Geographies of Neoliberalism and Resistance After the Crisis: The State, Violence, and Labour
An Interdisciplinary Conference from the Departments of Geography and International Relations
University of Oxford
February 15, 2014 (submission deadline: September 1, 2013)
http://geographiesofresistance.wordpress.com/
Although the global financial crisis of 2008 exposed inherent instabilities and contradictions within the system of capitalist production and speculative finance, neoliberal ideology and policies have become more politically durable, economically ‘necessary’, and culturally hegemonic than ever. This academic conference engages with the deepening inequalities and structural violence caused by reinvigorated manifestations and re-articulated processes of neoliberalism (exclusion, domination, ‘accumulation by dispossession’). It seeks to widen the discussion of the present crisis to include analyses of (dis)organised resistance against and amid neoliberalism as well as perspectives of neoliberal crisis in the longue durée, including examinations of structural adjustment programmes, trade liberalisation and the privatisation of public assets since the 1980s in the ‘global South’. We are keen to explore the ways in which outsourcing, deregulation, dispossession, austerity, the workfare-prisonfare nexus, and the so-called ‘race to the bottom’ shape and inform labour organising, subaltern struggles, and resistance by the marginalised or excluded.
In this moment of post-industrial capitalist globalisation – in which we have witnessed an intensified and militarised global assault on resources, particularly in the global south, acute underemployment and unemployment, deregulation of employment conditions, and untenable ecological destruction – what is the role of the state? What are the interactions between the state, labour and social justice in different spaces of neoliberalism and resistances to it? This conference is an opportunity for graduate students engaged in rich theoretical and empirical work on social struggles and (dis)organised resistances against and amid neoliberalism to present their work, discuss with other scholars and imagine new futures.
Submissions
We invite submissions for paper presentations for Geographies of Neoliberalism and Resistance After the Crisis: The State, Violence, and Labour. We welcome proposals from students at all levels and in all areas of graduate study as well as early career postdocs.  Practitioners, NGOs, community groups and those from the policy-making community are encouraged to attend and participate.
We are committed to bring together scholars from diverse theoretical and empirical backgrounds (feminist studies, ethnic studies, critical geography, anthropology, scholar-activist traditions, political economy, development studies and international relations, etc.) and those from marginalised groups and institutions in the ‘global south’. Small travel grants are available.
We invite proposals for 15-minute presentations on themes and subjects including but not limited to:
- Privatisation, austerity, social movements and state power
- Contemporary empire and the global North:South divide
- Structural violence, militarism, paramilitaries or penal systems
- Intersectionality (gender, race, class) and social justice
- Informal or everyday resistances (‘weapons of the weak’)
- Wagelessness, lifetime unemployment or ‘surplus populations’ (‘bare life’)
- Unemployment, underemployment or the working poor
- In/formal workers’ resistance
- Immaterial and precariat worker organising and struggles
- Organising across borders, international solidarity in the global supply chain
- Rupturing an increasingly neoliberal academy
For submission: Please submit a 250-word abstract that includes your name, email address, current level of study, and affiliated institution or organisation. Submissions should be sent to: amber.murrey-ndewa@jesus.ox.ac.uk and adam.elliott-cooper@jesus.ox.ac.uk.  Include the words ‘conference abstract’ in subject line and please include your name on the cover letter only.
The deadline for submissions is 1 September 2013. Accepted presenters will receive notification by the middle of October. The conference will be held at the University of Oxford in February 2014.
Contact
For questions regarding conference details, please contact Amber or Adam atamber.murrey-ndewa@jesus.ox.ac.uk and adam.elliott-cooper@jesus.ox.ac.uk.