Call for papers: American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Washington D.C., 3-7 April, 2019
Session title: Space and social networks
Organizers: Steven Radil, University of Idaho; Olivier Walther, University of Florida
Session description: The spatial metaphor of the network along with its accompanying abstractions, such as flow, movement, and connectivity, have been central themes throughout the relational turn in human geography. However, to date networks in geography have been primarily explored either through actor-network theory or assemblage thinking, both of which embrace the network metaphor without specifically and formally interrogating networks themselves. The session seeks to problematize the treatment of networks in geography by exploring the largely underutilized literature on social networks as an alternative to other relational frameworks. Our session invites papers that explore the conceptual connections between core geographic concepts, such as place, distance, scale, territory, and power, and social networks. We are particularly interested in papers that open new directions for geographers that are interested in more than the metaphor of the network.
We envision a session that explores themes such as:
- Geographic approaches to social network analysis
- Networks of places and/or places as networks
- Spatial proximity and networks
- Cross-border networks
- Geographic variation in social networks
- Networks and scale
- Power and networks
We invite papers on these or related topics. Please send proposed titles and abstracts (250 words or less) and/or expressions of interest to both Steven Radil (sradil (at) uidaho.edu) and Olivier Walther (owalther (at) ufl.edu) no later than 31 October, 2018.
Olivier J. Walther 