• CFP Borders, Walls, Violence – Montreal
26 Ottobre 2015
Borders, Walls and Violence : Costs and Alternatives to Border Fencing
International conference organized by the Raoul Dandurand Chair at the University of Quebec at Montreal
To be held in June 1-3, 2016
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
More border walls and border fences are being built every year all across the world. Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, and Tunisia are among the latest to announce yet another border fence. Twenty-five years ago it was believed that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reconfiguration of international relations would open an age of globalization in which States would become obsolete, ushering in a world without borders. In the wake of 9/11, however, borders came back in light, new borders were created and new border walls erected. In the wake of the Arab Spring, came even more border barriers and walls, symbols that were thought to have disappeared with the collapse of the bipolar international system. Today, they reinforce borderlines the world over, transforming both soft and semi-permeable borders alike into sealed, exclusionary hard borders. Walls are symbols of identity reaffirmation, markers of State sovereignty, instruments of dissociation, locus of a growing violence.
Fields: Political Science, Geography, Anthropology, Sociology, Law, Economics, Art, Design, Biology, Environmental studies, Area Studies, Gender studies, Zoology, Medical studies (this list is intended to be suggestive rather than inclusive).
Organizers/Scientific Committee: Élisabeth Vallet (Raoul-Dandurand Chair UQAM – Canada), Anne-Laure Amilhat-Szary (Geography, Université Joseph Fourier – France), Reece Jones (Geography, University of Hawaii – USA), Kenneth D. Madsen (Geography, The Ohio State University – USA), Said Saddiki (Law, Al-Ain University of Science and Technology – UAE)
Students are especially encouraged to submit a proposal.
Conference Theme:
This conference seeks to understand border walls as a global trend in International Relations. As a growing number of walls are being built along international borders and as migrants and inhabitants of those borderlands are experimenting more and more violence, we seek to understand the local perspectives and views on border fences and replace it in a multiscalar perspectives in order to see if there are viable alternatives to fences and security approaches. How much do they cost (both monetary and socially) ? How well do they work ? How do they affect borderlands? How are security discourses shaping the landscape to build border walls ?
Theoretical Context
In a globalized world in which interdependence is viewed as a necessity and the norm, border walls appear to be things of the past, obsolete manifestations of the institution of State. Nevertheless, walls have been spreading steadily since the end of the Cold War. And the boom in wall-building after the attack on the World Trade Center actually has its roots, at least attitudinally, in the pre-9/11 period, for the walls derive not from a specific fear of terrorism but rather from the global insecurity bred by globalization. Paradoxically, in a security-conscious world, globalization has led not to the elimination of borders but rather to the recomposition of territory and the erection of new “ramparts”. The wall has become a solution to the quest for security of the State, the boundaries of which never truly disappeared, a solution sublimated through an increasingly security-centric discourse in the wake of 9/11, and further fueled by post-Arab Spring events.
Themes
Participants are encouraged to critically examine the role of border walls in security discourses and in the framing of the local political and sociological landscape to consider some of the following themes:
Theme 1. Impacts of border walls
Theme 2. Legal aspects of border walls
Theme 3. Costs and economies of border walls
Theme 4. Violence of border walls
Theme 5. Alternatives to border walls
Deadline for abstract submission: October 5, 2015
(for both panel sessions and poster sessions)
Please note that papers may be considered for both panel sessions AND poster sessions.
Proposal: please include the following information (300 words)
· Name of authors/contributors
· Institutional affiliations, titles
· Contact: telephone, fax, email, mailing address
· Title of the paper
· Abstract: Subject, empirical frame, analytical approach, theme (approx. 300 words)
Languages: Proposals can be submitted in French, English and Spanish. However the conference will be held in English and French.
Conference Dates and Deadlines:
- Oct.31, 2015 : deadline for submitting abstracts and proposals
- Dec.2015 : proposals selection and notification sent to presenters
- March 31, 2015 : submission of papers to discussants
- June 1-3, 2016 : Conference to be held in Montreal.
Send your proposals via email in Word format to Élisabeth Vallet at UQAM: BordersandWalls@gmail.com
• CFP Contemporary crisis and changes – Reims
26 Ottobre 2015
English follows French:
APPEL À CONTRIBUTIONS
Crises et mutations contemporaines
Approches géoéconomiques et géopolitiques
Colloque international – Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA)
26 et 27 mai 2016, Reims (France)
Sous la direction de François Bost et Stéphane Rosière
Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, EA 2076 Habiter
Sous le patronage des commissions « Industrie et emploi » et « Géographie politique et géopolitique » du Comité National Français de Géographie (CNFG)
et de la commission de géographie politique de l’IGU-UGI.
