CFP: Teaching about Islam, against the “War on Terror”

The teach-in against war, sexism, human rights violations, environmental degradation or other evil is a time-honored way for scholars to quickly disseminate information necessary for understanding current events. The “War on Terror” (and on Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalis, and dissention) in which Islam is racialized and politicized is entering its seventh year. Attacks on Islamic thought and societies are becoming commonplace, as is bigotry against Muslim individuals. The decreasing ability of these attacks to shock is increasingly alarming. As these attitudes and political-economic alignments become entrenched, teach-ins on the War on Terror are rarely held. Neither instructors nor the public can maintain the energy needed, especially as the endless nature of the war becomes clear. Long-term strategies are needed in the face of these political and cultural changes within “coalition” countries.

Many instructors have developed teaching units at various levels to meet this challenge. Islam is appropriately at the center of these units, because Islam itself is targeted in the “War on Terror”. Teaching against the war requires both deconstructing the discursive formations that produce the Orient, including Islam, and also understanding the geopolitical-economic structures that materially shape the world into East and West, North and South. These topics are developed in traditional courses on political geography, geography of religion, economic geography, critical theory, and regional geography. Introductory courses at a global scale may spend a day or two on such concerns, or may briefly revisit them several times during the semester. Graduate seminars discussing topics from global cities to questions of representation also grapple with the issues presented by the war.

This session is a place to present experiences in teaching about the War on Terror and to encourage development of teaching against the war. Suggested topics include: course challenges and victories, materials and teaching methods, short exercises and course structures, philosophies and practices engaged in teaching against the war, in any subdiscipline.

The session is co-sponsored by the following specialty groups of the AAG: Geographic Education; Geography of Religion and Belief Systems; Cultural Geography; Political Geography; Ethics, Justice and Human Rights

Depending on paper quality and interest level of participants, attendees, and editors, papers may be published as a forum in The Journal of Geography in Higher Education, Area, The Professional Geographer, or another similarly high-exposure journal.

To participate, please send your abstract and PIN to Jennifer Kopf at HYPERLINK "mailto:jkopf@wtamu.edu" jkopf@wtamu.edu by October 15.

Keywords: War on Terror; Islam; pedagogy, critical.

Call for papers: Negotiating race at the borders of Europe

In this session we will explore the impact of contemporary non-European migration on the emergence of racial(izing) discourses in the peripheries of Europe. Focusing on five border countries in Northern and Southern Europe (final list TBA), we ask how the arrival of postcolonial immigrant populations has (re)activated a type of public discourse that establishes a close-knit relation between race and the national space, promoting an explicit racialization of the territory. While the selected countries are very disparately situated in relation to non-European migration, their public discourses around race share some striking similarities. Furthermore, these countries are not usually thought of as central to the European project, and as such the particular negotiations of race and whiteness that occur there have been given comparatively little attention in academic literature. In organizing a session on race and migration at Europe's southern and northern peripheries we seek to provincialize the European 'center' and to facilitate dialogue among researchers working in and on the European peripheries.

Please send your paper title, PIN, and abstract no later than *October 10* to one of the following co-organizers:
~ Eileen Wood (wood0556@umn.edu)
~ Luna Vives (lunavives@gmail.com).

Call for Papers: Geographies of health and post-socialism

Contemporary post-socialist societies are faced with varying health concerns and outcomes. The challenge for geographers is to foreground the intimate spatial connections between post-socialist processes, health, and health care. This session is intended to broadly examine and extend contemporary discussions and studies linking geographies of health and post-socialism by focusing attention on how issues of health and health care are entangled with post-socialist processes. The papers submitted to this session are invited to address intersections of post-socialism and health from a wide range of perspectives including, but not limited too:

• Public health governance, health access, and the politics of health provision.
• The theorization of post-socialism and its impact on the framing of health issues.
• Contemporary epidemiological issues connected with problems related to post-socialist societies
• And any other perspectives that link the two organizing themes

