Dear all,
We are still accepting submissions for our CFP on Mobility and Morality. It promises to be a lively session. We'd be happy to discuss possible submissions with interested participants.
Call for Papers: "Mobility and Morality" AAG annual Meeting March 29th - April 2, 2016 San Francisco
Session Organizers: Geoffrey Battista (McGill University) Kevin Manaugh (McGill University)
Take a snapshot of an intersection in a large city and examine the scene. An older person struggles to cross the street as the signal blinks. A pair of sport utility vehicles pump exhaust into the air, impacting both global climate patterns and the respiratory health of the passing cyclists. An unregistered taxi driver reflects on his asylum claim, miles and months in the making, while eagerly awaiting the next pickup request on a ride-sharing app. An elected official looks down from her third-storey window while the contrails of an ascending passenger jet stream across the sky above. You, the researcher, observe the scene behind the lens of your camera.
Everyday transportation behaviour has wide-reaching moral implications in our interconnected world. The automobile continues to shape our physical and cultural landscape on an increasingly global scale. The sustainable transportation paradigm has been lauded for its environmental and health benefits, yet disregards questions of choice and experience among low socioeconomic status groups that engage in high levels of walking and transit use regardless of local conditions. Transportation policies remain guided by utilitarian cost-benefit analysis and entrepreneurial management. At the same time, non-transportation policies spur mass movements of people, from the displacement of low-income and minority groups to the migration of refugees escaping conflict in the Middle East. How can we-scholars, policymakers, and travelers-stake claims on what is "good" and "bad," given these conflicting understandings of the world?
This session serves as a nexus for emerging geographical scholarship on mobility and morality including, but not limited to the following themes:
- Planning and policy;
- Advocacy and conflict;
- Social inclusion/exclusion;
- Migration and human rights;
- Trade-offs in sustainable mobility;
- Discourses of morality and mobility;
- Building capabilities through transport;
- Morality of transportation technology; and
- Methods of inquiry.
We invite abstracts (≤ 250 words) from registered attendees who wish to engage with like-minded colleagues. Students and emerging scholars are highly encouraged to submit. Abstracts and corresponding program identification numbers (PIN) must be submitted to both organizers Geoffrey Battista (geoffrey.battista@mcgill.ca) and Kevin Manaugh (kevin.manaugh@mcgill.ca) by Friday, October 14, 2015.
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Kevin Manaugh
McGill University
kevin.manaugh@mcgill.ca
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