Published papers by Ophélie Véron
Antipode, 2024
This paper explores the role of community food spaces in processes of social change and reproduct... more This paper explores the role of community food spaces in processes of social change and reproduction. I investigate the mechanisms by which these groups reproduce, exacerbate, or dismantle power relations and socio-environmental injustices. I systematically examine exclusion and inclusion dynamics and assess what shapes diversity of participation and representation. Contending that diversity is not a sufficient indicator of social equity and may overshadow forms of injustice, I unpack the interlocking workings of privilege and power in place and examine innovative ways of developing emancipatory food politics. Drawing upon activist ethnography among community gardens, people's kitchens, and cooperative projects in Berlin, I expose the complex, dual nature of its food activist landscape, characterised by the coexistence of experienced, locally rooted, and openly political projects, and more recent, outsider-led sustainability and consumption-orientated projects-together embodying the variegated and shifting politics of socio-environmental change in the city and beyond.
Environment and Planning A, 2023
The benefits of community-based, grassroots food practices, such as community gardens or kitchens... more The benefits of community-based, grassroots food practices, such as community gardens or kitchens, are widely acknowledged. However, they have also been shown to support neoliberal and exclusionary dynamics. This paper examines this contradiction on the ground by unpacking the processes and mechanisms through which these initiatives reproduce, reinforce or challenge social inequities and injustices in the city. It suggests the concept of community food space to look at the articulation of practices and intentions within these groups, and highlight emancipatory practices situated around food rather than simply about food. The paper draws upon an ongoing militant ethnography into community food spaces in Berlin, Germany. Exploring the complex and diverse landscape of Berlin food activism, it illuminates the ways in which food may be used to perpetuate unjust social configurations or, on the contrary, to advance social justice at both local and structural levels.
Political Geography, 2021
This paper examines the relation between ethno-nationalism and neoliberalism in urban space. Cont... more This paper examines the relation between ethno-nationalism and neoliberalism in urban space. Contrary to common views in urban studies, it argues that the 'ethno-nationally divided city' and the 'neoliberal city' are not antithetical, but that neoliberal nationalism is a new modality of urban conflict in a globalised world, which reshapes the relation between the local and the global and draws new urban geopolitics. By investigating practices of nation-branding in a divided city, this paper bridges different theoretical fields to shed light on an aspect of urban conflict that has largely been ignored by the literature on nationalism and urban divisions. It also complements existing research on neoliberal nationalism by emphasising the spatial and material aspects of nation-branding, and by showing how it can be used by competing ethno-national leaders to mobilise their communities and extend their control at the national and urban levels. By highlighting processes common to neoliberal and divided cities, this paper draws on recent calls within urban geopolitics to rethink current theoretical categories and labels attributed to cities. It develops this analysis by examining contemporary neoliberal urban policies in Skopje, Macedonia, which have become a new battlefield where interethnic conflicts unfold.
Literature on social movements increasingly identifies everyday life as significant to understand... more Literature on social movements increasingly identifies everyday life as significant to understand political practices and activism. However, scholars have retained a major bias towards movement mobilisation and collective action, often relegating the everyday at the margins of social movements. Studies of prefigurative activism and everyday practices of social change have often focused exclusively on alternative community spaces, such as autonomous social centres and protest camps, and paid less attention to 'ordinary' practices and spaces of activism. The main aim of the paper is to address these issues by suggesting that everyday life may be central to the production of activist spaces and the action of social movements. To achieve this, the relationship(s) between social movements and everyday life is examined by focusing on the vegan movement in France. This paper adds to the literature on activism and social movements by offering a more complex picture of the spatial politics at work in social movements and a better understanding of individual action and mobilisation. Drawing on an anarchist perspective on activism, it suggests that activism and everyday life should not be studied in isolation from each other but as mutually constitutive in the creation of everyday alternative spaces – hemeratopias.
