Richard J White
I am a Reader in Human Geography working in the Department of the Natural and Built Envionment (Faculty of Development and Society) at Sheffield Hallam University, UK.
My principal areas of teaching, learning and research are embedded within three dynamic, intersectional, and increasingly influential areas of human geography: namely anarchist geographies, critical animal geographies and the sociology of place and space.
ANARCHIST GEOGRAPHIES
A significant part of my teaching, research and writing is committed to developing anarchist praxis within human geography. Addressing a range of ethical landscapes rooted in the context of social justice and total liberation movements, I am particularly interested developing a new geographic imaginary based on peace and non-violence.
Over the last 15 years I have contributed to an important body of empirical research that explores the geographies of household work practices in the UK. Drawing on this research to explore the complex geographies of community self-help, my key contribution to anarchist geographies has been to demonstrate how non-capitalist and ‘anarchist' forms of organisation are deeply woven into the fabric of everyday life in a 'capitalist society. Understanding anarchist forms of organisation to be rooted in the principles of mutual aid, reciprocity, co-operation, collaboration and inclusion, I place my research here firmly within a broader, emancipatory, anarchist geography of freedom. In the context of an enduring crisis of capitalism emphasising the pluralistic and prevalent nature of forms of self-help and informal support that lie beyond the market and the state is particularly important and timely. In highlighting the pervasive nature of 'non-capitalist' work practices in the advanced economics of the western world, my work reveals a set of distinctive and innovative alternatives to capitalism both in the here and now, and opens up new "post-capitalist" visions of work and organisation in the future. By inviting new ways of imagining and envisioning socially just ways of economic organisation the research has great relevance across a wide range of inter-disciplinary academic, activist and broader public communities.
CRITICAL ANIMAL GEOGRAPHIES
Critical Animal Geographies provides new geographical perspectives on critical animal studies, exploring the spatial, political, and ethical dimensions of animals’ lived experience and human–animal encounters. It works toward a more radical politics and theory directed at the shifting boundary between human and animal. My main contribution to the field of critical animal studies broadly, and critical animal geographies in particular, has been to argue how both can engage with anarchist praxis of non-violence to better (a) problematise human power and human species identity and (b) confront, challenge and subvert the often exploitative and violent interlocking systems that underpin the treatment of both humans and other animals in society.
THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPACE AND PLACE
Drawing on a range of mixed methods, including an innovative use of 'mental mapping', I have continued to engage with the literature around the sociology of place and space by emphasising how social networks and attachment to place shape can influence spatial horizons and affect aspirations.
My research has focused on the uneven experiences and perceptions on young people from deprived urban neighbourhoods (in Hull, Walsall and Wolverhampton) and their attitudes toward further education, training and work opportunities. At a time of high levels of youth unemployment, this is a high visibility area which has relevance for researchers, policymakers and practitioners concerned with regeneration, economic development, labour market, skills, and education. In calling for broader recognition of 'the role of geography' in inter-disciplinary analysis, the research continues to inform practical policy interventions that may help widen social and spatial horizons of young people more effectively to enable them to take in a broader range of employment and training opportunities beyond their immediate locality.
---
Please see my CV for more information, including list of publications. Any questions, or suggestions for possible collaborations across any of the areas highlighted above, please email me: "[email protected]".
Supervisors: Dr. Angus Cameron (PhD Internal examiner), Prof. Colin C Williams (PhD supervisor), and Professor Danny Burns ( PhD External examiner)
Phone: 0114 225 2899
Address: Faculty of Development and Society
Sheffield Hallam University
City Campus
Sheffield
S1 1WB
EMAIL: [email protected]
EMAIL: [email protected]
My principal areas of teaching, learning and research are embedded within three dynamic, intersectional, and increasingly influential areas of human geography: namely anarchist geographies, critical animal geographies and the sociology of place and space.
ANARCHIST GEOGRAPHIES
A significant part of my teaching, research and writing is committed to developing anarchist praxis within human geography. Addressing a range of ethical landscapes rooted in the context of social justice and total liberation movements, I am particularly interested developing a new geographic imaginary based on peace and non-violence.
