News Archive April 2009
29/04/2009
Somalia – Refugees and Diaspora
Somalia page at the United Nations Hing Commisioner for Refugees website:
http://www.unhcr.org/country/som.html
March 2009 report from the United Nations Development Program:
Link to pdf: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/projects/medmobilities/docs/undp_report_onsomali_diaspora%5B1%5D.pdf
Media report on the role of Somali diaspora in pirate activity
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28158455/
Source: Migration Information Source – Migration Policy Institute
More information about Somalia :
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/unica/industria/funciona/elpepuint/20090412elpepuint_7/Tes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1072592.stm
http://www.msf.org/
17/04/2009
New Journal : Tourism Consumption
Edited by Hazel Andrews and Kevin Meethan
http://www.tourismconsumption.org/index.htm
The purpose of the Journal of Tourism Consumption and Practice is to publish original, peer reviewed articles, shorter discussion pieces, book reviews and conference reports which advance the field of tourism studies and which broadly address forms of tourism as modes of consumption and practice.
We live in a world characterised by a complex global interplay of information, economics, culture and space. People, goods and capital are more mobile than ever before. Such mobility and flux creates the conditions in which new forms of identity, work and leisure, as well as new socio – spatial configurations are emerging which may involve translocational, transnational and multi-cultural elements.
Tourism is an integral part of such processes that also involves the creation and maintenance of tourist spaces which are in part spaces of the imaginary, of fantasy and dreaming. It is within such spaces and flows that tourists, as temporary migrants, circulate. often travelling with a set of expectations derived from various media such as brochures, TV programmes, the internet and the popular genres of travel writing, as much as from their previous travel experiences. The spaces of tourism are constructed, more or less consciously, to fulfil - or attempt to fulfil - such expectations through representations and the consumption of goods and services, as well as the cultural assets and activities to be found at a destination, or en route. We view tourism then as a practical accomplishment which involves performative elements and the active engagement of the tourist/traveller through practice and embodiment in the creation of meanings, identities, and place.
The main focus of this journal then is to examine the interplay between the production and consumption of tourism as forms of interaction between people and place. While tourism is a phenomenon in its own right, its centrality in contemporary capitalist society along with other forms of mobilities allows it to operate as a lens through which broader social and cultural processes can be illuminated.
To that end the journal welcomes contributions that both reflect on the consumptive and performative nature of tourism per se but also which use tourism as a means to examine questions pertinent to social and cultural life more generally and further articulates the use of current areas of theoretical debate in critical analyses.
We are also keen to exploit the opportunities that new technology offers, authors are encouraged to use still photographs, video and sound clips where appropriate.
15/04/2009
New publication: Extending Hospitality: Giving Space, Taking Time
Edited by Mustafa Dikec, Nigel Clark and Clive Barnett Edinburgh University Press (Paragraph special issues)
Contents:
Extending Hospitality: Giving Space, Taking Time | Mustafa Dikec, Nigel Clark, Clive Barnett
'Wanted': Organs, Passports and the Integrity of the Transient's Body | Mireille Rosello
Hospitality Lessons: Learning the Shared Language of Derrida and the Balga Bedouin | Andrew Shryock
The Limits of Hospitality | Heidrun Friese
Women's Bodies Between National Hospitality and Domestic Biopolitics | Rosalyn Diprose
Hospitable Harems? A European Woman and Oriental Spaces in the Enlightenment | Judith Still
Trading Hospitality: Kant, Cosmopolitics and Commercium | Diane Morgan
12/04/2008
New book: After the Car
Kingsley Dennis & John urry
A provocative exploration of a possible future without the car, from two leading sociologists.
* Examines the impact of global warming, global population increases and the peaking of oil supplies, among other things, on the future of how we travel.
* Argues that there will come a time in the future where, by necessity, the present car system will be're-designed' and're-engineered'.
* After The Car will interest sociologists, policy makers, industry, as well as the general reader. It will be of interest to every 'car user'.
It is difficult to imagine a world without the car, and yet that is exactly what Dennis and Urry set out to do in this provocative new book. They argue that the days of the car are numbered: powerful forces around the world are undermining the car system and will usher in a new transport system sometime in the next few decades. Specifically, the book examines how several major processes are shaping the future of how we travel, including:
* Global warming and its many global consequences
* Peaking of oil supplies
* Increased digitisation of many aspects of economic and social life
* Massive global population increases
The authors look at changes in technology, policy, economy and society, and make a convincing argument for a future where, by necessity, the present car system will be re-designed and re-engineered.
Yet the book also suggests that there are some hugely bleak dilemmas facing the twenty first century. The authors lay out what they consider to be possible 'post-car' future scenarios. These they describe as 'local sustainability', 'regional warlordism' and 'digital networks of control'.
Some have described the 20th Century as the century of the car. Now the century has come to a close - and things are about to change.
publication details
8 May ~ 212 pages
978-0-7456-4421-9 Hardback £45.00 / $59.95
978-0-7456-4422-6 Paperback £14.99 / $19.95
the author
Kingsley Dennis was formerly Research Associate in the Centre for Mobilities Research (CeMoRe) at Lancaster University. John Urry is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and CeMoRe Director at Lancaster University
for more information/ interviews /review copy requests
CONTACT: Amandine Decam, Polity Marketing
Tel: 01865 476146
Email: afdecam@wiley.com
10/04/2009
Blog on trans-Saharian migration
http://lacomunidad.elpais.com/inmigracion/posts
8/04/2009
Fiction book on African migration: Leaving Tangier
Leaving Tangier
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Apr 2nd 2009
From The Economist print edition
IN HIS latest work to be translated into English, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Morocco’s best-known novelist, examines how much people are willing to sacrifice to start a new life in Europe, and the consequences of taking flight. Mr Ben Jelloun is no stranger to these issues, having left Morocco himself in 1971 to study in Paris. He has won numerous literary prizes, including the Prix Goncourt in 1987, an award he now judges.