This paper examines issues of power and resistance in 'divided cities'. Basing my analysis on fie... more This paper examines issues of power and resistance in 'divided cities'. Basing my analysis on fieldwork I carried out in Skopje, Macedonia, I look at how urban space may be constructed and used by hegemonic groups as a means of asserting their power and how, in turn, the city may be a place of resistance where power is contested and public space reappropriated. Drawing on Lefebvre's perspective on the production of space, I compare the conceived city to the lived city and examine how urban inhabitants may resist the division of the city and challenge hegemonic representations. I also draw on Debord's psychogeography to define an artistic, active and participatory approach to urban space through which the inhabitants may re-conquer their right to the oeuvre and to the city. I argue that the city as a lived environment may offer narratives other than division and that there are alternatives to the divided city.
![Research paper thumbnail of L’animal que l’on [ne] mange [pas] : représentations médiatiques et artistiques.](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/38905854/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Nous aimons les animaux et, pourtant, nous aimons les manger. Comment supporter cette dissonance ... more Nous aimons les animaux et, pourtant, nous aimons les manger. Comment supporter cette dissonance cognitive – le « paradoxe de la viande » ? Comment, également, la réduire sans pour autant suivre de fausses vérités ? Cet article analyse les différentes représentations des animaux que nous mangeons. Je défendrai l’idée suivante : si une majorité de gens peut à la fois aimer et manger des animaux sans se poser de questions, c’est en raison de la manière dont les animaux sont représentés culturellement et médiatiquement. J’examinerai les représentations de « l’animal-à-manger » et les différentes stratégies mises en place à travers la publicité pour atténuer et faire taire le sentiment de dissonance cognitive. J’étudierai ensuite comment ces représentations sont contestées par les défenseurs de la cause animale. J’examinerai ici les représentations de « l’animal-à-ne-pas-manger » et les méthodes des activistes végétariens et véganes pour mettre en lumière la dissonance cognitive. Ces deux représentations jouent avec des codes et symboles opposés : d’une part, l’abstraction, la désindividualisation, l’objectification, la naturalisation-normalisation-nécessitation et la caricaturisation ; d’autre part, la déconstruction de ces procédés, la ré-animalisation et le détournement. Je souhaite ainsi indiquer comment nous pouvons espérer retrouver des représentations culturelles plus justes des animaux, détachées des stéréotypes et de toute idéologie dominante.
Mots-clefs : représentations, viande, animal, dissonance cognitive, spécisme, carnisme, véganisme, publicité, médias, art.
Edited Books & Special Issues by Ophélie Véron
Vegan Geographies: Spaces Beyond Violence, Ethics Beyond Speciesism, 2022
Fourteen chapters from international geographers and cultural analysts, academic and otherwise, o... more Fourteen chapters from international geographers and cultural analysts, academic and otherwise, on veganism as a conceptual and physical space.
Veganism as an ethics and a practice has a recorded history dating back to Antiquity. Yet, it is only recently that researchers have begun the process of formalizing the study of veganism. Whereas occasional publications have recently emerged from sociology, history, philosophy, cultural studies, or critical animal studies, a comprehensive geographical analysis is missing. Until now. In fourteen chapters from a diverse group of scholars and living practitioners, Vegan Geographies looks across space and scale, exploring the appropriateness of vegan ethics among diverse social and cultural groups, and within the midst of broader neoliberal economic and political frameworks that seek to commodify and marketize the movement. Vegan Geographies fundamentally challenges outdated but still dominant human–nature dualisms that underpin widespread suffering and ecological degradation, providing practical and accessible pathways for people interested in challenging contemporary systems and working collectively toward less destructive worlds.