Over the last 15 years I have contributed to an important body of empirical research that explores the geographies of household work practices in the UK. Drawing on this research to explore the complex geographies of community self-help, my key contribution to anarchist geographies has been to demonstrate how non-capitalist and ‘anarchist' forms of organisation are deeply woven into the fabric of everyday life in a 'capitalist society. Understanding anarchist forms of organisation to be rooted in the principles of mutual aid, reciprocity, co-operation, collaboration and inclusion, I place my research here firmly within a broader, emancipatory, anarchist geography of freedom. In the context of an enduring crisis of capitalism emphasising the pluralistic and prevalent nature of forms of self-help and informal support that lie beyond the market and the state is particularly important and timely. In highlighting the pervasive nature of 'non-capitalist' work practices in the advanced economics of the western world, my work reveals a set of distinctive and innovative alternatives to capitalism both in the here and now, and opens up new "post-capitalist" visions of work and organisation in the future. By inviting new ways of imagining and envisioning socially just ways of economic organisation the research has great relevance across a wide range of inter-disciplinary academic, activist and broader public communities.
CRITICAL ANIMAL GEOGRAPHIES
Critical Animal Geographies provides new geographical perspectives on critical animal studies, exploring the spatial, political, and ethical dimensions of animals’ lived experience and human–animal encounters. It works toward a more radical politics and theory directed at the shifting boundary between human and animal. My main contribution to the field of critical animal studies broadly, and critical animal geographies in particular, has been to argue how both can engage with anarchist praxis of non-violence to better (a) problematise human power and human species identity and (b) confront, challenge and subvert the often exploitative and violent interlocking systems that underpin the treatment of both humans and other animals in society.
THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPACE AND PLACE
Drawing on a range of mixed methods, including an innovative use of 'mental mapping', I have continued to engage with the literature around the sociology of place and space by emphasising how social networks and attachment to place shape can influence spatial horizons and affect aspirations.
My research has focused on the uneven experiences and perceptions on young people from deprived urban neighbourhoods (in Hull, Walsall and Wolverhampton) and their attitudes toward further education, training and work opportunities. At a time of high levels of youth unemployment, this is a high visibility area which has relevance for researchers, policymakers and practitioners concerned with regeneration, economic development, labour market, skills, and education. In calling for broader recognition of 'the role of geography' in inter-disciplinary analysis, the research continues to inform practical policy interventions that may help widen social and spatial horizons of young people more effectively to enable them to take in a broader range of employment and training opportunities beyond their immediate locality.
---
Please see my CV for more information, including list of publications. Any questions, or suggestions for possible collaborations across any of the areas highlighted above, please email me: "[email protected]".
Supervisors: Dr. Angus Cameron (PhD Internal examiner), Prof. Colin C Williams (PhD supervisor), and Professor Danny Burns ( PhD External examiner)
Phone: 0114 225 2899
Address: Faculty of Development and Society
Sheffield Hallam University
City Campus
Sheffield
S1 1WB
EMAIL: [email protected]
EMAIL: [email protected]
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explicitly spatial praxis: the desire to live without places of violence. This
brings sharply therefore the question: “to what extent does the success of animal liberation—as part of a total politics of liberation –concern an ability to successfully confront, transgress and liberate these violent places?” With this question in mind, the principal aim of the chapter is to encourage the reader to focus their attention not towards those places where violence is deliberately hidden violence, but to think more critically about the disturbing acts and consequences of violence against sentient beings that are all around us: embedded and normalized within familiar urban environments. In doing so it is also important to make connections between these “everyday” and “exceptional” places of violence: neither are fundamentally discrete or different. Rather they are co- dependent and co- constitutive, coming together in both time and space in many complex and sometimes unpredictable ways.
Published Papers by Richard J White
Design/methodology/approach-The authors pay particular attention the use of everyday language and framing of insects to "other" them, thereby trivializing and demonizing their existence, including "it's *just* a bug" or "they are pests." Insect speciesism employs similar rhetoric reinforcing discrimination patterns of other nonhuman animals and humans. The authors focus on the unexpected encounters with insects in domestic spaces, such as an office desk, and through the multispecies space of "the allotment."
