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Call for Papers - AAG 2010 - Socially Just Sustainability

On Demanding a Politics and Practice of Socially Just Sustainable Development

Organizers: Hamil Pearsall (Temple University), Joe Pierce (Clark University) and Rob Krueger (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
Sponsorship: Urban Geography Specialty Group, Political Geography Specialty Group

For nearly 20 years local and regional governments have, for better or worse, increasingly positioned principles of sustainability in some aspects of their planning and development practices. These often include: pocket parks, indicator projects, green architecture, carbon reduction plans, open space preservation, transit-oriented development and brownfield reclamation. Overarching development concepts, such as: "New Urbanism," "Smart Growth," "Compact Urban Development," and "Urban Sustainability," have thus emerged as operational definitions with much fanfare from architects, planners, policy makers and political elites.

More recently, critics of sustainability efforts have pointedly argued that underlying social relations constrain the reach of sustainable improvements or represent a new culture of consumerism based on principles of ecological modernization. For instance, the environmental justice literature demonstrates how "uneven development" plagues the distribution of environmental costs and benefits. In a similar vein, political economy approaches show how it now makes economic sense (i.e., the conditions for capitalist accumulation support this logic) for cities and regions to play the role of steward with regard to the ecological integrity of a place while discounting the disparate social impacts of their activities. Still others argue that sustainability represents a post-political condition, whereby debates over a "just" society are undermined by a tacit consensus.

While the concepts of social justice and sustainability have been wedded diagrammatically, analytically and in practice, social justice has maintained an ancillary position in many analyses. Issues of social justice are indeed recognized, but are often viewed as an expected outcome of the system (rising tides raise all ships?), and thus not addressed directly. In practice, results have been often been disastrous for those lacking political power.

This session seeks an analytical intervention into the social "injustice of sustainability." We seek to envision a "neo-sustainability" paradigm and politics that positions social justice at the core of sustainability analysis and action. We invite papers that fit into these themes:

• Conceptual Interventions: The concepts of spatial justice, environmental justice, the post-political, organic regeneration, vulnerability and adaptive capacity/resilience among others would be appropriate.
• Methodological Interventions: Are we missing opportunities to employ interdisciplinary approaches or multiple methodologies to these questions?
• Case studies: In-depth case studies that show how collective political action transgresses politics and outcomes as usual. Case studies should have a strong conceptual framework to guide their analysis.

Please submit queries and abstracts (250 words) to Hamil Pearsall (Hamil.Pearsall@temple.edu), Joe Pierce (jpierce@clarku.edu) or Rob Krueger (Krueger@wpi.edu). Abstracts will be accepted until October 10. Final decisions will be announced by October 15.

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Call for Papers - AAG 2010 - Student Paper Competition

The Applied Geography Specialty Group is sponsoring a student paper competition this year. The paper and its research should utilize geographic methods, techniques, or analysis applied in service to a real world client, while the subject-matter focus of the paper is open. One prize ($500) will be awarded to the best paper. The student papers can range from a class project or term paper to one that has been given at any professional meeting in the 12 months preceding (and including) the Washington, DC AAG conference.

Participants are required to register and present in the AGSG Interactive Short Paper (ISP) Student Session at the Apr

il 14-18, 2010 AAG Annual Meeting.

New this year, the Applied Geography Conference Board will award the student paper winner with a free conference registration to attend the 33rd Annual Applied Geography Conference in October, 2010 and an invitation to submit the winning paper for review and possible publishing in the Annals from that conference.

The deadline for the submission of abstracts for the Applied Geography Specialty Group student paper competition is: October 28, 2009. To submit an abstract to the AGSG you must first register for the meeting. Registration for the 2010 meeting is now open. Please review AAG guidelines for abstract submission.

Send an abstract of no more than 250 words as an email attachment and your personal identification number (received from the AAG after applying online at www.aag.org), along with a 100 word maximum statement identifying the applied geography components of their paper to Dr. Dawna Cerney at dlcerney@ysu.edu.

Written papers (8,000 word maximum) are due on March 1, 2010. The prize will be awarded based on the written papers and not on the presentations, and the winner will be announced at the conclusion of the interactive session. If any participants would like informal feedback on their presentation, please advise Dr. Cerney in advance.

Both Master's and Ph.D. students are welcome in the competition. One prize will be awarded in the amount of $500. All authors will be recognized for their participation.

