・ GEOGRAPHY, RESPONSIBILITY AND THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH
・ POSTGRADUATE GEOGRAPHY MATTERS? PARTICIPATORY GEOGRAPHIES
・ ORGANIC PUBLIC GEOGRAPHIES
・ GEOGRAPHIES OF IN/DIFFERENCE: WHOSE GEOGRAPHIES MATTER?
・ GEOGRAPHY MATTERS....BUT DOES GEOGRAPHY?
GEOGRAPHY, RESPONSIBILITY AND THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Session Convenors: Sophie Wynne-Jones and Kelvin Mason (Aberystwyth University)
In light of the increasingly pressing debate about the effects and implications of global climate change, this session raises the question of how geographers are participating in both debate and, perhaps more significantly, actions - to address this impending crisis. We hope to consider the role of geographers in their academic life, as global and community activists, and as people, whose everyday choices and lifestyles implicate the shape of our global future. To reflect these sometimes disparate aspects of our lives, and their associated responsibilities, we suggest the session focuses upon the following themes:
1. How geographers contribute, as professionals, within the institutional setting of the university; through, for example, research and teaching that is directly or indirectly associated with climate change. What type of research is being done and how does this research contribute to further both action and debate? To what extent does current teaching reflect, and allow the student community to develop debate around, these issues?
2. What else are geographers doing, as a direct response to climate change, within the university setting? Are they involved in environmental auditing of, for example, university related transport, the energy consumption in university buildings? To what extent are geographers a voice for more responsible action within the university more widely and, even creating links and support networks for associated community actions?
3. What do we do outside our day jobs? Are we activists? Do we bring our activism to work? What do we do on a day to day basis - as everyday citizens- to effect wider change or simply to relieve our conscience?
As a summary to these themes, on what we are doing, we would also like to consider what we could - and perhaps should - be doing.
PLEASE SEND ABSTRACTS TO svw05@aber.ac.uk
It is suggested that papers could be kept short to allow for plenty of discussion and if people wish to air shorter accounts of actions, ideas or problems that they are grappling with, these will also be welcomed.
POSTGRADUATE GEOGRAPHY MATTERS? PARTICIPATORY GEOGRAPHIES
Sponsored by: The Postgraduate Forum (PGF) and The Participatory Geographies Working Group (PyGyWG)
Session Convenor: Thomas Astell-Burt
Abstract submission deadline: 7th February 2008
Building on the success of 2007, the PGF and PyGyWG are hosting another forum for any postgraduates and/or early-career researchers involved in projects that utilise participatory methodologies. The session provides an arena in which postgraduate students can present research-in-progress, as well as to obtain feedback from peers and established academics. The sessions showcase the wide range of research being undertaken by postgraduates at both UK and international universities. Papers will be of 10-15 minutes in duration and each speaker will have up to 5 minutes of question time.
Papers are encouraged from all areas of geographical research using participatory methods and from postgraduate students at any stage of their careers (including Masters' students).
If you are interested in participating in this session, please email abstracts (not exceeding 200 words), your full name and University to Thomas Astell-Burt ( postgraduateforum@googlemail.com) by 7th February 2008.
ORGANIC PUBLIC GEOGRAPHIES
Proposed session at RGS/IBG 2008, sponsored by the Participatory Geographies Working Group and the Public Geographies Working Group, Birmingham University
Session Convenors: Duncan Fuller and Ian Cook
‘Organic public sociology’ is undertaken ‘in close connection with a visible, thick, active, local and often counter-public’, with sociologists working with groups of various kinds, engaging in ‘dialogue’, or what Michael Burawoy terms ‘a process of mutual education’. Much of this type of work is treated as ‘private’, ‘invisible’ and/or separate from ‘our professional lives’ (2005, 265) largely, it is suggested, as either a consequence of days being filled with the undertaking of such activities, leaving little time to actually document them, or because the collaborative outputs from such work are often published outside academic circles. A key task of any public sociology, Burawoy continues, is therefore to ‘make visible the invisible, to make the private public, [and] to validate these organic connections as part of our sociological life…’ (2005: 264-5).