Please send your paper title, PIN, and abstract no later than October 25 to the following organizer:

Ian Duncan: rid@u.washington.edu  

Call for Papers: Carbon and Water Cycles in the Changing Arctic: Past, Present, and
Future

Abstract Submission Deadline: Friday, 26 October 2007

For further information, please go to: http://aag.org/annualmeetings/2008/index.htm

Papers are invited for "Carbon and Water Cycles in the Changing Arctic: Past, Present, and Future," a session to be convened at the 2008 Association of American Geographers (AAG) Spring Meeting on 15-19 April 2008, in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Arctic is undergoing significant environmental change in response to increased climate forcing and other natural and anthropogenic influences. Arctic regions are warming faster than the global average, observed changes in cryospheric, terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric systems are widespread, and global climate models forecast continued amplification of systemic change. In particular, large reservoirs and important fluxes of carbon and water at high northern latitudes are strongly interconnected, highly sensitive, and often poorly understood. A deeper understanding of these cycles, their magnitude, and their processes and controls is required for improved prediction and
management of future arctic change. Session organizers invite presentations on research from across the Arctic, spanning the multiple scales and approaches pertinent to the cycling of arctic carbon and water from remote sensing to paleoscience to site-level experiments to regional and pan-Arctic modeling. Organizers particularly invite
presentations on research associated with the current International Polar Year.

The deadline for abstract submission is Friday, 26 October 2007, which is five days prior to the AAG paper deadline. Authors should electronically submit an abstract by following the abstract guidelines for a paper submission, which can be found at:
http://aag.org/annualmeetings/2008/papers.htm

After the abstract has been electronically submitted to the AAG, each participant is requested to forward a copy of the abstract and its associated Presenter Identification Number (PIN) (provided by the AAG upon the successful receipt of the abstract) to:

Tamlin Pavelsky
UCLA Department of Geography
E-mail: pavelsky@ucla.edu

CFP: How to study post-Soviet space: new categories and theoretical explorations

This CFP invites submissions that confront, in a broad way, questions of how post-Soviet space - particularly Russia  - is changing and thus how our research topics and methods can respond. The panel would welcome papers addressing any of the following (or analogous) general formats, with the goal of generating a conversation about the theoretical progress and applicability of our research.

- A case study suggesting developing phenomena in post-Soviet society that may require new conceptual categories;
- A theoretical paper considering the applicability (or not) of prominent Euro-American theories to post-Soviet cases (still would be useful to consider some empirical data);

- A case study or theoretical sum mary considering how (or whether) to integrate the work of Russian and other post-Soviet scholars into how Western-based scholars understand their research topics;
- A paper of slightly less formal nature, describing a past or ongoing effort to match empirical field research and theory.

The author of the CFP, for example, plans to present a case study in St. Petersburg, Russia, that reveals a transformation of practice in the empirical realm and thus suggests a new interaction between social/infrastructural materiality and potential theoretical approaches.

Related proposals for entire sessions would be welcome. Please send inquiries or abstracts and PIN numbers to Megan Dixon, <mldixon@uoregon.edu> as soon as possible or by October 22, 2007.

CFP: Russia and the Circumpolar world: transforming nations, contested frontiers

The Russian, Central Eurasian and East European Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers invites papers for a special session "Russia and the Circumpolar world: transforming nations, contested frontiers" at the AAG Annual Meeting, April 15-19, 2008 in Boston, MA. Contributors from a variety of disciplines, especially those involved with the International Polar Year of 2007-2009, are welcome.

Synopsis
In the recent years, all Arctic countries quickly moved to re-evaluate the importance of their northern frontiers. Pivotal changes in the Arctic, coincided with the growing mutual interest and competition, require a new look at international issues of economic, political, environmental and social nature in the region. Some of related activities have been started under the auspice of the International Polar Year. This session focuses on economic transformations in the Circumpolar realm, and specifically, on the Russian frontier, as compared to other Arctic countries. We invite papers that analyze the place, role and potential of Russia as the past, present and future actor in the Circumpolar region. Comparative studies of economic, political and social transformations in Russia and other northern countries are also welcome.

