Well done - looks great.
Daniel Zhang wrote:
> in case you are interested. Im organising a session in Beijing this June.
>
> On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 2:40 PM, Yunpeng ZHANG <[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
> Apologise for cross posting
>
> Regional Studies Association Global Conference 2012
> Sustaining Regional Futures, 24th - 27th June 2012, Beijing, China
>
> Call for papers for a session entitled:
>
> Sustaining Whose Futures? Megaprojects, territorial politics and
> social injustices
>
> Organisers:
> Yunpeng Zhang, PhD student, Institute of Geography, The University of
> Edinburgh, UK, email: [log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Huifang Cong, PhD student, School of Built Environment, Heriot-Watt
> University Edinburgh, UK email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Xiang Feng, PhD, Managing Director of Sino-European Comparative Urban
> Research Centre, Shanghai Normal University, China, email:
> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
> Session Introduction
>
> The ascendancy of neoliberal ideology worldwide witnessed a shift,
> what David Harvey portrays, from managerialism to entrepreneurialism
> in urban governance, prioritising policy concerns on competitiveness
> and attractiveness of places to footloose capital investment over
> social settlements on welfares and redistribution. A prominent
> strategy of such entrepreneurial urbanism focuses on the production
> and reproduction of spaces at various scales, or 'spatial fix' to
> use Harvey's words, in order to exploit locational advantages.
> Megaprojects are one of the spatial fixes. In this session, we
> advise megaprojects include: large scale infrastructural projects,
> major urban regeneration/gentrification programmes, new town
> development, and one-time off mega-event such as Olympics or World
> Expo, etc. This broad view of megaprojects is based on our
> conviction that the spatial-temporal criteria of scale and the
> financial yardstick of cost cannot be adopted as the defining
> features of megaprojects for the firm connections of megaprojects
> with wider political-economic changes and spatial (re)structuring,
> such as, inter alia, the shift towards post-Fordism economy, the
> dominant power of fictitious finance capital, the hegemony of
> neoliberalism, and state rescaling.
> Whilst much academic input has been invested in examining the
> contextual changes giving rise to megaprojects as an entrepreneurial
> strategy and the impacts upon the city/region (often based on
> ex-ante predications), theoretical polemics and empirical
> investigations have overlooked the complicated process and the
> realpolitik of territoriality in developing and managing
> megaprojects. Filled with a plethora of celebratory accounts laying
> much weight on the contribution of megaprojects to urban/regional
> economic development and improvement of place images, existing
> scholarship fails to highlight the inherent irrationalities and
> contradictions in developing megaprojects and social inequalities
> and social injustices generated and exacerbated by them, especially
> in non-western context. What required are independent and critical
> examinations of the actual impacts upon the city/region in general
> and the citizens in particular as the latter are the human agents
> bearing the direct intended or unintended consequences of
> megaprojects. More importantly, there is a moral and ethical
> imperative to examine how megaprojects impact the vulnerable
> populations such as the displacees, the migrant workers, the urban
> poor, etc. Take the issue of displacement in China as an example,
> millions of farmers were displaced and relocated in order to develop
> the Three Gorges Dam and more than 18000 households gave away their
> beloved homes and communities to make way for the Expo 2010,
> however, existing studies seem oblivious to the impacts upon their
> personal lives, families, and communities.
> The proposed session provides an opportunity for critical
> contribution from a wide range of disciplines such as sociology,
> anthropology, geography, political sciences, and legal studies to
> offer inter-disciplinary insights on the study of megaprojects. We
> ask contributors to critically think about questions what kind of
> futures megaprojects are promising; for whom such futures are
> created and sustained, and whether the promised futures are well
> delivered. We invite both theoretical exploration and empirical case
> studies from different regions in the world on the following themes:
>
> * The underlying logics of megaprojects ;
> * The territorial politics and strategies in legitimating and
> developing megaprojects;
> * Legal and policy frameworks for land use in developing megaprojects;
> * Evaluation of the impacts of megaprojects;
> * Social injustices and social inequalities in megaprojects ;
> * Involuntary displacement and forcible evictions caused by
> megaprojects (policy frameworks, representations of displacement,
> and mechanics of displacement process);
>
>
> We welcome abstracts of 400-800 words along with paper titles and
> full contact details of all participating authors to be submitted to
> Huifang ([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>) and Yunpeng
> ([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> ) by Monday
> 20 February 2012 (it is possible to extend the deadline to Mondy 27
> February 2012 ). Please see
> http://www.regional-studies-__assoc.ac.uk/events/2012/__globalconf-june/abstract-__submission.pdf
> <http://www.regional-studies-assoc.ac.uk/events/2012/globalconf-june/abstract-submission.pdf>
> for detailed instructions for abstract submission. Those submitting
> abstracts to this special session must also register for the
> conference via the RSA online registration website in order to be
> confirmed and included in the conference programme. The uploading
> of abstracts is inclusive of the online registration process.
>
>
> Yunpeng Zhang
> PhD Candidate
> Institute of Geography
> University of Edinburgh
> Drummond Street
> Edinburgh EH8 9XP
> Scotland, UK
> Web: www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/__s0977814
> <http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/s0977814>
>
> --
> The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
> Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
>
> _________________________________________________________
> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> An urban geography discussion and announcement forum
> List Archives: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/URB-__GEOG-FORUM
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> Maintained by: RGS-IBG Urban Geography Research Group
> UGRG Home Page: http://www.urban-geography.__org.uk
> <http://www.urban-geography.org.uk>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Yunpeng Zhang
> PhD student
> Institute of Geography
> School of GeoSciences
> The University of Edinburgh
> Drummond Street
> Edinburgh, EH8 9XP
> Scotland, UK
>
> www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/s0977814 <http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/s0977814>
>
> _______________________________________________________
> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> An
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--
Dr. Tom Slater
Senior Lecturer in Human Geography
http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/tslater
Chair, RGS-IBG Urban Geography Research Group:
http://urban-geography.org.uk/
http://www.advancedurbanmarginality.net/
School of Geosciences,
University of Edinburgh
Drummond Street,
Edinburgh EH8 9XP, U.K.
Tel: +44 (0)131 650 9506
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
_______________________________________________________
[log in to unmask]
An urban geography discussion and announcement forum
List Archives: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/URB-GEOG-FORUM
Maintained by: RGS-IBG Urban Geography Research Group
UGRG Home Page: http://www.urban-geography.org.uk
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