AAG 2018
(New Orleans, 10-14 April) 2nd Call for Papers - Flying on the Cheap?
(Re)making Contemporary Life through Low-Cost Air Travel
Sponsored by: Transportation Geography Specialty Group; Cultural Geography Specialty Group
Session organisers: Weiqiang Lin (National University of Singapore); Jean-Baptiste Frétigny (Université de Cergy-Pontoise)
Apologies for cross-posting
Since
the founding of Southwest Airlines in 1967, the low-cost carrier
phenomenon has grown from strength to strength. In the last two decades,
the world has seen a rapid proliferation of this business model. It has
been visible in various parts of the world, especially in America,
Europe and Asia, with emerging sub-regions, including Northeast Asia,
Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, now sporting numerous
low-cost carrier outfits. Scholars deem these airline companies to have
revolutionised air travel, be it short- or long-haul, in the Global
South or in the Global North, allowing for the democratisation of
flight, impressive traffic growth figures and the expansion of airports.
A drawback often cited is the role that low-cost carriers play in
augmenting greenhouse gas emissions, by taking more and more people to
the sky.
These
understandings have shed important light on the operational and
geographical aspects of the low-cost carrier phenomenon, providing much
insight to its traffic potentials, its spatial distribution, and its
repercussions on climate. Yet, by focusing on these themes, existing
research has tended to take a rather functionalist approach towards the
subject, often treating, unpacking and critiquing the same as a
standalone industry and transport sector. Debating the transport
geographies of low-cost carriers aids in a better accounting for, and
management of, the industry, as well as its ramifications on regional
development. But it simultaneously neglects the weighty societal changes
that this particular mode of transport is catalysing, including the
(re)making, (re)organisation and sustenance of contemporary life as we
know it today, as well as the practices, ideologies, affects, and
subjectivities of becoming ‘contemporary’. These
intersections potentially extend across diverse fields in geography,
including critical analyses of low-paid work, low-skilled migration,
youth consumption cultures, new niches in ‘budget’ tourism, and
geopolitical rivalries—all of which are arguably related to, if not
directly moulded by, the low-cost carrier phenomenon.
This
call for papers invites submissions from contributors who would connect
the low-cost carrier phenomenon with these other social, cultural,
economic and political departures. We seek for innovative papers that
would push the boundaries of low-cost carrier research and bring it into
more profound and relational dialogues with critical perspectives on
contemporary life. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:
1) Low-cost carriers as a facilitator of low-skilled labour economies
2) Low-cost carriers as an enabler of new tourism niches and habits
3) Low-cost carriers as consumption cultures
4) Low-cost carriers and new workplace geographies
5) Low-cost carriers, geopolitics and regional orders
6) Low-cost carriers, logistics, and retail geographies
7) Low-cost carriers and national identities
8) Other low-cost ways of travel associated with flying or compared to it
Interested presenters should send an abstract of not more than 200 words to Dr Lin Weiqiang (weiq...@nus.edu.sg) and Dr Jean-Baptiste Frétigny (jean-baptiste.fretigny@u-cergy.fr)
by Friday, 20 October 2017. We will endeavour to confirm acceptance
within three days, with the expectation that accepted abstracts will
be submitted to the AAG before the submission deadline, and the papers
presented at the AAG Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA, USA (10-14 April
2018). More information on fees, conference venue and dates can be
found at:http://annualmeeting.aag.org/