Please, direct your questions and notes of intent to session organizers Tim Heleniak (University of Maryland) heleniak@umd.edu and Andrey Petrov (University of Toronto) andreyn.petrov@utoronto.ca by October 1st . Abstracts must be submitted to organizers and to AAG by October 20th. 2007. AAG membership is not required. Conference information is available at http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/2008/index.htm

CFP: New Spaces and New Governance? Challenges for Central and Eastern Europe

The eastward expansion of the European Union (EU) and creation of new political and economic interactions pose significant challenges for governance at all levels and scales in Central and Eastern Europe. Even as the practical significance of EU regulations grows with increasing penetration into daily life, the meaning of the EU becomes ambiguous as EU programs become integrated into national policies. Cities are growing, foreign investment increasing, many younger people are leaving, rural areas are depopulating. Additionally, in an area laden with historically rooted conflicts, often simmering near the surface, new government decisions may exacerbate populist memories and invoke yet more xenophobic reactions. Conundrums abound in politics, society and culture. Many questions arise that reflect altering relationships between the political, economic and cultural spaces of the region and governance, for instance: How are governments responding to new economic forces? Is governance changing as the EU-funded second act of post-socialist transition takes shape and alters the region's political-economies? What complications for governance does the historical geography of the region present?

In these sessions we hope to bring together for candid exchange and discussions a diverse group of researchers and scholars utilizing pluralistic methods, drawing on a wide-range of literatures and theories, and with broad interests in the myriad dimensions of the challenges for governance facing Central and Eastern Europe. We request the submission of paper abstracts and panel proposals by October 1, 2007 to Corey Johnson (cjohns11@uoregon.edu) and Francis Harvey (francis.harvey@gmail.com).

Call for Papers: Session on Russian-speaking America II: Transnational Spaces and Post-Socialist Identities: A Russian-American Connection

Russian, Central Eurasian and Eastern European SG (RCEEE) plans to sponsor a session on the Russian-speaking America at the 2008 AAG Annual meeting in Boston, MA. This session is organized in continuation of the Geographies of the Russian-speaking America Session at 2007 the meeting and establishes a tradition of such research forums at the AAG. (The session will again be lined up with other RCEEE events). We seek for contributions that unveil the dynamic of transnational spaces and post-socialist identities in the Russian-speaking North America, examine human connections between Russia and America and study transnation al experiences of post-socialist subjects from FSU at various scales. The topics may include permanent and temporary immigration, transmigration, diasporas, economic and social processes, coping strategies, settlement, adaptation and cultural change in FSU immigrant communities, demographic and gender issues, etc.

Abstract submission deadline is October 22, 2007.

For further information and to send your abstract, please, contact the session organizer Andrey N. Petrov at andreyn.petrov@utoronto.ca

CFP: Immigrant and the State: Role of the Nation States in a Transnational World

Organized by: Sanjeev Kumar Department of Geography University of Georgia, USA

According to World Migration Report 2005, immigrants represent about 3% of the total global population. The figure of 185-192 million people dwarfs in comparison to the 6.5 billion people living on earth. However, these immigrants unlike their predecessors are increasingly challenging those sacramental notions of state and its institutions.

The aim of this paper session is to provide a platform for scholars engaged in researching the changing ‘dialectics’ between the immigrants and the institutions of the state. Papers that focus on the social, political and the economic dimensions of ‘transnational’ immigration, as well as those focusing on the role of the state, in constructing ‘transnational’ identities are particularly welcome. Both conceptual and empirical papers based on various theoretical and methodological approaches on the process of creation and sustenance of transnationalism is welcome too.

