Call for papers: PopGRG sessions at RGS-IBG AC 2014
The PopGRG are delighted to issue our call for papers for the annual conference of the RGS-IBG, for sessions sponsored by the research group. The conference will take place on Wednesday 27th August to Friday 29th August, at the RGS-IBG in London.
If you are interested in presenting a paper in one of these sessions, please email a paper abstract of around 200 words to the session convenor(s) listed underneath the session titles below. Abstracts must be with session convenors no later than Tuesday 4th February.
Specific session-related queries should be directed to the session convenor(s). Please feel free to email Catney, Gemma (G.Catney@liverpool.ac.uk) with more general queries regarding PopGRG sessions.
To see the list of sessions, click on the ‘more’ link below
2011 Census: A Wealth of Resources: Access, Delivery and Spatial Analysis
Co-sponsored with the UK Data Service Census Support (UKDS-CS)
Keywords: 2011 Census; access; population research; data
Session convenors: John Stillwell and Nik Lomax (School of Geography, University of Leeds): j.c.h.stillwell@leeds.ac.uk and n.m.lomax@leeds.ac.uk
The 2011 Census is an enormous resource for researchers in population studies and in social science more widely. It is estimated that there will be several tens of thousands of data and metadata files in the final collection of 2011 Census Aggregate Outputs (CAO) alone, each with distinct specifications, and that they will contain something of the order of five billion observation values; this excludes the boundary data sets, the interaction or flow data and the various cross-sectional and longitudinal micro data sets.
By the time of the RGS-IBG 2014 annual conference, the majority of these data sets will have been released by the census offices and this session has been conceived as a means of bringing together those who develop and maintain value added census services for the academic community and those population researchers using 2011 Census data for spatial analysis and/or policy formulation. We thus envisage the session being divided into two parts: the first reviewing different types of data available from 2011 and the means (user interfaces) through which users can access these data sets – with some consideration of differences between data from 2011 and from previous censuses. The second part will involve the presentations from researchers actively engaged in using 2011 Census data in different application areas of population geography or spatial demography. Papers which fall under both of these themes are also welcome. The aim are is to clarify what census data are out there, how they are accessed, what key issues do researchers need to be aware of and what sort of projects are population geographers undertaking with these data.
‘Changing Britain’: Findings from the UK Censuses
Session convenors: Darren Smith (Loughborough University) and Phil Rees (University of Leeds): D.P.Smith@lboro.ac.uk and p.h.rees@leeds.ac.uk
The first release of 2011 GB census data in 2013 sparked widespread attention from the national TV/print media and politicians about dramatic transformations to British society, such as a baby boom, ageing populations, and rising migrant communities. In this session, we seek papers that explore key demographic, social, economic, cultural and political makers of change in British society, and which use census data at a range of geographic resolutions, and / or over time, to more fully demonstrate how population patterns are reproduced and / or reconfigured by contemporary processes of change. Papers will consider the strengths and limitations of using census data to investigate the respective dimensions of British populations, in light of the possible withdrawal of the decennial GB Census.
Geographies of Education in the Age of Migration
Session convenors: Liz Mavroudi and Marco Antonsich (Loughborough University): M.Antonsich@lboro.ac.uk and E.Mavroudi@lboro.ac.uk
The increasing mobility of people impacts upon educational practices, spaces and curricula at different scales. This session will investigate the relationships between migration and education in terms of notions of national belonging, citizenship, attachment, and identity. We wish to discuss broader impacts of education and learning on migrant individuals, families and groups but also in relation to homeland/host country contexts and transnational/diasporic connections. Papers are welcomed on (but are not limited to) the following themes:
- Formal education and policies. E.g.:
- How have education policies changed as a result of migration? How have national curricula been changed in order to address the diversity of the student population?
- How have schools practically implemented national curricula – i.e., how do they negotiate general principles of national education with concrete contexts of diverse classrooms?
- Formal and informal spaces of education. E.g.:
- What role do education-related spaces play in negotiations of identity, belonging and citizenship? Do education-related spaces foster inclusion/exclusion?
- How do migrants and their children learn to potentially become new national citizens?
- Education and transnational migration/ diaspora. E.g.:
- How do educational practices and spaces cross borders? How do migrants and those in diaspora negotiate education in relation to their homelands? How do those in the homeland attempt to influence emigrants’ educational practices and learning?
