Geographies of power: combining place-making and governmentality

One-day seminar with lectures and PhD workshop, November 14^th, 2016

Time: 10.00-18.00

This one-day workshop will be divided into two morning lectures (open to the public) and an afternoon PhD workshop, and will be focused on the tight entanglement between geography and governmentality.

Through their everyday practices and relations, people continuously produce places and infuse them with meanings, emotions, memories, and ideologies. The making of places, far from being an isolated and static process, involves connections and mobilities between different participants, who all contribute to relationally shape places (Simonsen, 2003; Simonsen & Koefoed, 2012; Bærenholdt & Granås, 2008). Being inherently dynamic entities, places need to be framed within wider power geometries, which inevitably influence and condition the way places are created, perceived and performed. This workshop is therefore meant to investigate spatial practices as inherently politically-charged and – following a Foucauldian view of power as diffusive – as constructing different and often contrasting “truths” about a place’s identity.

Considering that place-making is enacted through a variety of actors and means, different examples of place-making practices and tools are welcomed to be discussed. Some of these might for example include nation- and region-building, but also urban planning and institutional spaces. By capturing the dynamic, messy and often contested processes that construct places (politics of place), the analytical lens of place-making is believed to provide a particularly good understanding of the multiple influences which frame them.

Some of the questions that might be addressed during the event are: how and by whom are places constructed within contexts of power? What kind of power relations (and asymmetries) are entangled within these places? What new/old representations and visions of a place do different actors contribute to produce? How is place used to structure and configure power?

In the attempt to cover different perspectives, the workshop will combine a focus on spatiality with one on power and, more specifically, governmentality.
The notion of governmentality was originally developed by French philosopher Michel Foucault (1979; 1991), to indicate a rethinking of the arts of governing, which Foucault later defined ‘in the broad sense of techniques and procedures for directing human behaviour. Government of children, government of souls and consciences, government of a household, of a state, or of oneself’ (1997:82).

Since Foucault, the concept of governmentality has attracted very different scholars, such as and in particular, Professor Mitchell Dean (2010; 2014) who has been deeply engaged with the work of Foucault and provided valuable contributions to the study of power.

By drawing on Foucault’s quote ‘space is fundamental in any exercise of power’ (1986:252), a part of the workshop will thus be dedicated to discussing the implications of Foucault’s work on questions of space and place. In this sense, thanks also to the insightful lectures of the two keynote speakers and their comments during the workshop, the contested practice of place-making, as well as both implicit and explicit connections with Foucault’s studies on governmentality will be investigated. The purpose that this workshop states is then ultimately double:

- to primarily engage students working on place-making, and encourage them to explore Foucault’s interest in and contribution to geography
- to help students already working with governmentality achieve a better understanding of place-making

Invited Speakers:

Mitchell Dean, Professor, Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School

Kirsten Simonsen, Professor, Department for Environmental, Social and Spatial Change, Roskilde University

Target group of the workshop: PhD students from different disciplines (geography; political science; humanities) who have an interest in place-making as a power-infused process, and who would like to use and be inspired by Foucault in their projects.    

Requirements:

Participants with paper: To be awarded with 2.3 ECTS, participants to the workshop are encouraged to send in advance a piece from their on-going work, in the form of a paper or an extract from a draft chapter (max. 10 pages), which will then be circulated within the group they are to be assigned to by the organizers. After briefly presenting their work (5-10 minutes), the students will receive a feedback from some participants who have read their papers in advance. The students who present are also expected to give a feedback to some papers of their group and to be engaged in discussions.

Participants without paper: in order to be awarded the 0.8 ECTS, the participants who do not present a paper, will nevertheless be involved in the discussion during the workshop. In order to do so, they are expected to provide a feedback to some papers of the group they are assigned to.

This process will hopefully help the students explore ways in which uses of place-making and governmentality might be worked into or provide new perspectives on their research.

Registration:

Morning lectures: Max. 40 participants. In order to register to the morning lectures an email with name, position and department has to be sent to the organizer: Valeria Guerrieri, vzd899@hum.ku.dk

PhD Workshop: Max. 16 participants. To register for this course please send a short motivation (maximum one page) in which you describe your academic background and outline the ways in which your research relates to the topic. After the selection among the most relevant applications (priority will be given to the applicants who intend to contribute to the discussions with an extract of their work), further details regarding the paper submission and a list of suggested readings will be sent out. Registration to the workshop includes attendance to the morning lecture.

Please send your application to the organizer:

Valeria Guerrieri, vzd899@hum.ku.dk

Deadline for registration to the morning lectures: November 8^th, 2016
Deadline for application to the workshop: October 23^rd, 2016

Cost: Free of charge

ECTS:

0,8 for participation and active engagement in discussions

Program:

10.00-13.00: Morning lectures
13.00-14.00: Lunch break
14.00-18.00: Phd Workshop