Potential topics may include but not limited to the following:

·        Defining the meaning and scope of transnationalism

·        Issues of nationalism, citizenship and other state based identity markers in the age of transnationalism

·        Role of the neo-liberal global economic order in creating and sustaining transnational immigrants

·        Role of modern means of communication and transportation in creating and sustaining the transnational networks

·        Relationship of the transmigrants with their source and host nations

·        Role of Diasporic associations and other sites of social networks in creating transnational social space

·        Role of market in sustaining the inflow of immigrants without proper legal status

·        Role of gender and race in creating immigrants’ experiences

Please send an email stating your paper title, PIN, and abstract no later than *October 25* (please note that this is earlier than the AAG deadline) to Sanjeev Kumar at skumar@uga.edu

Call for Papers: Political ecology, political geography and environmental
change in the Arctic

Organizer: Kolson Schlosser (Western Kentucky University)

Environmental change in the Arctic clearly holds immense political ramifications, not least of which are the effects on lived experiences of people and communities throughout the region. This session proposes to bring together papers examining these rapidly changing political geographies and political ecologies in the face of Arctic change. Its
intended focus is on how larger scale environmental change (especially, but limited to, climate change) effects more local political ecologies in the region, but in order to produce a well rounded session, papers offering a more geopolitical analysis of the region in light of environmental change will also be considered. 

In lieu of the obligatory bullet-pointed list of possible topics, the gist of the session is to address what renewed geopolitical interest in the region, as a consequence of global environmental change and arctic thawing, means in terms of local political ecologies. In short, any papers concerning intersections between political geography, political
ecology, and geopolitics in light of arctic environmental change are welcomed. These could theoretically or empirically oriented. The only crucial connecting thread between papers is at least some local scale analysis and an orientation toward the politics of arctic environmental change.

Please also feel free to contact me if you would like to be a discussant in this session. The session could be a single or double session, with or without a discussant (depending upon response). All abstracts should be sent to kolson.schlosser@wku.edu no later than
October 26th.

CFP: Urban growth and its impact on the environment

Organized by: Chandana Mitra, Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, USA

Although currently only 1.2% of the Earth’s land is considered urban, the spatial coverage and density of cities are expected to rapidly increase in the near future. It is estimated that by the year 2025, 60% of the world population will live in cities (UNFP, 1999, Shepherd 2005). Thus, it is necessary for us to understand how the urban environment affects the physical and climatic pattern in and around the city.

The aim of this paper session is to provide a platform for scholars dealing with urban atmospheres, including observational, modeling, theoretical, forecasting, and applied studies. Potential topics may include the following:

• Observational studies, using urban land use projection models as well as weather/ environmental and regional / global climate models, including remote sensing, GIS and different datasets.
• Studies dealing with urban climate like urban heat island, wind movement and precipitation.
• Empirical and observational studies on the influence of urban
  growth on air quality
• Studies on city planning and its direct/indirect influence on
  urban environment.

·        Studies on coastal-urban interactions

·        Water and energy balances

Please send an email stating your paper title, PIN, and abstract no later than *October 31* to Chandana Mitra at chandana@uga.edu. Persons with additional program suggestions are encouraged to contact the program chair.

Call for Papers: Difference Matters: Reconstructing Regional Geography

This paper session calls for a revitalizing reformulation of regional geography, formerly a hallmark of the discipline, to continue through the decades. Theoretically informed multi-methods rigor plus policy relevance can help make geography matter again. This paper session proposes a multi-regional set of papers, featuring various systematic foci, which include a statement regarding their contribution to a revitalized regional geography as demonstrated by their handling of a particular investigation. Interested participants contact Susan Walcott (swalcot@uncg.edu) with AAG PIN#

Dr. Susan M. Walcott
Department of Geography
443 Graham Building, PO Box 26170
University of North Carolina-Greensboro
Greensboro, NC 27402-6170
336-334-5382

Call for Papers: Water and Development: A Fluid Relationship?
 
