CFP: 'Relational Approaches to Cities in Globalization'

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2018 American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting
New Orleans, USA
10-14 April 2018

Relational Approaches to Cities in Globalization

Organizers:
Jon Beaverstock, Bristol University
Ben Derudder, Ghent University
James Faulconbridge, Lancaster University
Michael Hoyler, Loughborough University

We will be organizing one or more paper sessions at next year’s AAG on ‘Relational approaches to cities in globalization’. The paper sessions will serve as a run-up to a panel session celebrating Peter Taylor’s seminal contributions to this field of research, most of which were developed in the context of the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) research network which Peter co-founded with Jon Beaverstock. The purpose of the sessions is to develop a timely overview of new theoretical, methodological and empirical developments in relational approaches to the study of cities in globalization.

Nods to the relational have become near-ubiquitous across the various different epistemological positions that investigate cities in globalization, ranging from quantitative world city network research to postcolonial approaches to cities in globalization. In these sessions, we aim to return to the basic question of what it means to conceptualize and do relational global urban research. We particularly invite contributions that critically interrogate the idea of the ‘relational’ in global urban studies. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

  • Conceptualizing ‘relational’ in global urban studies
  • Relational vs. comparative approaches
  • The role of different actors in making relational urban geographies
  • New ways of doing global relational urban research

Interested participants should send a title and an abstract of no more than 250 words following AAG guidelines to Ben Derudder (ben.derudder@UGent.be), Michael Hoyler (M.Hoyler@lboro.ac.uk), James Faulconbridge (j.faulconbridge@lancaster.ac.uk) and Jon Beaverstock (jonathan.beaverstock@bristol.ac.uk) by October 16th at the latest. Note that contributors will have to register for the conference and submit their abstract the regular way (i.e. through the AAG website: http://annualmeeting.aag.org/), after which they need to send the registration code (PIN) they receive.