Findings-The authors reflect on two possible posthuman futures: one where insect speciesism is entrenched and unrepentant; the second a decolonized society where we aspire to live a more compassionate and nonviolent existence amidst these remarkable and brilliant creatures we owe our very existence on Earth. Originality/value-One of the most profound lessons of the crisis-driven epoch of the Anthropocene is this: our existence on Earth is intimately bound with the flourishing of all forms of life. This includes complex multispecies encounters between humans and insects, an area of enquiry widely neglected across the social sciences. Faced with imminent catastrophic decline and extinction of insect and invertebrate populations, human relationships with these fellow Earthlings are deserving of further attention.
variously portray those engaged in self-servicing either as rational economic actors, dupes, seekers of self-identity, or simply doing so out of necessity or choice. This paper evaluates
critically the validity of these rival explanations. To do this, the extent of, and reasons for, self-servicing in the domestic realm is empirically evaluated through an internet survey of 5,500 people living in the city of Sheffield in England. This resulted in 418 valid responses (a 7.6 per cent response rate). The finding is that three-quarters of all domestic tasks surveyed were last conducted on a self-servicing basis. Turning to why self-servicing is used, the finding is that all the previous theorisations are valid to differing degrees, and through a process of induction, a theoretically-integrative typology is offered which combines the existing theorisations by differentiating between various ‘willing’ (rational economic actors, choice, identity seeking) and ‘reluctant’ (economic and market necessity, Dupes, participants in the self-service economy. The outcome is a call for further research on the wider applicability of using this typology to explain self-servicing across other retail and distribution activities (e.g., food retailing, organising travel and holidays) is now required.
To cite this article: Richard J. White (2020) Social Economics and the Solidarity City, Space and Polity, 24:3, 317-318.
CO-AUTHORS
Carol Morris, Minna Kaljonen, Kadri Aavik, Bálint Balázs, Matthew Cole, Ben Coles, Sophia Efstathiu, Tracey Fallon, Mike Foden, Eva Haifa Giraud, Mike Goodman, Eleanor Hadley Kershaw, Richard Helliwell, Pru Hobson-West, Matti Häyry, Piia Jallinoja, Mat Jones, Taija Kaarlenkaski, Maarit Laihonen, Anu Lähteenmäki-Uutela, Saara Kupsala, Annika Lonkila,
Lydia Martens, Renelle McGlacken, Josephine Mylan, Mari Niva, Emma Roe, Richard Twine, Markus Vinnari & Richard White
Available at: https://www.europenowjournal.org/2018/09/04/looking-backward-moving-forward-articulating-a-yes-but-response-to-lifestyle-veganism/
explicitly spatial praxis: the desire to live without places of violence. This
brings sharply therefore the question: “to what extent does the success of animal liberation—as part of a total politics of liberation –concern an ability to successfully confront, transgress and liberate these violent places?” With this question in mind, the principal aim of the chapter is to encourage the reader to focus their attention not towards those places where violence is deliberately hidden violence, but to think more critically about the disturbing acts and consequences of violence against sentient beings that are all around us: embedded and normalized within familiar urban environments. In doing so it is also important to make connections between these “everyday” and “exceptional” places of violence: neither are fundamentally discrete or different. Rather they are co- dependent and co- constitutive, coming together in both time and space in many complex and sometimes unpredictable ways.
Design/methodology/approach-The authors pay particular attention the use of everyday language and framing of insects to "other" them, thereby trivializing and demonizing their existence, including "it's *just* a bug" or "they are pests." Insect speciesism employs similar rhetoric reinforcing discrimination patterns of other nonhuman animals and humans. The authors focus on the unexpected encounters with insects in domestic spaces, such as an office desk, and through the multispecies space of "the allotment."
Findings-The authors reflect on two possible posthuman futures: one where insect speciesism is entrenched and unrepentant; the second a decolonized society where we aspire to live a more compassionate and nonviolent existence amidst these remarkable and brilliant creatures we owe our very existence on Earth. Originality/value-One of the most profound lessons of the crisis-driven epoch of the Anthropocene is this: our existence on Earth is intimately bound with the flourishing of all forms of life. This includes complex multispecies encounters between humans and insects, an area of enquiry widely neglected across the social sciences. Faced with imminent catastrophic decline and extinction of insect and invertebrate populations, human relationships with these fellow Earthlings are deserving of further attention.
variously portray those engaged in self-servicing either as rational economic actors, dupes, seekers of self-identity, or simply doing so out of necessity or choice. This paper evaluates
critically the validity of these rival explanations. To do this, the extent of, and reasons for, self-servicing in the domestic realm is empirically evaluated through an internet survey of 5,500 people living in the city of Sheffield in England. This resulted in 418 valid responses (a 7.6 per cent response rate). The finding is that three-quarters of all domestic tasks surveyed were last conducted on a self-servicing basis. Turning to why self-servicing is used, the finding is that all the previous theorisations are valid to differing degrees, and through a process of induction, a theoretically-integrative typology is offered which combines the existing theorisations by differentiating between various ‘willing’ (rational economic actors, choice, identity seeking) and ‘reluctant’ (economic and market necessity, Dupes, participants in the self-service economy. The outcome is a call for further research on the wider applicability of using this typology to explain self-servicing across other retail and distribution activities (e.g., food retailing, organising travel and holidays) is now required.
