keywords: mobility/immobility, migration, place, scale, migration policies, migration strategies …

Call for Participation: We invite papers and special sessions addressing the contemporary politics of mobility/immobility at a variety of scales; how do such (re)configurations necessitate new theoretical conceptualizations?

In particular, we seek to inspire critical conversations around the theoretical implications of political (re)configurations of mobility/immobility of a wide range of actors – human and nonhuman, material and imagined – within and across territories. We are especially interested in papers examining the following questions.

• What are the elements of critical geographical approaches to mobility/immobility and how do these challenge contemporary debates?

• In what ways have critical geographers theorized and or distinguished between mobility and migration?

• What are the implications of spatial ontologies underpinning prevailing theoretical framings of mobility/immobility today?

• How new are contemporary formations of mobility/immobility? How might examinations of the colonial past inform analyses of the imperial present?

• In what ways has a focus on international migration masked particular forms and tendencies of mobility/immobility at local, regional or metropolitan intra-national scales?

• How have normative assumptions about sedentarism shaped discussions about immigration? Conversely, how have discussions around the right to migrate precluded the study of efforts to remain in place?

Format: The program will include individual paper presentations as well as alternative sessions including round table discussions, panel sessions, film screenings, and other ‘open’ forms.

Deadline: Please direct abstracts for paper sessions and proposals for alternative session formats to the coordinators by 1 December 2010.