International Conference of Anarchist Geographies and Geographers

1st International Conference of Anarchist Geographies and Geographers (ICAGG) – Geography, social change and antiauthoritarian practices

Reggio Emilia (Italy) – Centro Studi Cucine del Popolo, via Beethoven 78/e, 21-23 September 2017 – http://www.cucine.arealibertaria.org/

In the last years, an outstanding international and multilingual rediscovery of anarchist geographers has occurred at the level both of academics and of grassroots movements, drawing at the same time on a renewed interest for historical figures like Pyotr Kropotkin (1842-1921) and Elisée Reclus (1830-1905), and on the contributions of anarchist and antiauthoritarian ideas and practices to present-day struggles for social liberation worldwide. Special issues on anarchism and geography have been published by outstanding international journals, such as Antipode and ACME, leading to a flourishing of recent papers and books on these topics, including the organisation of successful sessions on anarchist geographies at the most widely attended geographic international conferences, such as the RGS-IBG, the AAG and the IGU, and for the international conferences of the Anarchist Studies Network. An international mailing list of anarchist geographies has also been inaugurated.

In the French-speaking circuits, a flourishing of grassroots initiatives and scholarly research has likewise taken place, leading to the foundation of a network of anarchist geographers (Réseau de géographes libertaires), which organises a number of periodic conferences and workshops in France and Switzerland, and contributes to two important annual festivals targeting the communication between scholars and wider publics in France. The first, Les Reclusiennes, takes place in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, the town of origin of Elisée Reclus, and the second, the Festival International de la Géographie in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, includes an anarchist-driven Forum of Critical Geographies. In South America, conferences and public courses on anarchist geographies are periodically organised, mainly in Brazil, by the networks of ReKro-Rede Reclus-Kropotkin de Estudos Libertários and the Anarchist Library Terra Livre, in collaboration with universities like UFRJ and USP. This list could continue, but it is just a sample of the rich and cosmopolite field in which the present-day debates in anarchist geographies are developing.

In light of the flourishing of anarchist geographies, we propose to organize an independent international conference, to be repeated in different countries every 2 or 3 years, to create a space for scholars and militants interested in these topics to enjoy a deep and fruitful exchange, and present an opportunity for those interested in anarchist geographies and rooted in broader social movements internationally to exchange ideas and make meaningful connections’. The choice of doing the first conference in an Italian small town like Reggio Emilia, where an established local anarchist movement already promoted events and publications on anarchist geographers is instrumental to the capital tasks of continuing a discussion among scholars and militants from different linguistic and cultural areas, and ensuring discussions involve grassroots movements and militant situations outside the academy.

This conference is not only for “card-carrying” anarchists. We welcome contributions dealing critically with anarchist geographies, histories, concepts, and interventions from grassroots movements, militants, and academics.

We invite especially, but not exclusively, critical anarchic geographical contributions on:

What are anarchist geographies and what are their tasks?

Which relations between anarchism and the most current critical/theoretical approaches used in geographical scholarship, i.e. postmodernism and post-structuralism, critical modernities, post-colonialism, more-than-human geographies, actor-network theory, non-representational theories, feminism, gender and queer theories, Marxism, critical race theory, intersectionality, qualitative and quantitative methods etc.?

Problematizing the relations between anarchism, rationalism, Enlightenment and modernity.

Anarchist geographies and counter-cartography. Maps and spaces of liberation.

Anarchist geographies and Indigenous movements.

Anarchism and the environment: mesology, natural philosophies and the idea of progress.

Anarchist geographies in practice: experiences from grassroots movements, local and international struggles, histories and geographies of resistance.

Anti-statist, post-statist and not statist geographies: anarchism and the idea of territory.

Anarchism, federalism and the concept of geographical scale: cities, regions and the global.

Anti-racist, anti-colonial and internationalist geographies.

Anarchist geographies, cosmopolitanism and multilingualism: which challenges to nationalist and parochial academies?

Anarchism and geographies of war and peace.

Anarchism and geographies of violence and non-violence.

Anarchist geographies of education and de-schooling.

Geographies of secularisation and free-thinking.

Anarchist geopolitics.

Historical geographies of anarchism.

Anarchist geographies and geographers in the history and philosophy of geography.

Historical figures of anarchist geographers and their interdisciplinary connections: histories of transnational anarchism, anarchist anthropologies, political theory and political philosophy.

To attend the conference, please send an abstract of maximum 250 words at the address scientific_committee@icagg.org by February 1st 2017. The preferred conference’s language is English: if you feel especially uncomfortable with presenting in this language, please write to the organisers in order to arrange some specific solution. Further information will be provided by e-mail and through the site www.icagg.org

Practical information: For information on travel, accommodation and any other practical query (need for childcare, dietary requirements etc.), please write to icagg2017@icagg.org