Books by Ophélie Véron
Book Chapters by Ophélie Véron
Vegan Geographies: Spaces Beyond Violence, Ethics Beyond Speciesism, 2022
Writing from a world where animal exploitation is on the verge of being totally abolished and whe... more Writing from a world where animal exploitation is on the verge of being totally abolished and where veganism is becoming the norm, in this chapter I trace the history of events that led to such an evolution. From climate change and zoonotic pandemics to autonomous politics, I explain how the world went meat-free, and what challenges still lie ahead in order to dismantle the legacy of speciesism. An attempt to provide a ray of hope and inspiration based on critical thought, this creative piece highlights the need for efforts towards animal liberation and towards environmental and social justice to be made outside the parameters of contemporary neoliberal, statist politics. Half measures and cosmetic changes won't help build a more socially just and environmentally sustainable society, I argue, only structural change will.
Vegan Geographies: Spaces Beyond Violence, Ethics Beyond Speciesism, 2022
Veganism as an ethics and a practice has a recorded history dating back to Antiquity. Yet, it is ... more Veganism as an ethics and a practice has a recorded history dating back to Antiquity. Yet, it is only recently that researchers have begun the process of formalizing the study of veganism. Whereas occasional publications have recently emerged from sociology, history, philosophy, cultural studies, or critical animal studies, a comprehensive geographical analysis is missing. Until now. In fourteen chapters from a diverse group of scholars and living practitioners, Vegan Geographies looks across space and scale, exploring the appropriateness of vegan ethics among diverse social and cultural groups, and within the midst of broader neoliberal economic and political frameworks that seek to commodify and marketize the movement. Vegan Geographies fundamentally challenges outdated but still dominant human–nature dualisms that underpin widespread suffering and ecological degradation, providing practical and accessible pathways for people interested in challenging contemporary systems and working collectively toward less destructive worlds.
Undoing Human Supremacy Anarchist: Political Ecology in the Face of Anthroparchy, 2021
Anarchism in its philosophy and practice rejects any form of domination or exploitation – that is... more Anarchism in its philosophy and practice rejects any form of domination or exploitation – that is, any system of archy. In contrast to other 'radical approaches', which artificially uncouple and/ or privilege particular forms of oppression and exploitation (e.g. class or gender), anarchist praxis embraces a radically intersectional approach toward social and environmental justice. Therefore it should be reasonable to assume that an intersectional anarchist praxis would actively recognise and challenge two deeply inter-locking forms of oppression, namely patriarchy (the institutionalised domination of men over women) and anthroparchy (the human exploitation of other species). However, and despite the emergence of anarcha-feminism and veganarchism, these violent systems of archy continue to be either overlooked, or have their validity contested, by mainstream anarchists.
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.
This paper seeks to examine issues of power, transgression and resistance in a post-socialist, 'd... more This paper seeks to examine issues of power, transgression and resistance in a post-socialist, 'divided' city. Based on fieldwork in Skopje, Macedonia, it analyses how neoliberal governments may use nation branding in urban space to respond to economic globalisation and assert their power, and how, in turn, the city may be a place of resistance where power is contested and public space re-appropriated. Comparing the city as it is conceived by its elites to the city as it is lived by urban inhabitants, the paper examines cases of transgression to hegemonic representations. It explores how individual practices may contest, subvert or disrupt fixed scenarios, and considers how counter-cultural spaces relate to social, ethnic and nationalist divisions, by showing the limits of neoliberal nationalism in urban space.
This paper seeks to examine the new development of veganism in France and argues that vegan food ... more This paper seeks to examine the new development of veganism in France and argues that vegan food blogs have played a major role in changing the way vegan food was commonly perceived in the country. By revisiting traditional dishes, highlighting the culinary delights offered by vegan cuisine and presenting it as a healthy and delicious alternative to meat-based food, these blogs have increased awareness of veganism among people outside their usual readership, and have thus helped expand acceptance of veganism in French society. Although some fear that this popularity could weaken the radical impetus of veganism as a politics, this chapter highlights the effects it has had on the growing awareness of issues related to the welfare and rights of animals.
