Apologies for cross-posting *Call for papers: Rethinking race, class, and capital in urban transformation* Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting 24-28 February 2012, New York City
Organizers: Katy Guimond (Geography, University of California, Berkeley) Lindsey Dillon (Geography, University of California, Berkeley) Contemporary transformations of urban space – through processes of gentrification, redevelopment, renewal, or disinvestment – are too often understood through the individual lenses of capital, or class, or race. Thinking all three together is an empirical, methodological, and theoretical challenge, but one that is required of scholars seeking to understand social inequalities and contribute to a more just social world. Accounts that foreground the dynamics of capital risk undertheorizing or downplaying the constitutive roles played by race, gender, and other forms of difference. Conversely, accounts that foreground politics of race, difference, and identity sometimes treat economic processes as given, abstract forces imposed from elsewhere, and thus leave them unquestioned. This panel session will discuss contemporary urban transformations and race, class, capital, and space as they are lived together in diverse urban places, from global cities to the Rust Belt to resurgent regional hubs and beyond. We invite accounts of gentrification, redevelopment, and/or disinvestment that grapple with the multidimensionality of these transformations. Submissions might ask the following questions: How is urban space transformed, and how are these transformations intertwined with remakings of class and race? How are urban dwellers made, remade, and differentiated? How is capital embodied and resisted? Papers grounded in empirical work are especially encouraged. And while this CFP has been written with North American cities in mind, papers from elsewhere are most certainly welcome if the problematic applies. Contributors are invited to submit a 250 word abstract by September 19th (AAG guidelines: http://www.aag.org/cs/annualmeeting/call_for_papers/abstract_guidelines) to both of the organizers: Katy Guimond ([email protected]) and Lindsey Dillon ([email protected])
