Denis Cosgrove 1948-2008

It is with tremendous sadness that we hear of Denis' passing. Indelibly associated with the revivification of the idea of 'landscape' in geography, his work also presaged more recent engagements with art and performance. As such, his contributions to cultural geography are inestimable. The Reading Weekend will provide one opportunity to reflect on his multiple contributions (see below): there will no doubt be others to come. Our thoughts are with his friends and family.

Social and Cultural Geography Research Group (RGS-IBG) Reading Weekend

23-25th May 2008, Hebden Bridge

We would like to invite you to a reading weekend hosted by the Social and Cultural Geography Research Group (RGS-IBG) from 23-25th May 2008 (Fri-Sun). The event will take place in Hebden House, located in Hebden Bridge (Yorkshire). Set in stunning countryside, the retreat will provide an opportunity for participants to explore sub-disciplinary themes and concerns in an informal atmosphere.

During the weekend, we will address the following themes:

* Denis Cosgrove (1948-2008) has had a tremendous influence on the evolution of cultural geography. We will consider his contributions and the way new research trajectories are emerging in cultural geography, including recent geographical attention to both art and nature/culture.
* It has been suggested that a new mobilities paradigm is emerging within the social sciences (Sheller and Urry, 2006). We will critically examine this proposition with reference to social and cultural geography research on forms of human mobilities, and on science and technology. We will further develop our discussions through a walking activity in the surrounding countryside landscape.
* We will also address the provocative question of 'where is the "social" in social and cultural geography after the cultural turn?' through selected readings. Our discussions will consider recent empirical, theoretical and methodological inquiries on social difference, the human/non-human ‘Other’ and socio-spatial justice – engaging particularly with interventions championing hybridity, post-identity, anti-foundationalist and/or relationality perspectives.

This reading weekend will allow participants to situate their research agendas in broader debates within social and cultural geography, possibly encounter 'accidental' intellectual discoveries, socialise with researchers from other institutions, and share personal enthusiasms and frustrations about being a social and cultural geographer.

Estimated costs for weekend accommodation, food and activities would be £106 (inc. VAT) per participant. A number of postgraduate subsidies are available for those without other means of funding. The deadline for registration is 30 April 2008. Please contact Kezia Barker (k.m.barker@soton.ac.uk) or Elaine Ho (elaine.ho@rhul.ac.uk) for booking and further information.

Please circulate this announcement widely. Thank you.

RGS-IBG SCGRG sessions 2008

Planned sessions for RGS-IBG 2008

Migration and Everyday Matters: Sociality and Materiality - Madeleine Dobson and Elaine Ho(Geography, RHUL). This session will focus on the micro-scale actions and experiences that matter in producing the daily social lives and identities of migrants. Co-sponsorship with the population geography research group.

Where species meet and mingle: remaking and tracing biogeographies - Gail Davies (Geography,UCL); Jamie Lorimer (OUCE). The session seeks to contribute to conceptual developments around geophilosophy, cosmopolitan natures and companion animals, as well as present high quality empirical research on the sites and zones where species meet, for example, in relation to biosecurity, nature conservation, biotechnology and chimeras. Proposed co-sponsorship with BRG, RGRG and HPGRG.

Photographs Matter - Jacob Bull, University of Exeter; Andrew Church, Geography, Brighton. This session looks to revisit stills photography to critically engage with images as a mechanism for understanding what matters in the world. Co-sponsorship Geography of Leisure and Tourism Group and the PyGyWG.

Geographies of social enterprise - Dr Mordechai (Muki) Haklay (UCL) Sarah-Anne Muñoz (University of the Highlands and Islands Millennium Institute). Exploring the geographies and social theoretical perspectives on social enterprise. Co-sponsorship with GIS research group.

Matters of Interdisciplinarity: Archaeology meets Geography – Divya P. Tolia-Kelly (Durham, Geography), Rob Witcher (Durham Archaeology),Richard Hingley (Durham Archaeology). This session aims to bring together current interdisciplinary research which bridges the disciplines of Archaeology and Geography. Co-sponsorship HGRG.

Non-Representational Geographies - Ben Anderson(Durham), JD Dewsbury (University of Bristol),Paul Harrison (University of Durham), Derek McCormack (University of Oxford), and John Wylie(University of Exeter). A session focusing on postgraduate research on non-representational geographies. Co-sponsorship HPGRG.

The promise and problematic of Technology:(Re)thinking bodies, spaces and times - James Ashand Sam Kinsley, University of Bristol. This paper session offers a forum for critical discussion and theorisation of technology. Co-sponsorship HPGRG.

Event Space Ben Anderson - J.D. Dewsbury, Derek McCormack. Theories of the event are becoming increasingly important and visible within the social sciences and humanities. At the same time, different kinds of events are becoming the focus of a range of political techniques and technologies. This session provides a forum within which geographers and others can think through some of the complexities and potentials of this concept. Co-sponsorship PolGRG.

Fit cities: bodies, movement, and practices of fitness and sport in the contemporary city Dr Alan Latham, Geography, UCL; Clare Herrick, Geography, King's College London. This group of sessions aims to start new conversations on a topic at once highly prescient and, at the same time, neglected by geographers: the place of fitness and sport in the contemporary city Co-sponsorship UGRG.