Organizers: Farhana Sultana (King's College London) and Jessica Budds (The
Open University)
 
Sponsored by Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group and Water
Resources Specialty Group
 
The relationship between water and development is at the top of the agenda, in both academic and policy circles.  Much attention has been given to the ability of water to foster development, largely through the need to extend access to water - above all drinking water - to poorer groups in low-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  At the same time, hazards research has focused on the power of water-related disasters, such as droughts and floods, to reduce the (potential) benefits of development to improve lives and livelihoods.  These two elements converge in the idea that we are in the midst of a 'global water crisis'.
 
Policy research and interventions have mostly focused on the need to improve the water situation of low-income groups by increasing access to water through piped systems, and undertaking more effective water resources management.  These objectives are reflected in the Millennium Development Goals and Integrated Water Resources Management.  While they are also increasingly inflected by market-oriented (or 'neoliberal') approaches, they continue to acknowledge the need for stakeholder and citizen participation. Such interventions, however, tend to be largely technocratic in nature, and often fail to interrogate the (problematic) notions of 'water' and 'development' that they are based upon.
 
Recent work, by human geographers in particular, has reconfigured the relationship between water and society, whereby social power is embedded within flows of water, rather than external to them.  Such developments have allowed scholars to use water as a 'lens' through which to explore changing social relations (inequalities, discourses) and physical space (landscapes, infrastructure).  These perspectives have given us a fresh insight into the particular processes through which water has produced, coproduced and
reproduced political ecologies in particular places.  At the same time, post-development debates have centered on the idea that development may actually be counter-productive to the ends that it seeks to achieve, which, themselves, are often guided by 'Western' notions of modernity.
 
Drawing on these debates, we invite papers that explore and discuss the multi-faceted relationship between water and development in different contexts.  In particular, we wish to consider what these new insights can bring to bear on the multiple and contradictory roles that water plays in development, in terms of the power relations embedded within it, the meanings and discourses that are produced and mobilized, the styles of governance that are adopted, and the material outcomes of development interventions.  Paper can address, but are not limited to, the following:

.  How have notions of a global water crisis influenced water politics and development initiatives?
.  What role has water's symbolic dimensions played in challenging and/or reconfiguring development schemes, such as privatization?
.  How have development initiatives around water (e.g. introduction of new technologies) transformed social relations (e.g. class, gender, race, ethnicity) in low-income contexts?
.  How are processes and discourses of neoliberalization influencing relations between donors, NGOs and clients in water resources management in the global South?
. How have water rights schemes been negotiated and implemented, and how have these changed social relations and control over water on the ground?
. How do Integrated Water Resources Management schemes (and the like) reconfigure socio-political relations within river basins?
. How does the materiality of water disrupt narratives of developmental success, and what does it mean for understanding the socio-ecological role of water in development?
. How can we further our understanding of the political ecologies of water-related natural disasters?
. What are the politics of community water schemes, and to what extent can they challenge top-down interventions, as well as contribute towards the water needs of low-income groups?
 
Please send in a title and brief abstract (max. 200 words) to Dr. Farhana Sultana (farhana.sultana@kcl.ac.uk) before Oct. 15th, 2007.

Call for Papers: Geographies of Dissent and Repression

(We're looking for a few more papers. Political Ecology approaches would be welcome particularly in the area of food and environmental security or energy. Please distribute widely)

Organizers:

David Correia, University of Maine at Farmington, david.correia@maine.eduBruce D’Arcus, Miami University of Ohio, darcusb@muohio.edu

In a 21st century political landscape in which security is once again a mantra of states around the world, this session explores the changing theoretical and empirical contours of geographies of dissent and repression. The increasing transformation in State-Society relations suggest a need for theoretically-informed, empirically-focused work examining the ongoing struggles over the contradictions that riddle questions of security and the role of the State. We are interested in papers that consider the many geographical questions regarding dissent, both organized and spontaneous, and state-sponsored or state-tolerated violence and repression.