PhD Thesis by Ophélie Véron
This thesis explores the issue of urban divisions and attempts to shed some light on the role of ... more This thesis explores the issue of urban divisions and attempts to shed some light on the role of urban policies in the development and reinforcement of processes of social and spatial segregation. It also examines how these processes may affect the lived experience of inhabitants. Based on fieldwork in Skopje, Macedonia, this thesis critically questions orthodox histories of Skopje as a divided city and the role of urban governance in fostering the image of division, from the Ottoman city to the socialist city, and post-1991 redevelopment. It also explores how ideological and political dynamics and processes affect the lived experience of the city’s inhabitants and, how, in turn, the latter both take part in and resist the construction and division of the city.
This thesis makes several contributions. It first adds an original case study to the literature on urban divisions and draws attention to overlooked cities where processes of division may not be immediately obvious in the urban landscape, but which nonetheless exist. Second, it adds to an emerging line of research that seeks to find new ways to think about urban divisions and reflects on the use of static and dynamic concepts to describe urban processes. Instead of regarding divided cities as ontologically-given and focusing on a few cities elevated to the status of paradigmatic cases, it emphasises the processes that bring a city to division with the concept of 'dividing city'. It shows that the city as a lived environment may offer other narratives than that of division, in other words, that alternatives to the divided city do exist.
Book Reviews by Ophélie Véron
Society and Animals, 2022
Newspaper Articles by Ophélie Véron
Que peuvent bien avoir en commun le véganisme et l’anarchisme ? Une histoire, des principes, des ... more Que peuvent bien avoir en commun le véganisme et l’anarchisme ? Une histoire, des principes, des pratiques et un mot : le véganarchisme. Petite introduction à ce mouvement en plein essor qui refuse toutes les dominations.
Reports by Ophélie Véron
De nombreuses solutions sont proposées pour réduire les émissions de gaz à effet de serre des act... more De nombreuses solutions sont proposées pour réduire les émissions de gaz à effet de serre des activités humaines. L’énergie, les transports, et l’habitat sont au centre des discussions, mais l’agriculture et l’alimentation ne sont pas en reste, et on voit ainsi se développer de nombreux projets visant à réduire les émissions de gaz à effet de serre issues de nos assiettes.
Avec le présent rapport, l’Association végétarienne de France (AVF) souhaite faire le bilan sur l’impact climatique de l’élevage, ainsi que sur les effets de divers changements d’alimentation. Il s’agit ici de faire un point sur les chiffres issus des différents documents scientifiques et institutionnels, en explicitant notamment les divergences existantes, et d’en tirer les conclusions qui s’imposent en termes de mesures de transition.
Calls For Papers by Ophélie Véron
Abstract
Across many Minority World countries *veganism has risen in mainstream popularity in w... more Abstract
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.
Royal Geographical Society, 2019
The goal of the panel ‘Environmental and Ecological Justice: Anarchist Contributions and Perspect... more The goal of the panel ‘Environmental and Ecological Justice: Anarchist Contributions and Perspectives’ is to provide a space-time in which geographers (as well as those non-geographers interested in deepening the discussion of the spatial aspects of the problem) can meet in order to examine and debate the contributions that a specifically anarchist (or, more broadly speaking, left-libertarian) perspective can offer to illuminate the various aspects of the subject in a distinct and potent way.
The goal of this panel is to provide a space-time in which geographers as well as non-geographers... more The goal of this panel is to provide a space-time in which geographers as well as non-geographers interested in spatial issues can meet in order
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.
Uploads
Published papers by Ophélie Véron
Mots-clefs : représentations, viande, animal, dissonance cognitive, spécisme, carnisme, véganisme, publicité, médias, art.
