Call for Papers: 'Rural cosmopolitanism: people, localities, and mobilities' (RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2017, 29th August-1st September, London)
Michael Woods and Rhys Dafydd Jones (Department of Geography and Earth Science, Aberystwyth University)
Popular narratives of the countryside emphasise its supposed stability and its perceived lack of change and diversity, constructed in opposition to dynamic urban spaces that are nodes in global networks. In this session we explore the ways in which rural spaces are – and have always been – diverse spaces of encounter, exchange, and interaction. The last quarter of a century has seen a proliferation of work exploring diversity in the countryside, with much work focussing on the experiences of minority ethnic groups in the countryside, particularly in the context of racism (Garland and Chakraborti, 2004), and a number of authors have started to develop the notion of ‘rural cosmopolitanism’, though in disparate ways (e.g. Gidwani and Sivaramakrishnan, 2003; Notar, 2008; Popke 2011). More work is needed on other strands of identity, the sites of encountering differences, and ways in which the countryside experiences cosmopolitanism. We particularly invite contributions that on the following themes:
• Ethnic and religious diversity in the countryside;
• Global mobilities and flows through rural spaces;
• Migration and return migration as drivers of rural cosmopolitanism;
• Rural sites of exchange and encounter;
• Tourists as cosmopolitan agents in rural places;
• Precarity and individual experiences of rural diversity;
• Rural institutions and accommodating diversity;
• Cosmopolitanism, consumption and everyday life in the countryside;
• Cosmopolitan politics of the rural;
• Cosmopolitanism and rural carcerality;
• Rural cosmopolitan methodologies;
• Rural cosmopolitanism as an ethical project;
• Policy implications.
Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent to both Mike ([log in to unmask]) and Rhys ([log in to unmask]) by the 31st January 2017.
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