PACSA invites papers for its 5th Bi-annual meeting, “Im/mobilities: Products and generators of conflict,” 2-4 September 2015, Frankfurt. Deadline for abstracts: 15 April.
The conference is organised in collaboration with the Peace Research Institute of Frankfurt and Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Goethe-University Frankfurt.
THE CALL FOR PAPERS
Im/mobility is one of the key concepts in contemporary anthropological theorizing. We are interested in exploring phenomena of im/mobility within the context of peace, violence and conflict.
Mugunga I and II camps of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) / United Nations, used under CC license
Ethnographic research is particularly prone to further insight into the intricacies of im/mobility dynamics. The world is increasingly defined by, and realized in, the movement and circulation of people, goods and ideas across and within different spatial scales.
However, the same processes that promote movement and mobility also produce the contrary, namely, immobility, exclusion and disconnection. As changes in access to mobility dramatically affect multiple aspects of life, looking at im/mobility is a promising point of departure to the study of social change.
In this PACSA meeting we want to explore, how im/mobilities are central to constellations of power, the creation of identities and the everyday with a focus on the way these processes work within situations of conflict and peace.
Im/mobilities can be products and generators of conflicts but they can also be forces in peace advocacy and the facilitation of cross-border interventions. Both can result in gains and losses of power, identity and other sorts of capital. For this upcoming PACSA meeting we encourage reflections on the various types of im/mobility and how they are related to conflict and peace.
Im/mobility in our understanding not only implies movement across space or time, but also social mobility.
Contributions may include but are not limited to the following themes and connected topics:
– Conflict and peace processes caused by international, trans-border and state-internal migration and vice versa.
– Conflict and transformative powers resulting out of the circulation of local, national and international norms, concepts and models and their translation and adaptation.
– Im/mobilities produced by conflicts, including refugees, the mobilization of fighters or peace forces.
– Social memories shaped and transformed by conflictual im/mobilities.
– The im/mobility of private security and non-state actors in war and peace.
– The role of activism, social movements and cross-border interventions of activists in understanding im/mobilities in peace and conflict
Between mobility and immobility / Obregón, Flickr, used under CC license
Contributions are ideally based on theoretical reflections and empirical data. Please send your abstract (max. 300 words) by 15 April 2015 the latest to pacsafrankfurt@gmail.com. By the end of May the organizing committee will send out acceptance emails.
Registration fee will be 80 Euro, which includes a conference dinner. We can offer limited funds to subsidize accommodation or travel to EASA members with no or little other funding. More information on this follows in a later stage on www.pacsa-web.eu.