*Call for Papers for the AAG*
*"The Normalcy of Urban Neoliberalism and its Limits"*
Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) in
New York (February 24-28, 2012)
_Organizers_: Susanne Heeg, Robert Pütz, Felix Silomon-Pflug and Anne
Vogelpohl (Goethe University Frankfurt (Main), Germany)
*Sponsored by the Urban Geography Specialty Group*
The neoliberal "re-ordering of cities" has to be understood within the
stress ratio of global conditions and specific local requirements. As a
result urban neoliberalism is shaped by local adaption, transformation
and implementation of globally available urban policies. Solving local
crises and preparing cities for interurban global competition can be
seen as purposes of this "travelling of policies". The mobility of urban
politics has led to the normalization of neoliberal urban development as
well as the corresponding analytic perspective on cities. As this
process of normalization yet remains a contested process that is
resisted, obstructed or avoided in many ways it can be understood as a
constant stretching of limits -- e.g. through policies that strengthen
the ability to co-opt critique or de-politicize social movements. But
limits to urban neoliberalism's normalcy may also hint at a
post-neoliberal change.
We invite paper proposals that either analyze the process of enforcing
the urban neoliberal character or that analyze limitations to
neoliberalization and potentially post-neoliberal urban development. The
former include re-orderings of administrations or policy guidelines; the
latter include re-interpretations of failed policies and deepened
inequalities (shrinkage, marginalization etc.) or concepts and
perspectives for alternative cities ("just city", "right to the city",
peoples/participatory budgets etc.).
Within this field the papers may address, but are not limited to the
following questions:
·How are mobile urban policies adapted, transformed and implemented and
what are the effects for the re-ordering of urban
configurations/assemblages?
·Which role does the travelling of urban policies play for the
normalization of neoliberal urban development?
·How are contradictions between market- and competition-oriented
restructurings on the one hand and a socially just/ livable city
discourse on the other reconciled?
·Is the neoliberal city depoliticized and, if so, what are the
consequences for modes of participation/ (self)representation?
·Is the neoliberal character of the urban reinvented or overcome in the
course of the ongoing economic crisis? What are the limits of neoliberal
adaptability?
·Which theories and concepts can be used to conceive a post-neoliberal
change?
Please submit a ~250-word abstract by September 16, 2011 to Anne
Vogelpohl ([email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>)
Best regards,
anne.
--
*Anne Vogelpohl*
Institut für Humangeographie
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt a.M.
Robert-Mayer-Str. 6-8
60325 Frankfurt a.M.
+49-69-798 23538
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
www.humangeographie.de/vogelpohl <http://www.humangeographie.de/vogelpohl>
