity; and
- The development of police-neighborhood relationships.
Please submit abstracts of approximately 200 words to Geoffrey
DeVerteuil ([log in to unmask]) and Paul Kirkness
([log in to unmask]) by 20th January 2012.
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Paul Kirkness
_________________________________
The University Of Edinburgh,
Room 1.09 (Benbecula Suite), Institute of Geography, Drummond Street,
Edinburgh
EH8 9XP
Mobile: +44 (0) 7595 754 850
Phone: +44 (0) 131 650 8106
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The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
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