To cite this article: Richard J. White (2020) Social Economics and the Solidarity City, Space and Polity, 24:3, 317-318.
CO-AUTHORS
Carol Morris, Minna Kaljonen, Kadri Aavik, Bálint Balázs, Matthew Cole, Ben Coles, Sophia Efstathiu, Tracey Fallon, Mike Foden, Eva Haifa Giraud, Mike Goodman, Eleanor Hadley Kershaw, Richard Helliwell, Pru Hobson-West, Matti Häyry, Piia Jallinoja, Mat Jones, Taija Kaarlenkaski, Maarit Laihonen, Anu Lähteenmäki-Uutela, Saara Kupsala, Annika Lonkila,
Lydia Martens, Renelle McGlacken, Josephine Mylan, Mari Niva, Emma Roe, Richard Twine, Markus Vinnari & Richard White
Available at: https://www.europenowjournal.org/2018/09/04/looking-backward-moving-forward-articulating-a-yes-but-response-to-lifestyle-veganism/
develop an anarchist future of work and organization will be proposed. The outcome is to begin to engage in the demonstrative construction of a future based on mutualism and autonomous modes of organization and representation."
"
The chapter reflects on the emancipatory grounds that anarchism purports to stands on - for non-violence, freedom and autonomy for all, and critically addresses two problematic questions. First, how can anarchists claim to fight against (1) patriarchal and paternalistic forms of social domination while actively supporting forms of anthroparchy (e.g. the consumption of non-human animal corpses, dairy and eggs)? and; (2) sexist and speciesist forms of social domination while acting in ways that upholds statist and capitalist forms of exploitation and domination? In conclusion we ask for a greater convergence between (eco)feminist, vegan, and anarchist struggles in the fight for social justice, freedom and liberation, in the belief that this will prove integral to better envisaging and enacting a contemporary anarchist political ecology.
In particular, the chapter explores the limits of appealing to veganism, per se, as a means of challenging capitalist exploitations of animals, both human and nonhuman. This serves as a perfect demonstration of the power of advanced capitalism to commodify the alternative by stripping out the radical praxis of veganism and repackaging this as an “alternative lifestyle choice.” The challenge then becomes
one of how to envisage and enact a postcapitalist world that is consistent with the appeal for total liberation of humans, other animals, and the Earth.
To these ends, the chapter invokes a spirit of anarchism; a radical praxis that has significantly animated the trajectory of critical animal studies to date. Here, a narrative focused on re-imagining of the political economy of the household and community spaces through critical vegan praxis will be outlined.
Across many Minority World countries *veganism has risen in mainstream popularity in ways that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. At the same time academic interest in the potentially radical possibilities that are rooted in veganism and vegan praxis continue to gain both in momentum and visibility. Critical approaches across a number of social-science disciplines, for example, have created a dynamic critical animal studies literature, one which has increasingly exposed the profound anthropocentric and speciesist limits of what constitutes “critical thinking”, and indeed critical scholarship. Found in the rich and fertile soils cultivated by critical animal geographies in particular (Collard and Gillespie, 2018), the seeds of veganism that had been carefully scattered by a handful of scholars are now beginning to bear fruit. Indeed, if the number of key publications (Hodges et al, 2022; Sexton, et. al 2022) are anything to go by, history may well record 2022 as the year that Vegan Geographies well and truly arrived in the discipline.
In this context, this call for papers comes at a particularly exciting yet precarious moment. Exciting because we stand at a time when new and significant inter-species imaginaries, encounters, and expressions of inter-species social and spatial justice activism have the potential to be realised. Precarious because it is impossible to underestimate the challenges that need to be successfully overcome if vegan geographies are to fulfil their radical potential(s) both within the discipline, and the world at large.
The Special Issue will be published in the International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy. The full call for papers can be found in the attached document.
