• Geographies of TransformAction
2013-03-22
Geographies of TransformAction: Spaces, processes, practices and tactics of reappropriation in contemporary activism
Organizers
Network Geografi-A:
Margherita Ciervo, Economy Dept. University of Foggia (Italy)
Arturo Di Bella, Political and Social Science Dept., University of Catania (Italy)
Daniela Festa, Equipe Mosaïques, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, UMR LAVUE 7218 (France)
Valeria Pecorelli, Sociology Dept. University of Milan-Bicocca (Italy)
Massimiliano Tabusi, Università per Stranieri di Siena (Italy)
Call for papers
This session calls for papers that, through the lens of critical and active geography, focus on self-organized resistance and innovation practices performed by civil society and social movements at the present time.
New social movements, which seem capable to influence increasingly the contemporary powerscape of actors, integrate the critique to neoliberism with protest, constructive actions, and alternative territorial development models, adopting multiple tools and performing different repertoires (Ranciere, 1990; Castoriadis, 1998; Routledge, 2003; Amin, Thrift, 2005; Vanolo, Rossi, 2010).
Through the autonomous re-appropriation of tangible spaces (e.g.: territories, dismissed buildings, public places, empty areas, artistic labs etc.) and intangible spaces (e.g.: participation, citizenship, democracy, communication etc.), social movements and collective practices define new and immediate cooperative modalities of imaginaries, active engagement and innovative forms of government.
Despite possible destabilizing factors (Chatterton, 2005; Holloway, 2010), such as assimilation and cooptation by the established system (political parties, trade unions, elite etc.) and by hegemonic practices (Harvey, 2012), social movements remain key-actors in the reinvention of the contemporary political process.
The objectives of the session are summarized as follows:
- questioning contemporary social movements role in the spatial requalification and democratic regeneration of territorial systems at different scale levels;
- analyzing types of repossessed spaces, articulated practices and alternative participated models of government as well as achieved results, limits, contradictions;
- identifying innovative potentials of civic activism practices in changing power and government relations;
- discussing responsibilities of critical geography in investigating, supporting and nurturing the work and the practice of social movements;
- collaborating at the ‘Manifesto for Geography of TrasformAction’.
Session code: S14
If you are interested in participating please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words by filling in THIS FORM and send it to the organizers before march 31st 2013 using this email: s14@eugeo2013.com
No one may submit or take part in more than two presentations.
