RE: Call for Papers - 2009 AAG Panel "Space as Tactic"

[bone...@stanford.edu]

Greetings!

I am organizing a panel titled "Space as Tactic" for the 2009 AAGs,
March 22-27, in Las Vegas. Pasted below the signature is a full copy
of the panel abstract. All who are interested in participating in this
panel should submit by e-mail a paper abstract to me for review by
September 28th.

Thanks and best wishes,

Bruce

--
Bruce O'Neill, PhD Student
Department of Anthropology
Stanford University
450 Serra Mall, Main Quadrangle
Building 50, Room 51G
Stanford, CA 94305-2034
Tel 650 723-3421
Fax 650 725 0605
E-Mail: bruce....@stanford.edu

Webpage http://anthropology.stanford.edu
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Space as Tactic:
Neoliberal Governance, Space & Ethnographies of the Everyday

Recent years have seen 'neoliberalism' emerge as a core object of
analysis for economic, political and urban geographers alike. Much of
this Geographic research, furthermore, is conducted at macro level
scales such as the global city, the regional, the national and the
trans-national. While this research highlights the development of
uneven landscapes through global flows of commerce, people and power,
it too often neglects the contours of neoliberal governance at micro
level scales. This panel seeks to complement geography's discussion of
neoliberalism with an ethnographic perspective fixed towards the
everyday. Utilizing ethnographic methods, this panel asks how
neoliberalism can be understood as a set of spatially minded practices
that participate in the governance of the placement, management and
ordinary routines of individuals, populations and practices. For
example, how does the government's placement of social services in one
space as opposed to another participate in the governance of
vulnerable populations? How does the macro level production of
impoverished landscapes create opportunities for micro-investments
through formal or informal economies? How do zoning laws shape mental
mappings of criminality, poverty and degradation as well as how
different individuals navigate in and around these spaces? And, what
role do public transportation routes play in determining participation
and representation within civic society? Framing such issues in this
way, this panel seeks to place Anthropology and Geography's shared
interest in neoliberalism into conversation through a robust
intellectual exchange predicated upon interdisciplinary methodological
commitments.