Call for papers: International workshop on Contested Territories

How do we conceptualise and research Contested Territories in Latin America?

Date and location: May 20th and 21st, 2019 School of Geography University of Leeds

Keynote speakers: Sofia Zaragocin (Universidad San Francisco de Quito) and Sam Halvorsen (Queen Mary, London)

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS: 

How do we conceptualise and research Contested Territories in Latin America? (PDF , 629kb)

Contested Territories is a conceptual notion that aims at focusing on the production and appropriation of space and knowledge(s) in and through often overlapping cultural, economic, environmental, political and spatial conflicts occurring at multiple sites, places and scales. It has the scope to de-centre traditional Anglophone discourses about territory by including critical dialogues between different sets of understandings, world views and knowledges, especially those which are rooted in alternative political and social practices emerging in and from Latin America. Recent research about conflict and contestation in Latin America has taken up these discourses, developing novel epistemological, conceptual and methodological approaches that provide nuanced considerations and critiques to hegemonic ways of imagining disputed relations in space and society. Our workshop at the University of Leeds mirrors these challenges by posing the question how the conceptual notion of Contested Territories in Latin America can be further developed both theoretically and practically. We are seeking contributions that respond to and advance critical reflection on one or several of the following key questions:

• How can the notion of Contested Territories be better conceptualised and theoretically framed to encapsulate struggles and alternatives developed in communities across Latin America?
• What kind of knowledge, discourse and political practice is mobilised through the idea of Contested Territories?
• In which way do Contested Territories relate to radical urban thought and practices emerging in and from Latin America?
• What is the scope to think environmental exploitation and extractivism through the lens of Contested Territories?
• How do Contested Territories challenge traditional methodologies and epistemological approaches and encourage alternative ways to understand critical academic practice?
• What are the ethical implications and repercussions of putting the notion of Contested Territories into practice?