- Conversely, how do migrants and those in diaspora engage with their homeland by creating educational, academic and skilled/highly skilled/professional networks aimed at stimulating change and development?
Diaspora Strategies by and beyond the State
Session convenors: Elaine Ho (National University of Singapore) and Nir Cohen (Bar Ilan University, Israel): elaine.ho@nus.edu.sg and nir.cohen@biu.ac.il
The magnitude and extent of diaspora engagement initiatives by migrant-sending states have surged in recent years, supported in part by international organizations that are attracted to the development potential it offers. Described as ‘diaspora strategies’, such state-led policies have been explained against the backdrop of neoliberal reforms, such as to capitalize upon migrant remittances, investments and human capital for homeland development projects. At the same time, there have been studies of long distance nationalism or mobilization by diaspora populations to assert claims over political or social developments in their homelands.
However, limited attention has been paid thus far to diaspora engagement actors other than the state and diaspora populations. The specific roles of these other actors in shaping the nature and different phases of mobilizing diaspora populations demand our critical investigation as well (e.g. formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation activities). Furthermore, how do these different groups interact with one another during diaspora engagement?
This session aims to begin filling this gap by drawing attention to the roles and activities played by both state and non-state actors in co-producing diaspora engagement. We are particularly interested in papers that critically examine the way public, private and civic stakeholders (including local, state and federal governments, universities, NGOs, migrant associations, and private firms) shape how diaspora populations are mobilized. We welcome empirical, theoretical and/or methodological contributions from a variety of geographical and historical contexts.
Possible approaches towards studying diaspora strategies by and beyond the state include addressing the role of:
- International governmental or non-governmental organizations
- Public-private partnerships
- Municipal administrative units as localizing agents
- Private sector actors that mobilize diaspora networks
- Universities and colleges as diaspora engagement partners
- Community-based migrant organizations
- Professional associations (including labor unions)
Abandonment and decline: ‘frontiers’ for new populations and opportunities for post-recession regeneration?
Session convenors: Chloe Kinton, Darren Smith and John Harrison (Loughborough University): C.Kinton2@lboro.ac.uk , D.P.Smith@lboro.ac.uk and J.Harrison4@lboro.ac.uk
While there are countless recent examples of ever-expanding populations within towns and cities (Rae 2013), there are also numerous enclaves of urban and rural places in which local populations are declining in marked ways, with concomitant social, cultural, economic, physical and political impacts (Daly and Kitchin, 2013). The emergence of these new geographies of urban abandonment, resulting for example in a patchwork of abandoned, vacant or underutilised properties, are having major and diverse consequences, not least for urban infrastructures and the built environment of many towns and cities (Goodman 2013). This trend is exemplified by the destudentification of university towns and cities (Kinton, 2013), whereby some former ‘student areas’ are now characterised by empty houses and high levels of voids due to a combination of factors.
Indeed, in the current period of the so-called global economic crisis and austerity driven restructuring of societies and economies, it is timely to consider the character and consequences of the wider abandonment and decline on cities, such as the prominence of ‘ghost estates’ and derelict streets in depressed coastal resorts. Certainly, there are a series of open questions relating to how and why processes of abandonment occur, alongside the utility of planning and managing this decline. It is the aim of this session to open up the concept of urban abandonment to critical scrutiny and facilitate debate on the future environment of towns and cities.
Papers are therefore welcomed that attempt to understand the contemporary geographies of urban abandonment, as well as more provocative think-pieces that endeavour to formulate a picture of urban futures and/or outline priorities for further research.
Potential topics/themes of interest might include, but are not limited to:
• Theoretical interventions and/or empirical studies which seek to advance new ways of conceptualising urban abandonment and decline;
• Papers which seek to connect new geographies of urban abandonment to broader processes of political, economic and social change;
• Empirical accounts looking at urban abandonment and decline through the lens of inner-city housing/developments, mobility/migration, population/demographic change, gentrification and new-build regeneration, economic restructuring, deprivation/poverty, destudentification.
