Call for papers
Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Tampa (Florida), April 8-12, 2014

Rethinking topology
Iulian Barba Lata (Wageningen University) and Claudio Minca (Wageningen University)

Twisted, stretched and bended, the ‘topological’ has already proved its potential to override other fashionable metaphors in recent geographical conceptualizations of space. Relying on the foundations of the relational turn and, to a more limited extent, on the direct engagements with its mathematical roots, the topological trope has gained center-stage in a relatively short period of time in the discipline, somehow stimulating new geographical imaginations but also some controversy. In this session we would like to address some of the key issues at the core of these new imaginations. Among these we find questions related to the methodological and analytical potential of topology in the geographical practice, as well as questions of consistency with the complex genealogies of the topological (approach), including its relationship with philosophy and mathematics. In order to address some of these challenges, this session welcomes both theoretical and empirical contributions exploring different aspects of geographical work connected to the spectrum of ‘topological thinking’.

We thus warmly invite the submission of both theoretical and empirical papers reflecting on the potential and limitations of topological thinking in geographical practice. Potential contributions may include but are not limited to the following questions:
– the interplay between ‘the topographical’ and ‘the topological’
– the analytical/methodological potential of topology in geography and beyond
– the genealogies of topology and their interpretation in geography
– the role of mathematics in the geographical conceptualizations of space
– topos, topology, place and the cartographic reason

Organizers:

Iulian Barba Lata, Cultural Geography Department, Wageningen University, e-mail: iulian.barbalata@wur.nl
Claudio Minca, Cultural Geography Department, Wageningen University, e-mail: claudio.minca@wur.nl

Deadlines:

Potential session participants should submit their abstracts to the organizers by November 15th.

November 15th: Deadline submission abstracts to organizers
November 20th: Organizers submit session to the AAG and notify the speakers
December 3rd: Deadline submission abstracts to the AAG