In the age of ‘boring' school geography, at a time when a new field of ‘public geographies’ seems to be taking shape, this session aims to make visible and validate processes of, and/or 'outputs' from, organic public geographies - perhaps web-sites, brainwaves, activism, emails, chapters, radio, presentations, blogs, events, demonstrations, letters, participations, diaries, posters, videos, podcasts, engagements, television programmes, communities, wikis, reports, newsletters, experiences...
Please send submissions, ‘abstracts’, ideas, examples etc by 7th February 2008 to:
duncan.fuller@northumbria.ac.uk
I.J.Cook@exeter.ac.uk
…and we’ll build the session around you.
Call for participants; INVITACION A PARTICIPAR COMO PANELISTA: パネルディスカッション参加者募集のお知らせ
GEOGRAPHIES OF IN/DIFFERENCE: WHOSE GEOGRAPHIES MATTER?
Convenors: Kye Askins, Northumbria Uni. kye.askins@unn.ac.uk
Jo Norcup, Glasgow Uni. Jo.Norcup@ges.gla.ac.uk
This session stems from a lunchtime discussion at the International Conference of Critical Geography in Mumbai, Dec. 2007, during which comments were made regarding the presences/absences of geographers from across the world at the event. While we recognise that there are multiple reasons for not attending any conference (financial, practical, personal, ethical, epistemological …, differing across contexts and placings), there also seemed to be an underlying tension regarding the dominance of Anglo-American production of knowledges: a sense that ICCG was somehow peripheral among many geographers to the ‘Real World/Work’ of AAG and RGS.
So we would like to further/re-open debate regarding the in/exclusions of academic knowledges, inviting volunteers for a panel session to address issues such as - and not limited to:
How can/do academics outside and within the US/UK academic context engage with one another?
Where and in what kind of spaces does this happen?
Can the continued dominance of English in journal/text productions - and conference presentations - be shifted, and where/how is this already happening?
What does it mean for the discipline as a whole, and academics across different places/countries, to have a differentiated and hierarchical system?
Are we being presumptuous in writing that US/UK geographies/ers are central and ‘Other’ geographies/ers excluded?
And we would expect discussion to incorporate corresponding and relevant issues regarding the broader question regarding ‘whose knowledge counts’ (after Chambers), challenging the academic-as-expert construction ...
We intend to have translators at the session, hopefully for Spanish, Japanese and French speakers - VOLUNTEERS WELCOME!
If you’d be interested in being a panel member - or have general comments about this proposed session - please let us know!
GEOGRAPHY MATTERS....BUT DOES GEOGRAPHY?
Session organisers: Heaven Crawley (Swansea University), Peter Hopkins (Newcastle University), Larch Maxey (Swansea University)
The relationship between the social and the spatial - between social processes on the one hand and the fact and form of their spatial organisation on the other - clearly matters (Massey 1984). Perhaps less clear is the extent to which Geography as a discipline, and the geographical practices undertaken by academic geographers, matters to the world that it seeks to describe and explain.
The relevance or otherwise of Geography has been the subject of ongoing, and sometimes heated, debate within the discipline (Imrie 2004; Beaumont, Loopmans and Uitermark 2005; Mountz and Walton-Roberts 2006). These discussions suggest that the issue of what makes geographical research, teaching and publication relevant cannot be separated from the questions of why research, for example, should be relevant, how research becomes relevant, the goals of research, and for whom it is intended to be relevant (Staeheli and Mitchell 2005). They also suggest that whilst relevance can be direct and intended, a commitment to relevant research requires a long-term view and an appreciation for the indirect pathways of relevance. This means much more than simply promoting Geography as a discipline; it also requires geographers to grapple more frequently with multi-scale questions, including the big questions of our time, foster more in-depth understanding of different geographies, enhance !
interactions between discrete parts of the discipline and with other disciplines, and make explicit the implications of geographical work for the discussions that are shaping public, political and intellectual agendas (Alexander 2006).
