Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics (CAPPE)
4th Annual International, Interdisciplinary conference

The Politics of Space and Place  

Wednesday 16 September - Friday 18th September 2009 

 

Keynote speaker: Ilan Pappe, University of Exeter, UK 

Accompanying exhibition by Madeleine Strindberg, University of Brighton

In a world where inequality and poverty are growing remorselessly, where you are, and where you happen to have been born, continue to determine, how, and in indeed whether, you live. From the urbanization of the human species and the burgeoning of slums to the rise of the modern gated community; from ʻFortress Europeʼ and the Israeli ʻsecurity wallʼ to land reform in South Africa; questions of space and place are central to some of today's most bitterly contested political issues. Questions addressed by this conference included but were not limited to:

· What might an analysis of politics which focuses on the operation of power through space and place, and on the spatial structuring of inequality, tell us about the world we make for ourselves and others?

· How is power structured and brought to bear on people through space and place?

· How does power operate locally, nationally and globally and in both its soft and hard forms?

· How does it operate through urban planning, architecture, housing policy, immigration policy and national borders?

· How does it work to discipline and exclude some, while insulating others from the excesses of inequality and degradation?

· How are space and place utilised as a means of dividing people into 'us' and 'them'?

· How and in whose interests do these divisions function as they pit against each other not only people who live in different parts of the world but also those who live just a few metres apart?

· What might an analysis of politics through questions of space and place indicate about how power, injustice and inequality could be better understood and more effectively contested?

An edited collection of a selection of papers form this conference has been published: Chiara Certomà, Nicola Clewer and Doug Elsey (eds.) The Politics of Space and Place, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012.