_ Politicising the Crisis
Convenors: Dr David Featherstone, Dr Danny Mackinnon, Laura-Jane Nolan, Athina Arampatzi
Sponsored by the Political Geography Research Group
Established commentators on the left have marginalised the importance of the ongoing contestation of neo-liberalism in relation to debates around the economic crisis (Blackburn, 2008, Panitch and Gindin, 2010). Dominant capital-centred accounts and analysis emerging in geography have concentrated on mapping, delineating and analysing the financial practices and capital flows through which the economic crisis unfolded (eg Harvey, 2010, Peck, 2010). This is, of course, important and necessary. However, this risks ignoring a broader set of questions about how contestation is generated and enacted in the current conjuncture. This session seeks papers which consider the different and contested ways in which the crisis is being politicised. We seek to de-centre the crisis and position it in ongoing contestation/ debates over neo-liberalisation. This has significant theoretical and political implications.
The session invites papers which address in different geographical contexts:
* The diverse political geographies being made and re-made in relation to the crisis.
* Different 'local'/ bottom up experiences of crisis.
* The forms of oppositional political movements which are beginning to politicise the crisis.
* The diverse modalities and practices of political resistance such as the riots in England in the summer of 2011, the transnational networks of the occupy movement and the diverse coalitions being forged through opposition to discourses of austerity in different geographical contexts.
* How these movements are shaped by ongoing opposition to neo-liberalism.
* The forms of agency, solidarity and spatialities being shaped through these emerging forms of contestation.
* To what extent these movements are mounting challenges to and reshaping neo-liberal common-sense.
Abstracts of 200 words should be submitted to Dave Featherstone (David.Featherstone@glasgow.ac.uk) or Danny Mackinnon (Daniel.MacKinnon@glasgow.ac.uk) by 27th January, 2011.
Sponsored by the Political Geography Research Group
Established commentators on the left have marginalised the importance of the ongoing contestation of neo-liberalism in relation to debates around the economic crisis (Blackburn, 2008, Panitch and Gindin, 2010). Dominant capital-centred accounts and analysis emerging in geography have concentrated on mapping, delineating and analysing the financial practices and capital flows through which the economic crisis unfolded (eg Harvey, 2010, Peck, 2010). This is, of course, important and necessary. However, this risks ignoring a broader set of questions about how contestation is generated and enacted in the current conjuncture. This session seeks papers which consider the different and contested ways in which the crisis is being politicised. We seek to de-centre the crisis and position it in ongoing contestation/ debates over neo-liberalisation. This has significant theoretical and political implications.
The session invites papers which address in different geographical contexts:
* The diverse political geographies being made and re-made in relation to the crisis.
* Different 'local'/ bottom up experiences of crisis.
* The forms of oppositional political movements which are beginning to politicise the crisis.
* The diverse modalities and practices of political resistance such as the riots in England in the summer of 2011, the transnational networks of the occupy movement and the diverse coalitions being forged through opposition to discourses of austerity in different geographical contexts.
* How these movements are shaped by ongoing opposition to neo-liberalism.
* The forms of agency, solidarity and spatialities being shaped through these emerging forms of contestation.
* To what extent these movements are mounting challenges to and reshaping neo-liberal common-sense.
Abstracts of 200 words should be submitted to Dave Featherstone (David.Featherstone@glasgow.ac.uk) or Danny Mackinnon (Daniel.MacKinnon@glasgow.ac.uk) by 27th January, 2011.