Call for papers: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, London, 28-30 Aug 2019
“Europe and marginality: Decolonising policy on refugees and peripheries”
Session convenors: Cyril Blondel and Lucas Oesch, University of Luxembourg
Sponsored by the Developing Areas Research Group (DARG)
Decolonial perspectives “rethink modernity and its darker side –coloniality– on a global scale” (Tlostanova and Mignolo, 2009). This approach has been developed by Global South scholars questioning Northern/Western positionality in relation to the South/East of the world. Less often does this approach reflect on the North/West conception of its own internal otherness. This is precisely the object of this session, which aims to analyse the positioning of Europe towards both its spatial and social internal marginalisation using decolonial perspectives. More precisely, this session targets two symbolic figures of marginality: 1) refugees coming to Europe and; 2) the peripheries of Europe. We will focus on the policies directed at them (such as for instance the Common European Asylum System, the Enlargement and Neighbourhood policy, national policies, etc).
The goal of the session is not to evaluate these policies per se, but to discuss how cultural producers –researchers, journalists, political leaders (Wacquant, 2007)– analyse these issues. How is policy conceived, set in words, put in practice, discussed and researched? To what extent do European policies, and the ways these policies are framed and analysed, participate in the reproduction of the stereotypes on the marginalised people and territories? In particular, which figures of modernity (Tlostanova and Mignolo, 2012) are invoked in order to justify, validitate and legitimise European interventions? How do marginalised populations (refugees) and territories (peripheries) either accept, endure or contest these policies? Finally, are there any alternative voices emerging from the borderlands or marginalised people questioning these policies?
This session welcomes theoretical, epistemological and/or empirically based studies on topics ranging from, but not limited to:
- Critical assessment of (research on) refugee policy in Europe (such as the Common European Asylum System–CEAS, national policies, etc.) and/or on their implementation;
- Comparative or transversal research on refugee policies across Europe and the Global South, and especially on refugee reception;
- Critical assessment of (research on) the European Neighborhood and Enlargement Policy and/or on its implementation in concerned states;
- Critical discussion of (research on) the EU Cohesion Policy and of other European national policies towards “less developed” or peripheral regions and/or on their implementation.
Titles, abstracts of no more than 200 words, affiliations and emails of each author, should be sent to both Cyril Blondel (cyril.blondel@uni.lu) and Lucas Oesch (lucas.oesch@uni.lu) by 21 January 2019. We will notify the authors of selected papers by 28 January 2019