2010, Washington DC
Assembling parts of elsewhere: Urban politics and policies on the move
Organizers: Eugene McCann (Geography, Simon Fraser University) and =20
Kevin Ward (Environment and Development, University of Manchester)
A great deal of urban politics and urban policy-making is =20
characterized by actors=92 engagements with places elsewhere. Indeed, =20=
for Allen and Cochrane (2007), urban regions are assemblages of =20
=91parts of elsewhere;=92 their very constitution is only conceivable =
and =20
made operational through the way that they draw together and =20
articulate various people, processes, and forms of knowledge that =20
exist and extend beyond the individual locality. This insight has =20
its origins in the work of David Harvey and Doreen Massey, among =20
others. Both have emphasized, in their own ways, how places are =20
moments in wider processes that link them to wider geographies and =20
histories. Yet, despite a longstanding acceptance of the relational =20
geographies and sociologies of place and the problematic nature of =20
the category, =91urban,=92 much remains to be done in analyzing =
precisely =20
how, where, and with what consequences urban policy-making and urban =20
politics operate in and through individual cities.
Recent work on policy transfer, policies-in-motion, or policy =20
mobilities has deepened our understanding somewhat (for example, the =20
2009 special issue of Geoforum on =93Remaking governance, mobilizing =20
policy,=94 (Peck and Theodore, eds.) and the forthcoming volume =20
Assembling Urbanism (McCann & Ward eds., Minnesota Press)). The =20
purpose of this session is to deepen and extend the discussion by =20
bringing together a range of scholars whose work analyzes how urban =20
political and policy actors (broadly defined to include those working =20=
in state institutions, in business, and in grassroots activist =20
organizations, among others) engage with places elsewhere as they =20
seek to shape their place. We invite papers from a variety of =20
theoretical and methodological positions, exploring a diversity of =20
empirical cases. Possible themes include (but are not necessarily =20
limited to):
1. Conceptual
=B7 Political economy-derived conceptualizations of urban neo-=20
liberalization
=B7 Post-structural understandings of governmentality, spatiality, =20=
subjectivity, and assemblage as applied to global-urban policy-making =20=
and political action
=B7 Cultural theorizations of mobility in the context of urban =20
policy and politics
2. Methodological
=B7 Archival and documentary analysis of discourses of connection =20=
among cities
=B7 Ethnographies of institutions, organizations, and individuals =20=
involved in the movement of policies and in translocal =91resistance =20
transfer=92
=B7 Comparative urbanism and other techniques for understanding =20
the geographies and histories of city to city inter-connections
=B7 Interpretations of landscapes and the parts of elsewhere held =20=
within them
=B7 Theoretically-informed mappings and quantifications of policy =20=
transfers and of geographies of urban policy and political knowledge
3. Empirical
=B7 Specific cases of globally-circulating policies and best =20
practices and their impact on particular places
=B7 Policy tourism and the means through which actors in different =20=
cities move between cities, learning, adapting, translating and =20
implementing policies
=B7 City twinning, and other formal relationships that exist in =20
and through which policies can be moved about
=B7 Institutional infrastructures that facilitate and channel =20
knowledge transfer (UN, Trade organizations, EU learning networks etc.)
=B7 Oppositional political movements and their use of global =20
circuits to undermine existing policies (eg the World Social Forum)
Authors are invited to submit a 250 word abstract to both the session =20=
organizers, Kevin Ward (kevin.ward@manchester.ac.uk) & Eugene McCann =20
(emccann@sfu.ca) by Monday 5 October.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
cfp on politics on the move
I really like this is phrased, would love to see this panel , but not too much energy for conferences now.
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