• Accounts which examine the new geographies of urban abandonment and decline;
• Perspectives on the planning challenges posed by urban abandonment and decline, and potential responses/solutions to it
Modelling for Policy
Session convenors: Adam Dennett (University College London), Alison Heppenstall (University of Leeds), Nick Malleson (University of Leeds), Dianna Smith (Queen Mary University of London): a.dennett@ucl.ac.uk , A.J.Heppenstall@leeds.ac.uk , N.Malleson06@leeds.ac.uk , d.smith@qmul.ac.uk
This session aims to bring together researchers to report on progress in diverse types of modelling that has direct impacts on a variety of policy domains. We encourage the submission of papers that present novel use of new or established methodologies using GIS or bespoke models. We are particularly interested in policy applications in the area of health, population dynamics, crime/security, urban planning and retail. We intend to represent the interdisciplinary nature of policy research and analysis with a focus on geographic tools and methods.
Papers may include, but are not limited to:
- Estimating and projecting populations and components of demographic change
- Understanding spatial patterns of crime and issues of security
- Models for decision support and urban sustainability
- Modelling different patterns of individual behaviour
- Spatial modelling/estimating disease prevalence in small areas
- Modelling the impact of policy change on retail networks
- New methodological advances, in particular for individual-based modelling techniques
Migration and connected lifecourses
Session convenors: Nissa Finney (University of Manchester) and Naomi Tyrrell (Plymouth University): Nissa.Finney@manchester.ac.uk and Naomi.Tyrrell@plymouth.ac.uk
Lifecourse theories have been developed to understand migration for several decades but particularly so in the last five years (e.g. Wingens 2011). The importance of stage in life and lifecourse events for migration (international and internal) has been demonstrated. However, little research has considered migration experience across the lifecourse, tending instead (for theoretical and methodological reasons) to focus on particular life stages. Thus, little is known about the links between childhood and later life migration. This session aims to ignite this discussion and to generate direction for a research agenda.
Extant literature has considered the return migration of older people to their earlier home places; the movement of the children of first generation migrants to their parents’ former homes; and the connections between type of neighbourhood in childhood and desired neighbourhood later in life (e.g. van Ham 2013, Stockdale et al. 2013). This session might also ask about the consequences of early life residential mobility (or immobility) for family connections, relationships, employment or educational opportunities or outcomes. This would raise questions of political relevance, such as: whether childhood residential mobility is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ for which children, in what ways, in what circumstances and what places. The session might also consider whether a connected lifecourse perspective is an approach that can be applied to both international and internal migration, bridging the traditional empirical and theoretical divides.
We welcome theoretical, empirical and methodological papers; and qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods.
Geographies of Youth Mobility
Session convenor: Laura Prazeres, Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London: Laura.Prazeres.2011@live.rhul.ac.uk
Young people make up the world’s most mobile group (UNDESA, 2011). Their movement across space is dynamic, contested, socially and politically charged and fraught with meaning, desires and challenges. Youth mobility has recently emerged at the fore of international attention. The forthcoming UN World Youth Report focuses on the theme of the 2013 International Youth Day (IYD) on ‘Youth Migration’. With the IYD celebrated annually on August 12th, this RGS session is particularly fitting and timely with the burgeoning interest in youth mobility. Buliung et al. (2012) have highlighted the need for geographers to engage with, and contribute to, research on youth mobility from diverse theoretical and methodological angles. Youth mobility is a highly relevant and vibrant area of research that stands to contribute to the discipline of geography as well as to wider interdisciplinary debates. This session seeks to gather a breadth of topics under the overarching theme of youth mobility. Aiming to build on existing and emerging scholarship, this session seeks to generate critical and innovative discussions and debates to guide future work. A broad definition of ‘youth’ is taken into consideration to encompass students, migrants, travellers, expatriates, global nomads, third culture kids (TCK) and others.
This session invites abstracts that deal with various facets and themes of youth mobility. These include (but not limited to):
– Urban-rural youth migration
– Educational travel
– Study and volunteer abroad
– Tourism and voluntourism
– International and intra-national student mobility
– Young backpackers and travellers
– Transnational perspectives
– Flows between the Global South and Global North
– Young expatriates and workers
– Mobility and belonging
– Sense of place and ‘home’
– Journeys for self-discovery and personal development
– Global and national identities and citizenship
– Cosmopolitanism
– Motivations for mobility and migration
– Memory and affect
– Everyday life
– Transportation and commuting
– Mobile ethnography and methodologies