This session will explore the relevance of Geography to the making of public policy and to broader public and political discourses. It will also explore the extent to which an emphasis on the distinctiveness of Geography as a discipline (a trend which has arguably been exacerbated by the RAE process) is helpful in the production of policy-relevant research.
And it will consider the extent to which participatory approaches to Geography - with their origins in grassroots activism and social movements - are able to affect social change and empowerment by giving a voice to those who are most marginalised from policy and decision making processes.
Call for papers:
Contributors to this session are invited to submit papers which explore the relevance of Geography and of geographical research to policy making and to broader processes of social and political change. Papers that directly address the following questions will be particularly welcomed:
* Do the methodological and philosophical approaches that we adopt influence the extent to which our research, teaching and dissemination matters to the people and processes with which we engage? Do participatory approaches to research, for example, provide a mechanism for affecting social change regardless of the ‘policy relevance’ of research?
* Which geographical practices matter? Why and to whom? Does a concern for relevance include research, teaching and dissemination? Should it? Are there other practices which constitute ‘Geography’ beyond this triad?
* Is it helpful to emphasise the relevance of Geography as a discipline when engaging with policy makers, practitioners and others interested in what we have to say? Are interdisciplinary approaches more useful in describing and explaining complex social issues and processes? Does the potential relevance of Geography lie in its role as an ‘inter-disciplinary pivot’ (Fulong 2002)?
* Given the complex relationship between research evidence and policy formation, how do we ensure that the research we do is most able to affect change? In what ways is it important that the research we do is politically as well as policy relevant?
Session format:
We are keen to encourage audience participation in the themes of this session and to use it as a springboard from which to increase the relevance of Geography. Therefore the session will consist of three x 20 minute papers with ample time for questions and discussion. If a sufficient number of proposed papers are submitted then it may be necessary for two 1 hr 40 minute sessions to be set aside for this topic.
The papers will be themed and contributors will be asked to engage directly with the content of other papers in the session where appropriate. The session(s) will be chaired by the session organisers.
Abstracts (max. 200 words) should be sent to h.crawley@swansea.ac.uk
If you would like to discuss the aims, objectives and format of the session before submitting your abstract please contact Heaven Crawley on
01792 602409 or email h.crawley@swansea.ac.uk
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Dr Duncan Fuller
Enterprise Fellow
Division of Geography
Ellison Building D Block
Northumbria University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8ST
Direct Tel - 0191 2273753
Fax - 0191 2273519
Divisional Office - 0191 2273428
Mywalks - www.northumbria.ac.uk/mywalks
PEANuT (Participatory Evaluation and Appraisal in Newcastle upon Tyne) - http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/peanut
Mapping Tranquillity - http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/tranquillity
Exploring solutions to 'graffiti' in Newcastle upon Tyne - http://northumbria.ac.uk/sd/academic/sas/sas_research/pa/consultres/graffiti/
'Local to me': Advancing Financial Inclusion in Newcastle upon Tyne - http://northumbria.ac.uk/sd/academic/sas/sas_research/pa/consultres/local/?view=Standard
Participatory Geographies Working Group of the RGS/IBG (PyGyWG)- http://www.pygywg.org
Geo-publishing.org - http://www.may.ie/nirsa/geo-pub/geo-pub.html
Radical Theory/Critical Praxis: Making a Difference Beyond the Academy?
http://www.praxis-epress.org/availablebooks/radicaltheorycriticalpraxis.html
The Academics Guide to Publishing - http://www.sagepub.co.uk/booksProdDesc.nav?prodId=Book226599&currTree=Subjects&level1=P00
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