(I have no involvement in this session, but it may be of interest to some readers -via PGSG)

Territoriality, political violence, and armed conflict

Call for Papers
Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting Seattle, WA, April 12-16, 2011
Last Day for Abstract Submission: October 13, 2010

Organizers: Andrew Linke, University of Colorado and Steven Radil, University of Illinois
Sponsored by the Political Geography Specialty Group and the Population Specialty Group

Territorial practices and narratives have come into renewed focus for geographers, peace scholars, and others involved in the study of political violence and armed conflict. Critical perspectives on territory and territoriality in political geography represent a promising conceptual framework that can draw attention to a variety of dynamic spatial practices of state and nonstate actors involved in violent and conflictual politics. For a given case, territorial practices may prevail in particular local spaces and places at specific moments in time (e.g., internecine bouts of violence) or manifest at broader scales (e.g., the framing of conflict in geopolitical discourses). The violence associated with contested and changing territorial designs by a diverse set of actors also have both overt and structural expressions. Research questions at the conjunction of territoriality and conflict may be based on territorial practices, strategies, tactics, or logics as well on the effects and aftermaths of such phenomena.

We encourage both qualitative and quantitative approaches to these issues and especially welcome empirically informed papers. Within the field of conflict research possible paper topics or themes may include, but are not limited to the following:

The role of territoriality in certain types of armed conflicts or political violence:
•    Forced population displacement (refugees/IDPs)
•    Electioneering and election violence
•    Interstate and/or civil war
•    Insurgencies and secessionist movements
•    Genocide and politicide

The production of territory and issues of:
•    Political economy and capital accumulation
•    Human-environment interactions and political ecology
•    Urban growth/decline
•    Power and the state

The spatial logics of territory pertaining to:
•    Sovereignty and security
•    Boundaries and borders
•    War crimes and international prosecutions
•    Terrorism and counter-terrorism
•    Deterritorializations and reterritorializations

Please send questions or abstracts (along with AAG PINs) to Steve Radil (sradil2@illinois.edu) or Andrew Linke (andrew.m.linke@colorado.edu).