*Please read the Send 250-300 word abstracts to the Guest Editors directly by 5 May 2019.*
Invited papers - of between 5,000 and 8,000 words - will be submitted to the journal for peer-review by 15 August 2019.
More information about the journal can be found at: http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/journals.htm?id=ijssp
to examine and debate the contributions that a specifically anarchist perspective can offer to illuminate the various aspects of the subject in a distinct and potent way.
We seek to underscore what geographers can contribute to our understanding of critical veganism and vegan praxis. Presentations in non-traditional and participatory formats are welcomed. Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] and [email protected] by 25 October 2017.
2nd CALL FOR PAPERS: DEADLINE MONDAY 23RD OCTOBER.
Geographies of Anarchist Praxes
Organisers
Federico Ferretti University College Dublin, Ireland.
Farhang Rouhani University of Mary Washington, USA.
Simon Springer University of Victoria, Canada.
Ophélie Véron Université Catholique de Louvain
Richard J. White Sheffield Hallam University, UK.
A misanthrope might compare the vices of our European society to a hidden evil that gnaws at the individual from within, whereas the vices of American society appear outwardly in all of their hideous brutality. The most violent hatred separates factions and races: the slavery advocate abhors the abolitionist, the white loathes the Negro, the native detests the foreigner, the wealthy planter disdains the small landowner, and rivalry of interests creates an insurmountable barrier of mistrust even between related families.
Elisee Reclus, (1885) A Voyage to New Orleans.
An anarchist praxis within geography continues to inspire and invite new imaginaries and praxis to flourish within the discipline. In recent years, anarchist geographers have revitalised approaches toward radical learning spaces (Rouhani, 2017, Springer et al, 2016); historical geographies (Ferretti 2015; Springer 2016), neoliberalism (Springer 2011), post-statist geographies (Barrera and Ince, 2016), practices of freedom (White et al, 2016); postcoloniality/decoloniality (Barker and Pickerill 2012), theories of resistance (Souza et.al 2016); urbanism (Souza 2014), nonhuman animal oppression (White, 2017) and a reassessment of our discipline’s radical potential (Springer 2014, 2016), among others. While wishing to see these anarchist geographies unfold still further, at this point in time - and with the AAG conference being held in New Orleans - we feel it is particularly relevant and important to invite papers that engage directly with the following three areas:
1. Anarchist Geographies and Anti-racism/ intersectionality.
The topics of anti-racist and anti-slavery struggles are part of the anarchist tradition since Reclus's sojourn in Louisiana from 1853 to 1855 and his "anarchist abolitionism", a fight that the anarchist geographer pursued all his life long. Today, the issues on anti-racism, intersectionality and the claims of all marginalised and “racialized” communities, often linked to anti-fascism and anti-sexism stances, are more and more urgent all over the world, as recently shown by the case of Afro-American communities. Any paper discussing past, present and future anarchist engagements on these topics is welcome.
2. Anarchist Geographies and Colonialism, postcolonialism, and decolonization
Some lasting misunderstandings concern the relations between anarchism and decolonialism. While focusing on the intersection of all forms of oppression (state, capital, churches, armies, authorities …) anarchism rarely flagged anti-colonialism or postcolonialism as its main feature. Yet, this did not impede that anarchist were historically among the most radical anti-colonialist from the time of early anarchist geographers, nor that anarchist thinking is devoid of elements which can nourish to-day debates on “de-colonising geography”. For instance, the anarchist refusal of a political avant-garde anticipated recent political and epistemological claims from decolonial scholars, put in practice by movements of indigenous resistance such as the Zapatistas. Contributions on anarchism and anti-colonialism, de-colonisation, decoloniality and indigeneity are especially welcome.
3. Anarchist Geographies and Critical Pedagogies, Learning, and Teaching in the University
Anarchist commitment to pedagogies at all levels, from primary school to university, has been traditionally deployed in both the experimentation of freed schools and universities, self-organised outside any intervention of the state or of main educational institutions, and the work within existing institutions which can often provide a tribune to divulgate critical and anarchist contents. In these situations, one might find spaces for both experimentation and struggle against political and intellectual domination. Theoretical reflexions and cases of concrete experiences are both welcome in the context of a discussion on challenges to state and mainstream pedagogies and their spatialities.