Edited Books & Special Issues by Ophélie Véron
Veganism as an ethics and a practice has a recorded history dating back to Antiquity. Yet, it is only recently that researchers have begun the process of formalizing the study of veganism. Whereas occasional publications have recently emerged from sociology, history, philosophy, cultural studies, or critical animal studies, a comprehensive geographical analysis is missing. Until now. In fourteen chapters from a diverse group of scholars and living practitioners, Vegan Geographies looks across space and scale, exploring the appropriateness of vegan ethics among diverse social and cultural groups, and within the midst of broader neoliberal economic and political frameworks that seek to commodify and marketize the movement. Vegan Geographies fundamentally challenges outdated but still dominant human–nature dualisms that underpin widespread suffering and ecological degradation, providing practical and accessible pathways for people interested in challenging contemporary systems and working collectively toward less destructive worlds.
Books by Ophélie Véron
Book Chapters by Ophélie Véron
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.
PhD Thesis by Ophélie Véron
This thesis makes several contributions. It first adds an original case study to the literature on urban divisions and draws attention to overlooked cities where processes of division may not be immediately obvious in the urban landscape, but which nonetheless exist. Second, it adds to an emerging line of research that seeks to find new ways to think about urban divisions and reflects on the use of static and dynamic concepts to describe urban processes. Instead of regarding divided cities as ontologically-given and focusing on a few cities elevated to the status of paradigmatic cases, it emphasises the processes that bring a city to division with the concept of 'dividing city'. It shows that the city as a lived environment may offer other narratives than that of division, in other words, that alternatives to the divided city do exist.
Book Reviews by Ophélie Véron
Newspaper Articles by Ophélie Véron
Reports by Ophélie Véron
Avec le présent rapport, l’Association végétarienne de France (AVF) souhaite faire le bilan sur l’impact climatique de l’élevage, ainsi que sur les effets de divers changements d’alimentation. Il s’agit ici de faire un point sur les chiffres issus des différents documents scientifiques et institutionnels, en explicitant notamment les divergences existantes, et d’en tirer les conclusions qui s’imposent en termes de mesures de transition.
Calls For Papers by Ophélie Véron
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.
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.
Mots-clefs : représentations, viande, animal, dissonance cognitive, spécisme, carnisme, véganisme, publicité, médias, art.
Veganism as an ethics and a practice has a recorded history dating back to Antiquity. Yet, it is only recently that researchers have begun the process of formalizing the study of veganism. Whereas occasional publications have recently emerged from sociology, history, philosophy, cultural studies, or critical animal studies, a comprehensive geographical analysis is missing. Until now. In fourteen chapters from a diverse group of scholars and living practitioners, Vegan Geographies looks across space and scale, exploring the appropriateness of vegan ethics among diverse social and cultural groups, and within the midst of broader neoliberal economic and political frameworks that seek to commodify and marketize the movement. Vegan Geographies fundamentally challenges outdated but still dominant human–nature dualisms that underpin widespread suffering and ecological degradation, providing practical and accessible pathways for people interested in challenging contemporary systems and working collectively toward less destructive worlds.
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.
This thesis makes several contributions. It first adds an original case study to the literature on urban divisions and draws attention to overlooked cities where processes of division may not be immediately obvious in the urban landscape, but which nonetheless exist. Second, it adds to an emerging line of research that seeks to find new ways to think about urban divisions and reflects on the use of static and dynamic concepts to describe urban processes. Instead of regarding divided cities as ontologically-given and focusing on a few cities elevated to the status of paradigmatic cases, it emphasises the processes that bring a city to division with the concept of 'dividing city'. It shows that the city as a lived environment may offer other narratives than that of division, in other words, that alternatives to the divided city do exist.
Avec le présent rapport, l’Association végétarienne de France (AVF) souhaite faire le bilan sur l’impact climatique de l’élevage, ainsi que sur les effets de divers changements d’alimentation. Il s’agit ici de faire un point sur les chiffres issus des différents documents scientifiques et institutionnels, en explicitant notamment les divergences existantes, et d’en tirer les conclusions qui s’imposent en termes de mesures de transition.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.