In “Leaving Tangier”, the author draws on his research as a social psychiatrist that also inspired an earlier novel, “Solitaire”, as a way of exploring psychological and sexual dysfunctions that arise as a result of migration. Azel, an educated, heterosexual young man from Tangier, is unable to find work and becomes obsessed with his desire to escape from Morocco. He spends every evening at the Café Haha, gazing longingly at the lights twinkling on the Spanish coastline just 20 miles (32km) away. When he meets Miguel Lopez, a rich Spanish homosexual, Azel seizes the opportunity and leaves his family and his country behind to become Miguel’s lover in Barcelona. However, he underestimates the extent to which this decision will destroy both his sexuality and his sense of self.
In 40 short chapters Mr Ben Jelloun weaves together a tapestry of exile and loss as he follows his characters through the dream and reality of leaving Tangier. Al Afia, “the fire”, smuggles boatloads of illegal emigrants across the strait, unashamedly profiting from an enterprise that often ends in arrest or drowning. Azel’s sister, Kenza, enters into a marriage of convenience with Miguel and obtains a job and a resident’s permit in Spain, but her dream of finding “love, true love” is snatched away. Back in Tangier, the most touching figure is Malika, an imaginative young girl who dies before any of her dreams can be realised.
The invisible, omnipresent character in the text is Morocco itself, as Mr Ben Jelloun demonstrates the difficulty of ever really “leaving” your country. Although most of the plot takes place in Spain, the characters’ thoughts continually turn back to Morocco, a country that remains the “dearest and greatest” of their anxieties. “Leaving Tangier” is a brave, unflinching look at the issues underlying economic migration from North Africa—and the hard choices people make between roots and wings.
7/4/2009
2nd Meeting of Young Researchers around the Mediterranean
The 2nd Meeting of Young Researchers around the Mediterranean will be held in Oran, Algeria on 2nd, 3rd and 4th June 2009.
The UNESCO Chair of Intercultural Dialogue in the Mediterranean of the University Rovira i Virgili will organize the event in cooperation with the University of Oran Es-Senia and the CRASC and with the collaboration of the AUF and it will be funded by the AECID.
The Meeting in its second edition aims to go on with the 1st Meeting of Young Researchers around the Mediterranean work, Tarragona 2007.
- To favour the projection of the young researchers in their surrounding and at Mediterranean level
- To promote the contact and the reflexion exchange between the participants.
- To set actions and projects to deeply improve the research in the different Euro-Mediterranean countries and also to be to the advantage of its university institutions or centres through the reinforcement of its internal and external function structures.
The Meeting will start with a one-day conference on governance in the Euromed universities.
Further information: http://www.medyre.org/index.html
5/7/2009
Call for papers for the RC21 sessions of the ISA world congress of sociology
Gothenburg, Sweden, July 11-17 2010
Cosmobilities session (8b).
If you are interested, your paper abstract including paper title, short description (within 200 words), and name, affiliation, country and email address as paper author(s) should be sent to session organizers as well as conference coordinators: Fernando Diaz Orueta Fernando.diaz@ua.es and Kuniko Fujita fujitak@msu.edu by October 31, 2009.
This call for papers is listed at ISA web site
http://www.isa-sociology.org/congress2010/rc/rc21.htm <http://www.isa-sociology.org/congress2010/rc/rc21.htm.>
https://www.msu.edu/user/fujitak/SessionsGothenburg2010.pdf
3/4/2009
Mobility in 2030: Future trends - analyzed online by experts?
Interdisciplinary experts are currently discussing which technological and sociological trends - and their underlying psychological dimensions - are likely to determine the future of mobility for business and leisure travel. While some developments seem relatively easy to identify today, others remain nothing more than vague predictions.
In view of this, the Lucerne School of Business, ITW, has launched a research project that includes an international online survey of professional opinions as one major component. The "Cities for Mobility" network, which is being coordinated by Stuttgart, supports this worldwide survey.
The Lucerne of Applied Sciences, ITW, would be pleased if you would contribute to the quality of the survey results by sharing your expertise on this topic. We will gladly send you an overview of the relevant research results as a PDF file, too.
The following link will take you to the online survey: www.unipark.de/uc/ITW/6c71/
You will find additional important details (e.g., on data privacy) on the start page.
Thank you for your interest. We would be glad to answer any further questions you may have.
Lucerne School of Business,
ITW Institute, CCM
Lucerne, Switzerland
Dr. Johannes Klühspies
Timo Ohnmacht
Email: johannes.kluehspies@hslu.ch
1/4/2009
'The Kurds and Kurdistan: History, Politics and Culture'
The Centre for Kurdish Studies (CKS), University of Exeter, 2nd and 3rd April 2009.
This interdisciplinary conference will explore a range of thematic and methodological issues relating to The Kurds and Kurdistan, with speakers coming from institutions in Europe, the Middle East and North America. Panel topics will include Contemporary Iraq, Religiosity, Transnationalism, Language and Literature and Gender and Violence.
On the website, http://huss.exeter.ac.uk/iais/all-events/conferences/kurdish-conf.php, you will find further information about the conference, including registration details.
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