Other areas may include, but are not limited to:
Anarcho-feminism Non-western anarchisms Anarchism and activism
The anarchist commons Anarchism and animal liberation. Authority, power, and the state
References
Barker, A. J., & Pickerill, J. (2012). Radicalizing relationships to and through shared geographies: Why anarchists need to understand indigenous connections to land and place. Antipode, 44(5), 1705-1725.
Barrera, G. and Ince, A. (2016). Post-statist epistemology and the future of geographical knowledge production. In Springer, S., Douza, M. L de, and White, R. J. (Eds.) The Radicalization of Pedagogy: Anarchism, Geography and the Spirit of Revolt. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Ferretti, F. (2015). Anarchism, geohistory, and the Annales: rethinking Elisée Reclus’s influence on Lucien Febvre. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 33, 347-365.
Rouhani, F. (2017). Creating Transformative Anarchist-Geographic Learning Spaces. In Robert Haworth and John Elmore (ed).Out of the Ruins: The Emergence of New Radical Informal Learning Spaces, Oakland: PM Press.
Souza, M. L. de (2014). Towards a libertarian turn? Notes on the past and future of radical urban research and praxis. City, 18(2), 104-118.
Springer, S. (2011). Public space as emancipation: meditations on anarchism, radical democracy, neoliberalism and violence. Antipode, 43(2), 525-562.
Springer, S. (2013). Anarchism and Geography: a brief genealogy of Anarchist Geographies. Geography Compass, 7(1), 46-60.
Springer, S. (2014). Why a radical geography must be anarchist. Dialogues in Human Geography, 4(3), 249-270.
Springer, S. (2016). The Anarchist Roots of Geography: Towards Spatial Emancipation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Springer, S, White R.J, Souza, M.L de. (2016) (eds.) The Radicalization of Pedagogy: Anarchism, Geography and the Spirit of Revolt, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham.
White R.J, Springer, S., Souza, ML de. 2016 (eds.) The Practice of Freedom: Anarchism, Geography and the Spirit of Revolt, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham.
White, R.J (2017) Rising to the challenge of capitalism and the commodification of animals: post-capitalism, anarchist economies and vegan praxis. In David Nibert (eds) Animal Oppression and Capitalism. Praeger, Conneticut.
We also welcome presentations in non-traditional and participatory formats. If you would like to participate in other ways (e.g. discussant) then please feel free to contact us as well. Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to [email protected]; [email protected] [email protected]; [email protected]; and [email protected] by October 23th 2017.
Please note: once you have submitted an abstract to us and it is accepted, you will also need to register AND submit an abstract on the AAG website on/ before October 25th.
More details about submitting abstracts can be found here: http://annualmeeting.aag.org/AAGAnnualMeeting/AAGAnnualMeeting/CallForSubmissions.aspx
Towards Vegan Geographies: Ethics Beyond Violence
We seek to underscore what geographers can contribute to our understanding of critical veganism and vegan praxis.
Presentations in non-traditional and participatory formats are welcomed.
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] and [email protected] by 21 October 2016.
Please note: Once you have submitted an abstract to us and it is accepted, you will also need to register AND submit an abstract on the AAG website.
Questioning the relationship between activism with - and without - organisation throws up some interesting and important inter-disciplinary questions. At the most fundamental level it gives us cause to interrogate the very idea of activism: where does activism begin and end? Who gets to be an activist? Seeking to engage a more nuanced understanding of the differences between organized and unorganized forms of activism, provokes the question of how informal experiences of activism, encourage engagement with more organised forms of activism (and vice versa). Is the relationship between the two antagonistic, competitive or complementary to each other? How are organisational forms of activism dictated to by specific social and spatial temporalities, particularly at a time of crisis? Indeed in these (post)modern times is it meaningful to frame the organisation of activism within a binary relationship (either formal or informal)? Rather should we be encouraged to consider them on an organisational spectrum of difference (more formal, less formal and so on)? If desirable, how can a more informed complex understanding of the organisational natures of activism allow us to better recognise, value, strengthen and link up different types of patterns of activism and resistance?
To these ends we welcome papers of up to 8000 words addressing empirical or theoretical aspects focused on organisation of activism and protest, past and present, situated in any part of the world and at any scale.
Deadlines:
Please send 250-300 word abstracts directly to the Guest Editors, Richard White ([email protected]) and Tricia Wood ([email protected] ) by 15 August 2015.
Full papers - between 5,000 to 8,000 words - must be submitted on-line to the IJSSP journal by 01 December 2015.
