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. 

Call For Papers, Assoc. American Geographers Meeting, 14-18 April,
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.