Possible themes may include:

 framing new subjects of repression

 developing strategies and tactics of dissent

 new forms of statecraft and the impact on citizenship

 activist responses to post-9/11 securitization strategies

 legal geographies of dissent

 intelligence, data mining, surveillance

 emerging struggles around environmental security or food security

 historical and contemporary issues regarding topics such as: the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), reconsiderations of radical social movements, violence and non-violence, the prison-industrial complex, race, class and security, and more (so much damn more).

 “terror” and “democracy”

 revolution, revolt and the State

If interested, please respond informally as soon as possible via email to both or either of the organizers listed above (ideally this would include a draft abstract). We would appreciate having abstracts in hand no later than October 1st.

Call for Papers: Energy and the Political Economy of Capitalism

Organized by Matt Huber (Clark University) and Diana Ojeda (Clark
University) 

How can we theorize the relationship between energy and capitalism? What are the contingent power relations that emerge from the centrality of fossil-fuels to the production and reproduction of capitalist social relations? Would a transition to ‘alternative’ energies necessarily accompany transformations in the social and political relations of capitalism?

As the geopolitical and ecological politics of energy loom large in the headlines, this call for papers seeks contributions that attempt to integrate energy into a geographical understanding of capitalism.  Following recent theoretical and empirical work into the political economy of nature (e.g. Heynen et al. 2007; Mansfield et al. 2007), we
assert that energy-society relations provide an underexplored terrain
for critical inquiry.

We especially seek contributions that integrate a conception of energy within already established social theories of nature-capital relations (e.g. ecological Marxism, the regulation approach, ecological modernization theory, ecological economics).

Possible topics include but are in no way restricted to:       

-  Theorizing fossil-capitalism
-  Energy and dialectics
-  Energy and cultural hegemony
-  Energy consumption and neoliberal governance
-  Oil, geopolitics and international finance
-  The politics of the energy-state
-  Peak Oil: Malthus revisited or geological calamity?
-  Bio-fuels, land-use, and the “food versus fuel debate”
-  Energy, economic growth, and the politics of climate change
-  Capital accumulation and alternative energies
-  The (new) political ecology of nuclear power
-  The political ecology of access to and control over natural gas

Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent to Matt Huber mhuber@clarku.edu and Diana Ojeda dojeda@clarku.edu by October 15.

Dear Colleagues:
I would like to organize an Illustrated Paper session at the upcoming AAG focusing on local/ indigenous environmental knowledge systems considered through the lens of cultural, political AND/OR historical ecology.  I am not specifying a specific theme yet as I want to see what kind of interest there is.  Regionally I am not limited either as cross-regional exchange can be very fruitful as the Historical Ecology sessions at last year's AAG demonstrated.  I am interested in the Illustrated Paper format as I find format much more rewarding and conducive to exchange than the oral papers.  AAG is also urging more of this format (as there are too many oral papers), and as chair of a specialty group I want to set a good example.  Certainly any work that intersects with archaeology is welcome, as are posters on current smallholder (agricultural) livelihoods.  My own poster will be about Amazonian Dark Earth formation in Amazonian homegardens.

I am looking for 8-12 enthusiastic participants - if you are interested in joining me, please reply directly to me (antoinet@msu.edu) and not the listserv.  Thank you.

Antoinette

*** ON SABBATICAL AY 07-08 ***
Antoinette WinklerPrins
Associate Professor
Graduate Program Coordinator
Department of Geography
Michigan State University
207 Geography Building
East Lansing, MI 48824-1117
USA
517-432-7163
517-432-1671 (fax)
antoinet@msu.edu
http://www.geo.msu.edu/

Call for Papers: Study Abroad

We are putting together a panel on study abroad, focusing particularly on the ideological and practical dimensions of teaching and learning in a foreign environment.  We would like to include participants with a range of study abroad experiences. We are also interested in discussing a wide range of study abroad approaches, including “one time” visits to a site, or study abroad programs involving more than one destination.  Other approaches could include programs that have worked to develop host communities, either by building infrastructure, returning to a community annually, and/or bringing members of host communities back to the United States.  This panel will be an opportunity to consider what works and what doesn't at a practical level, and also possibly to forge a common vision of goals for a study abroad course.

