IGU CPG

Simon Springer

University of Victoria, BC, Canada

Philippe Le Billon

University of British Columbia, BC, Canada

In carrying forward the ‘Violence and Space’ sessions that we organized for the AAG in Los Angeles in 2013, we wanted to bring more attention to geographical scholarship on violence by reaching out beyond the confines of human geography and encouraging a more interdisciplinary conversation. With this in mind we are assembling a 10 panel Section on the theme of ‘Geographies of Violence’ for the upcoming ‘The Worlds of Violence – 9th Pan-European Conference on International Relations’, which will be held 23-26 September 2015 in Giardini Naxos, Sicily, Italy.

Studies on the geographies of violence have rapidly increased in number over the past decade, both within and outside the discipline of geography. Reflecting greater sensitivity to multiple forms of violence and their spatial dimensions, this growing interest has responded to renewed violent forms of imperialism, debates about the trends of violence, and renewed methodological interest in spatial analysis.

Engaging this broad literature, this Section will consider the theoretical implications and empirical groundings of violence with the aim of more rigorously demonstrating the ways in which violence is woven through everyday lives, institutions, and structures. As such, the included themes range from a discussion of racism and genocide, sovereignty, neo-colonialism and development, gender inequalities, terror and territory, political ecology, war and militarism, displacement, geopolitics and subaltern resistance. Conceptually the Section will raise issues ranging from routinized performances and banal geographies of violence that serve conventional social, economic, and political norms that go largely unnoticed, through to the spectacular eruptions of ‘exceptional’ violence that capture public attention. By forwarding an agenda for the study of violence from a geographical perspective, we hope to demonstrate the myriad ways in which violence is relationally embedded within the human experience, a process that we envision will support greater understanding of pathways towards nonviolence and peace.

The 10 included Panels are as follows, each of which will include 5

speakers/papers:

1. Development, Neo-colonialism, and Violence

2. Race, Hate, and Genocidal Geographies

3. Geopolitical Violence and Subaltern Resistance

4. The Political Ecology of Violence

5. Sovereign Violence and Spaces of Exception

6. Geographies of Gender(ed) Violence

7. The Violence of Displacement

8. Geographies of Militarism and War

9. Terror, Terrorism and Geography

10. Peace and Nonviolent Geographies

   We encourage submissions from scholars writing on any of the above named themes. In your submission, please identify which one of the identified 10 Panels you would like your paper to be considered for.

Abstracts of approximately 200-250 words should be sent to both of the organizers at springer@uvic.ca  and philippe.lebillon@ubc.ca 

Please note that at the same time you email your abstracts to the organizers you will also need to register and submit your abstract through the conference’s online system found here:

More details about the conference, including travel, accommodation, venue, and location details can be found on the conference website here:

The deadline for receiving abstracts is January 15th, 2015.