More information about The Journal for International Sociology and Social Policy can be found here: http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/journals.htm?id=ijssp .
New ideas and concepts have emerged through this renewed interest in anarchism, which promises to transform the intellectual landscape of geography as we know it. This growing maturity and diversity of anarchist thought, however, has been characterized by a heavy focus on theory. As scholars identifying with anarchist traditions, we feel it is both timely and vitally important to explore critically and in greater depth what these theoretical and conceptual innovations mean for academic praxis – in the empirical, as well as pedagogical and methodological, dimensions of geographical scholarship.
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/IJSSP-07-2016-0092?af=R&
and organisation, and thereby neglecting the unique and unprecedented opportunities and challenges of the here and now, important arguments are made to demonstrate how this knowledge and awareness can be applied and adapted in useful and meaningful ways.
As geographers, there will be spatially uneven effects of Brexit, within the UK and across Europe and the world, as trade relations, treaties and state regulations become disentangled and realigned. In the scenario of a disorderly ‘no deal’ withdrawal, the functions of society that ensure day-to-day survival (e.g. social reproduction, work, healthcare) may struggle or collapse. In the context of emergency, it is well documented that communal relations flourish. Thus, we face opportunities for both research agendas for tracing the dynamics of Brexit itself, and for understanding the underlying fabric of society through its pressure points, fissures and, in Colin Ward’s words, proto-anarchist “seeds beneath the snow”.
Thus, Brexit may be an opportunity to rethink anarchism and anarchist geography – not only for those on the British Isles but also for those across the world who now face opponents who are emboldened by the reactionary discourses of Brexit (e.g. in Italy, France, Hungary). Nevertheless, given the many regressive and violent characteristics of the EU, leaving its control may also reveal opportunities.
Chicago, April 21-25, 2015
Session Organizers: Tricia Wood (York University, Canada) and Richard J White (Sheffield Hallam University, UK)
The world has witnessed many significant large-scale protests, and highly effective (anonymous, individual) forms of direct activism in recent years. A few particularly visible examples of these would include the ongoing anti-government and anti-austerity protests in Spain, Argentina, Greece, Libya, Turkey, Thailand; the Occupy movement; and UK student-led protests against higher tuition fees and the rampant commodification of higher education. By successfully engaging with alternative forms of governance and radical democracy that take place in a meaningful way beyond the State, these geographies of activism and protests continue to inspire new expressions of identity, relationships, resistance and solidarity into being. However, unsurprisingly, the (perceived) success and traction that these popular protests movements have gained and stand to gain can also be demonstrated in the increased forms of (state) surveillance, militarization of police forces, and other highly aggressive and intrusive forms of censorship and repression.
At a time of seemingly entrenched economic, political, social and environmental crises, it is vital that these radical forms of activism and protest continue to challenge and incite the popular imagination, and foreground "alternative" futures that are not only desirable, but are both practical and enactable. In this context, the session seeks to underscore what geographers and spatial analysis can contribute to our understanding of dissenting political action.
Some questions that we would like to encourage greater reflection on include:
• What creates the possibility of protest?
• What are the political and social conditions that tip frustration over into action?
• What kinds of subjectivity make dissent possible?
• Where does activism begin and end? What are the relationships between individual acts of activism (without organisation) and more organised forms of activism?
• At what point does activism and protest beyond the State become necessary?
• Can an individual ‘do activism’ without ‘becoming an activist'?
• What role do activist organizations play in mobilizing protests?
• What is the importance of the protest camp, and other forms of encampment, within contemporary social movement tactics?
• How does the built landscape affect the possibilities?
• What makes activism a “success” or “failure”?
• Are large-scale protests more significant or effective?
• What role(s) does media coverage play in our understandings of public protest?
We welcome papers addressing empirical or theoretical aspects of the geographies of activism and protest, in any part of the world and at any scale.
Please send your proposed title, abstract (250 words) and conference pin number if known to Tricia ([email protected]) and Richard ([email protected]) by October 15, 2014. For further information and guidance on AAG submissions see: http://www.aag.org/cs/annualmeeting/call_for_papers
too, as ordinary people ignore money and act, either individually or in groups, in ways that support each other. In this chapter, we will discuss how a lot of everyday economic life is practically anarchist, or rather, that we very often live like anarchists, even if we are encouraged not to.