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Call for Submissions - AAG 2010 - Class Exercise Award Competition

The Applied Geography Specialty Group (AGSG) announces a new award competition for development of innovative Applied Geography class exercises. We invite both faculty members and graduate students who are AAG members to submit an innovative class exercise designed for undergraduate classes on an applied geography topic with either a fictional or real-world client specified in the exercise. The subject matter topic of the exercise is open. Any data used in the exercise should be freely available on the internet OR be available for posting on the Applied Geography Specialty group website. The exercise can be single or multi-person authored. One prize ($500) will be awarded for the best exercise. The winner and any honourable mentions will be invited to participate in an applied geography panel session to be held at the April 14-18, 2010 Annual Meeting of the AAG in Washington, D.C.

Submissions should consist of the following:

1. Abstract of 250 words;
2. Exercise handout to student;
3. Narrative describing the intent of the exercise (not more than 3000 words) including: purpose statement; learning objectives; and, expected student engagement time;
4. Example of a completed student assignment (either actual student submission or instructor derived example); and,
5. Powerpoint presentation describing the exercise (no more than 5 to 10 slides).

The evaluation panel will be assessing submitted exercises with respect to their relevance to applied geography practice and to the degree that they specify a practical lesson in delivering geographic services to fictional or real-world client. Additional evaluation criteria include: clarity of instructions, engaging writing, and description of outcomes.

Please monitor the AGSG website (http://agsg.binghamton.edu/) for additional information on the competition. So that we can better prepare for a fair submission review process, please advise the competition coordinator as soon as possible if you are considering submitting a package. Please submit any questions to the competition coordinator prior to 1 December 2009. Send your submissions as email attachments to the competition coordinator, Edwin Butterworth at email: edbutterworth@yahoo.com

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS

The deadline for final submission of all materials for assessment by the evaluation panel is 18 December 2009. The author(s) of the winning submission will be contacted on or before 29 January 2010.

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Special Extended Program - AAG 2010 - Geography of Opium Poppy

Allison Brown is putting together a special extended program or 5 of 6 session on the topic of opium poppy for AAG 2010. The program will be sponsored by several Specialty Groups and follow five general themes:

• Poppy and geotechnologies (GIS, remote sensing, crop prediction).
• Poppy and conflict (Afghanistan, Asia, the Americas, funding for terrorism and insurgency, security and poppy cultivation)
• Poppy, farming systems and rural livelihoods (legal, illegal, drug, food, industrial crop)
• Poppy and business (industry, agribusiness, illegal drugs, the 19 legal poppy-growing countries, the dozen or so countries where illegal poppy is found )
• Poppy and culture (kitchen, garden, art, perfume)

Within those general themes there are many fascinating possibilities to explore. I would like to include papers, posters and films that examine poppy "The good evil" and the ways that poppy is intertwined in our lives and the lives of countless rural people of the world.

Papers with some type of spatial analysis with maps and of an applied nature will be considered for publication in International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research (IJAGR). If enough papers are received, a special edition of IJAGR is possible. I am also talking to the editors of other geographic journals about organizing a special topics issue.

Please contact Allison Brown (opiumpoppyAAG2010@gmail.com) for more information. Also see the web site (opiumpoppy2009.net) to see this year's horticulture of poppy conference being held in mid-September.

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Call for Papers / Poster Sessions - AAG 2010

The AAG invites you to begin making plans to attend the 2010 AAG Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, for the very latest in research, policy, and applications in geography, sustainability, and GIScience. The conference will be held April 14Ð18, 2010, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.

In addition to research and scholarly presentations, the 2010 meeting also will feature opportunities for interactions with senior government leaders on pressing issues such as Climate Change, and will include keynote speakers (including Jane Goodall) from prominent nonprofit groups and influential international organizations located in the nationÕs capital. The District of Columbia is home to 174 foreign embassies, many important NGOs, and numerous universities.

The program will also include a large "Jobs in Geography" career center, an international networking reception, exhibits showcasing the latest scholarly publications and advanced geographic technologies, and the latest employment opportunities. Many field trips will also explore the rich cultural and physical geography of Washington and the surrounding region.

To register for the meeting or submit a paper, visit www.aag.org/annualmeeting. The Call for Papers for the AAG Annual Meeting is included online at the above url, and in recent issues of the AAG Newsletter. The deadline for submission of abstracts for paper or poster sessions is October 28, 2009, and the AAG is now accepting abstracts online.