Contact:
Suzanne Walther, University of Oregon, swalther@uoregon.edu
Clare Terni, Univeristy of Virginia, cterni@gmail.edu

Call for Papers: Organizers: Envisioning the ‘Visible hand’: Conceptualizing a meta narrative of neoliberal extraction in urban and resource geographies

Organizers:
Ipsita Chatterjee, Department of Geography, Penn State University.
Waquar Ahmed, Department of Geography, Penn State University.

Neoliberal transformation involves over-arching economic, socio-cultural and geopolitical restructuring. Local articulations of this over-arching global transformation are often diverse, disjunctured and disassociated from each other. The researcher in a neoliberal era studying one local articulation, one particular policy change, one ‘defiled’ city often finds it difficult to conceptualize the political economic totality of the diverse articulations of neoliberalism. Meta narratives are therefore out of fashion for a reason – neoliberalism and post-Fordist capital while globalizing fervently, prevents the development of globalizing imaginations from below by confronting us with the ‘messiness’ of diversity. Genealogy and archeology of local articulations of neoliberalism both in the First and the Third World world, however, reveal that there is an ‘order’ in the messiness, an intentionality in spontaneity, and a ‘visible hand’ opening up new sectors and spaces for capital.
 
The ‘visible hand’ has been particularly conspicuous in areas of resource appropriation, global energy deals, urban renewal, industrial restructuring and labor informalization. This session seeks to bring together empirical studies of similar local articulations of neoliberalism in the resource and urban-industrial sectors of the First and the Third World. The objective is to reveal ‘order’ in the ‘messiness’, intentionality in the spontaneity, thus envisioning the ‘visible hand’ appropriately so that it becomes academically feasible to work towards a meta narrative of neoliberal extraction that can challenge neoliberalism, rather than simply manage local crisis.  
 
Key words: Neoliberalism, local articulation, meta-narrative, resource, urban.
 
Please send your paper title, PIN, and abstract no later than September 24 to one of the following co-organizers:
 
Waquar Ahmed: wua1@psu.edu
Ipsita Chatterjee: ixc11@psu.edu

Call for papers: Indigenous Tourism
 
 Session Description:
 As indigenous people are impacted by global tourism, they often employ  various techniques in dealing with tourism’s pressures. Subsequent  strategies range from avoidance to engagement and this session will  address these issues on local, regional and national levels.  Papers  will explore the paradoxes, issues and dilemmas confronting both
 indigenous people and the tourism industry.
 
 Topics might include: Aboriginal control of tourism; development in local communities;  cultural preservation; indigenous people involvement in tourism;  national implications.

 
For more information or to submit an abstract, please contact:
 Lorri Krebs, PhD
 Assistant Professor
 Department of Geography
 Salem State College
 978-542-7644
 lkrebs@salemstate.edu

Call for Papers: Immigrant, Returnees and the State

Organizers: Yu Zhou, PhD., Vassar College, Sanjeev Kumar, University of Georgia

Sponsored by: Ethnic Geography Specialty Group, China Geography Specialty Group, Asia Geography Specialty group, Economic Geography Specialty Group, Population Geography, Political Geography

In the present world, both immigration and their return flow are highly intertwined and unlike their predecessors, these immigrants and the returnees are increasingly challenging the sacramental notions of state and its institutions. Saxenian, in her recent work terms these transnationals as "The New Argonauts" and credits them as key agents in creating regional advantages in the global era. However, many of the critical questions remain unanswered. It is clear that the immigrants and the returnee flow vary greatly across space and time, as well as in durations.