Le laboratoire Habiter (EA 2076) organise les 26 et 27 mai 2016 à l’Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA) un colloque international intitulé “Crises et mutations contemporaines – Approches géoéconomiques et géopolitiques” dirigé par François Bost et Stéphane Rosière.”
Depuis plusieurs années, le monde est entré dans une période de forte instabilité. Sur le plan économique, ce mouvement, initié par la « crise des subprimes » apparue en 2007 aux États-Unis, s’est ensuite étendu à l’ensemble de la planète dans tous les domaines d’activité générant baisse de la croissance et chômage. Le monde actuel est par ailleurs marqué par un accroissement des conflictualités, notamment au Moyen-Orient, ou en Ukraine qui remet en cause les frontières. Cette conflictualité alimente des mouvements migratoires eux-mêmes porteurs de tensions. L’objectif du colloque « Crises et mutations contemporaines » est d’interroger ces bouleversements au travers d’une double lecture géoéconomique et géopolitique. L’accent sera ainsi mis sur trois axes principaux, en portant une attention à toutes les échelles (du local au mondial), et en considérant tous les types d’acteurs.
1. Depuis 2007-2008, le monde est-il confronté à une « crise » ou connaît-il une « mutation » largement inédite, annonciatrice de bouleversements majeurs et en chaîne ? À cet égard, il s’agira de déterminer quelles sont les expressions les plus pertinentes de cette crise et / ou de ces dynamiques qui esquissent un autre monde.
2. La « fermeture » (repli sur soi, formes plus ou moins larvées de protectionnisme, logiques de blocs concurrents, construction de barrières aux frontières, etc.) paraît être une des manifestations de la situation actuelle. S’agit-il d’une nouvelle logique mondiale dominante ? Dans quelle mesure la fermeture, toujours relative, renvoie-t-elle à la notion d’asymétrie et est-elle créatrice de déséquilibres ?
3. Quel lien est-il possible d’établir entre les registres économiques et géopolitiques dans l’évolution contemporaine du monde ? Quelle imbrication entre ces deux registres ? Le paradigme de la fin du territoire – et de la fin de la géopolitique – souvent associé à la mondialisation et au libéralisme reste-t-il pertinent ? La situation contemporaine ne remet-elle pas en cause nos représentations les plus courantes de la mondialisation ?
Les modalités pratiques (propositions de contributions, participation) sont disponibles sur le site du laboratoire Habiter. Pour télécharger le pdf, veuillez cliquer ici.
CALL FOR PROPOSITIONS
Contemporary crisis and changes
Geoeconomical and geopolitical approaches
International Conference – University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA)
26 and 27 May 2016
Reims (France)
Conference organized by François Bost and Stéphane Rosière
Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, EA 2076 Habiter
With the support of the Commissions « Industrie et emploi » and « Géographie politique et géopolitique » of the Comité National Français de Géographie (CNFG)
and of the Commission on Political Geography of the IGU-UGI
For several years, the world seems to have entered a period of high instability. Economically, the “subprime mortgage crisis” appeared in 2007 in the USA, then spread planet wide in all areas of activity, leading to lower growth and unemployment. In geopolitical terms, tension spots have also multiplied (Middle East, Ukraine) and challenge the borders, generating strong migratory waves. This process, by itself, carries conflicts. The aim of the conference “Contemporary Crisis and changes” is to question these contemporary upheavals through both a geo-economic and a geopolitical reading. The emphasis will be put on three main themes, at all scales (from local to global) and considering any type of actors.
1. Since 2007-2008, is the World facing a “crisis” or si it experiencing a very unprecedented “change”, heralding major and chain upheavals? In this regard, it will be the occasion to debate and chose the most relevant words to describe this crisis and/or these changes shaping another World.
2. The “closure” (isolationism, more or less latent forms of protectionism, competing logics of blocks, building of border barriers, etc.) seems to be one of the manifestations of the current situation. Is it one of the new dominant world logics? In which way do these “closure” processes, always relative, refer to an asymmetrical concept and create imbalances?
3. What links can be established between the economic and geopolitical fields as part of contemporary world change? What about the overlap between these two fields? Is the paradigm of the “end of territory” (and so of geopolitics), often associated with globalisation and liberalism, still relevant? Is the current situation challenging the most common mental representations of globalisation?
For more details (paper proposals, participation), you may refer to the website of « Habiter ». The full pdf can be dowloaded there.