A message from the Chair

On taking over the reins from Mike Crang as Chair of the Social and Cultural Geography Group some 18 months ago now, I was struck by a number of things. The first was that the current Committee is incredibly youthful (to the extent that, at the age of 37, I feel positively ancient). Youth in itself is, of course, no good thing, but when combined with energy, vitality, and no shortage of good ideas, it fosters a sense of vibrancy that, I am sure, will transmit through all the group’s activities. The fact that all those on the Committee are working at the cutting edge of the sub-discipline is particularly noteworthy, and I am such that their collective enthusiasm for the new and exciting will give the group a sense of purpose and direction over the next three years

A second thing that occurred to me is that this is a particularly good moment at which to be involved in social and cultural geography. Far be it from me to suggest there have been moments when social and cultural geography has been less-than-vital, but perhaps one can identify times over the last 15-20 years when the sub-discipline has been more preoccupied with its own self identity, its ‘cultural turn’ and theoretical development rather than addressing the pressing social issues of our times. Now, I am not one of those geographers who insists that geography should always be ‘relevant’ or served up in neatly-digestible packages that can be consumed by policy-makers. There is much to be said for the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake, and a bit of navel-gazing is always useful if we are to avoid disciplinary atrophy. But what I find impressive about the sub-discipline at the moment is the way that theoretical and philosophical debate is being developed via engagement with issues that currently preoccupy politicians and media in the UK; body-shape, multiculturalism, anti-sociality, ethical consumption, the housing shortage, food safety, religious persecution, surveillance and so on, At the same time, social and cultural geographers are recognised to be pushing the envelope of geographical understanding by developing ideas about the nature of the non-representational, the affective, the material and the emotive. As such, the sub-discipline remains at the forefront of British geography both in terms of its engagement with the vital issues of the day as well as its predilection to push the frontiers of geographical knowledge.

Given the current rude health of Social and Cultural Geography (and one can also point to the success of the journal of the same name), I am confident in predicting that in the next three years the Group will consolidate its reputation via more successful sessions at the annual RGS-IBG conference, dedicated conferences and meetings (such as the ongoing Materialities workshop meetings, see this newsletter) and through the (re)establishment of the newsletter and website. Of course, I must end by reminding all those who are reading this that the group exists to serve the wider community of social and cultural geographers, and that if anyone has any suggestions as to how the group might further cultivate excellence in social and cultural geography, please contact me with your ideas.

Second Materialities workshop, Durham, 19th December

The second in the SCGRG workshop series on materialities was focused on vocabularies of materiality, exploring the relations between a set of concepts - excess/liveliness, agency/capacity, absence/presence, multiplicity/singularity. Held at Durham University, and kindly cos-sponsored by Social/Spatial Theory and Lived and Material Cultures Research Clusters, Department of Geography, Durham University.

The morning kicked off with three excellent position papers on materialites. The first, from Steve Hinchcliffe, explored the way a garden project in Birmingham was assembled through different materialities, producing different, co-existing and overlapping garden spaces. The second paper was from J D Dewsbury, who explored the movement from flesh to meaning, offering some post-Deleuzian ideas about immanence and presence. Finally, Gail Davies offered a thought-provoking exploration of the different materialities and capacities of captive experimental mice, with a particular focus on the way that animal/cultural divides are worked through in debates surrounding the science of laboratory testing. These papers were followed-up with some lively and wide ranging discussion touching on issues of biopolitics, capacity and life itself (among others).

In the afternoon, group discussions were held in which objects were taken as the basis for exploring questions of how we can deal with issues of materiality, with questions relating to the materiality of visual culture, heritage, hybridity, landscape raised in a conducive environment. The workshop finished with contributions from discussants Mike Crang, Paul Harrison and Ian Cook, and a general consensus that the event had been useful and productive as well as being throughly sociable. We look forward to the next, and final, Materialities workshop in 2008!

Thanks to Rachel Colls and Ben Anderson for convening and running so efficiently, and to Durham University for hosting the event

Event, London, 22nd Nov

An event that focuses on some of the social dimensions of urban change which might be of interest to members of the research group.

IBG-RGS Social and Cultural Geography Research Group ‘Material

Co-Sponsored by Social/Spatial Theory and Lived and Material Cultures
Research Clusters, Department of Geography, Durham University.
Organised by: Ben Anderson and Rachel Colls (with Ian Cook and Jo Maddern)

Speakers:
Steve Hinchliffe: Working with multiples.
Gail Davies: Captivation and captivity: reflects on the distribution of
animal agency and capacity in the laboratory
J-D Dewsbury: Immaterially There: Exposure, finitude, immanence
Panelists: Paul Harrison, Ian Cook, Jo Maddern, Mike Crang, Divya Tolia-
Kelly (tbc).
When/Where: Department of Geography, Durham. Wednesday 19th December 2007
(10.00 - 5.00)
Cost: Free
(PLEASE CONTACT BEN ANDERSON ben.anderson@durham.ac.uk TO CONFIRM
ATTENDANCE AND DIETARY REQUIREMENTS)

The second workshop in the SCG Research Group workshop series focuses on
the theoretical-conceptual vocabularies that are emerging alongside the
diverse and sometime conflicting materialisms that populate contemporary
Social and Cultural Geography. Workshop one, held in Birmingham in
December 2006, asked what attending to matter/materiality offers or
promises Social and Cultural Geography and began to open up questions of
how materialisms differ in their epistemological and ontological
propositions, claims and commitments and their relation to types of
empirical work. The second workshop develops the focus on the relations
between different materialisms by engaging in depth with four problematics
that have, in different ways, been central to the renewed status matter or
the material have in understanding the social or cultural -
absence/presence, agency/capacity, excess/liveliness, and
multiplicity/singularity.

Through engagements with these four problematics the workshop aims to
contribute in two ways to current work in Social and Cultural Geography on
matter/materiality. First, to think through how materialist theoretical
and empirical work emerges from, relates to and intervenes in particular
problematics. Second, to think through wider questions of how conceptual-
theoretical vocabularies specific to matter/materiality can and do
function. The day will consist of a combination of invited presentation
from individuals working in relation to different traditions of
materialist thought, creative participatory work involving all the
workshop participants and a panel discussion.