The aim of this paper session is to look into some of the critical questions involving the changing ?dialectics? between the immigrants, returnees and the institutions of the state. Papers focusing on the geographically sensitive explanations for the social, political and the economic dimensions of ?transnational? immigration are welcomed. In addition, those papers accounting for the differences brought by the returnees and their varied impacts on the local economies are particularly welcome. Both conceptual and empirical papers based on various theoretical and methodological approaches on the process of creation and sustenance of the transnational immigrants and returnees are invited.

Possible paper topics include, but are in no way limited to:

- Defining the meaning and scope of transnationalism
- Role of Di asporic associations and other sites of social networks in creating transnational social space
- Role of gender and race in creating immigrants? experiences
- Role of the neo-liberal global economic order in creating and sustaining transnational immigrants
- How and under what conditions are the returnees created and why?
- Data Source for the returnees
- The activities of the returnees in their homeland and their impact on the local economy

If you are interested to participate, please send your paper title, PIN, and abstract no later than *Oct.15 * (please note that this is earlier than the AAG deadline) to Yu Zhou (yuzhou@vassar.edu <mailto:yuzhou@vassar.edu>) and Sanjeev Kumar at skumar@uga.edu
--
Sanjeev Kumar
PhD.Student
Department of Geography
University of Georgia, Athens
GA-30602, USA.

Call for Papers: Resources and Empire

Organised by Gavin Bridge and Tomas Frederiksen (Society and Environment
Research Group, University of Manchester)

This session seeks to take forward efforts to understand and theorize the restless expansionary dynamic associated with resource sectors like forestry, fisheries and minerals. An expanding resource frontier is often attributed to the effects of resource depletion or the inability of existing supplies to keep pace with growing demand. Rarely, however, is the relationship between material expansion (the proliferation of commodities and raw materials) and the geographical extension of resource extraction so straightforward. This session will explore how the spatiality of resource extraction is influenced by the politics of inter-state competition, the relative strength of financial, trade and industrial capital, and by social movements which challenge the 'resource
imaginary'. 'Empire' here speaks to the challenge of establishing forms of territorial control over distant resources - resources that often are already embedded in national regimes of ownership, regulation and cultural systems of meaning - to secure their orderly and predictable flow in ways that serve dominant power.

Two recent contributions have re-ignited a theoretical interest in the 'race for resources.' First, geographical scholarship querying the role of oil in motivating the US-led invasion of Iraq refuses the popular, yet simplistic formulation of a 'resource war' and highlights the importance of explanations that situate resources in the larger landscape of capital
accumulation (Retort 2005; Harvey 2003; see also Arrighi 1994). Second, the extension of dependency theory into a theory of ecologically unequal exchange indicates how the scramble of extractive capital to the ends of the earth can arise out of competition between states for trade dominance (Bunker and Ciccantell 2005; Muradian and Martinez-Alier 2001). And beyond these specific contributions, a rich body of empirical work from communities at the 'sharp end' of forestry and mineral resource development in the Andes, West Africa, Australia and Indonesia attests not only to the expansive dynamics of the extractive sector, but also to the need for analyses which go beyond proximate causes of expansion.

We invite papers that explore the geographical and temporal dynamics of extractive industries. Our focus on empire highlights the problematic of territorial control rather than a formal administrative arrangement or a specific period and papers may address contemporary or historical themes. Our preference is for papers that attempt to theorize the relations between territoriality and capital accumulation in some form, perhaps by building on an empirical study of a specific case or by re-working existing conceptualizations. More broadly, we encourage papers that seek to understand
relationships between resources and empire as part of a wider engagement with the cultural, economic and political process through which components of the biophysical world become understood and regulated as 'natural resources.'

Interested participants should send expressions of interest, questions and/or title and abstract of 250 words or less to Gavin Bridge (gavin.bridge@manchester.ac.uk) by October 10.