CFP: Equality and Space –– MANCEPT Workshops 2022

Submission deadline: June 3, 2022

Conference date(s):
September 7, 2022 - September 9, 2022

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Conference Venue:

University of Manchester
Manchester, United Kingdom

Details

CFA – Equality and Space

MANCEPT Workshops in Political Theory, University of Manchester

7th-9th September 2022

Convenor: Matilda Carter (King’s College London)

In 2021, Anthony Braithwaite, a black single parent of a disabled child, was declared “intentionally homeless” by Lewisham Council after refusing to accept relocation to another borough of London. John-Russell Barnes, a white working-class boy from Hastings, south-east England, told the BBC in 2020 that he and his friends were deterred from attending university by the perceived requirement to move far away from their hometowns. According to research conducted by the Forest Peoples Programme, the five countries that contain the majority of the world’s tropical forests have used the need to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic as a justification for accelerating development plans, threatening the displacement of indigenous peoples.

Since the publication of Elizabeth Anderson’s 1999 article ‘What is the Point of Equality?’, contemporary egalitarian theory has taken a relational turn. Insofar as philosophers operating under this theoretical framework have explicitly addressed issues such as race, gender and sexuality, it has been reasonably successful, in Anderson’s terms, at redirecting philosophical attention toward the “distinctly political aims of egalitarianism”. Yet, when considered in light of the three cases raised above, contemporary egalitarian theory appears ill-equipped to provide analyses of and solutions to spatial inequalities.

            The Oxford University Press’s 2015 edited collection on social equality contains no references to issues of gentrification or displacement, but does feature discussions about how spouses might choose their holiday locations, whether or not a “white skin appreciation society” would be a cause for concern in a society without a history of racial injustice, and whether or not a racist customer wrongs a shopkeeper by quietly shopping elsewhere without alerting anybody to their behaviour. While these may be interesting philosophical questions in their own right, their prominence indicates the extent to which, in Anderson’s terms “recent egalitarian writing seems strangely detached from existing egalitarian political movements.”

            There is a pressing need to correct this error by providing avenues for the discussion of and production of theory about issues of equality and space. Scholars are invited to submit abstracts of papers that, broadly speaking, cohere with this goal. Suggested topics include gentrification, decolonization and housing justice.

Abstracts should be maximum 500 words and sent to Matilda Carter ([email protected]) by 3rd June 2022. Successful applicants will be informed shortly after this deadline. All abstracts must be anonymised.  

 

Registration:

 

This is part of the MANCEPT Workshops in Political Theory. Registration for the workshops will open in May. The anticipated fees are as follows:

On line attendance

Academics: £ 45.00

PG: £ 20.00

Non-speaker: £ 15.00

In Person

Academics: £ 230.00

PG: £ 135.00

Dinner: £ 30

MANCEPT will offer a small number of fee waiver bursaries. The deadline for bursary applications (available to current graduate students only) will be the 27 June 2022.

For more information about the MANCEPT Workshops, please visit their webpage: https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/mancept/mancept-workshops/mancept-workshops-2022/

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