The first event is entitled: Globalisation and Cosmopolitan Citizenship: Migrating Bodies, Practices and Ideas and will be given by Professor Peggy Levitt of Wellesley College, USA; chaired by Dr Claire Dwyer of the Migration Research Unit, UCL Department of Geography, and with Professor John Eade, Director of CRONEM, University of Roehampton and Visiting Professor in the Migration Research Unit acting as discussant. The abstract is as follows:

“Cosmopolitanism today is no longer the exclusive province of elites. Labour migrants, sojourners, religious believers, and refugees are also open to the world, although they interact with it differently than their professional counterparts. In fact, in today’s world, cosmopolitanism is a necessity not a choice. What are the rights and responsibilities of global citizenship? How can we begin to imagine a community that extends beyond national borders and where do the elements come from with which to create it?”

Peggy Levitt is a Professor of Sociology at Wellesley College and a Research Fellow at The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University where she co-directs The Transnational Studies Initiative. Her books include God Needs No Passport: Immigrants and the Changing American Religious Landscape (New Press 2007), The Transnational Studies Reader (Routledge 2007), The Changing Face of Home: The Transnational Lives of the Second Generation (Russell Sage 2002), and The Transnational Villagers (UC Press, 2001).

The event is scheduled to take place on 10 March 2010 from 5.30-7pm in the Roberts Lecture Theatre, 106 Roberts Building, Torrington Place, London WC1E 7JE. The event is followed by a drinks reception in the Roberts Building Foyer. All are welcome, but places are limited, pleases can be reserved at http://migrationsymposium.eventbrite.com/.

The series is sponsored by UCL Research Challenges and the UCL Grand Challenge of Intercultural Interaction. A full programme for the series is available here: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/migration/symposia/.

If you want to come to the one day CASA meeting “Advances in Spatial Analysis & e-Social Science”, then please go to the registration site at http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/conference/ and register.

You can get to the GISRUK site from http://gisruk2010.spatial-literacy.org/registration/

If you need any more information about this meeting email christiane.morgan@ucl.ac.uk.

The programme for the CASA meeting is listed below

Session One (AM)

Online exploration of cultural regions, migration and ethnicity using the geography of personal names  – Paul Longley & Pablo Mateos

Spatial Interaction Models for Higher Education – Alex Singleton & Ollie O’Brien

The Dynamics of Skyscrapers: Scaling, Allometry, and Sustainability – Michael Batty

Development of an urban growth model using high-resolution historical data – Kiril Stanilov

Session Two (PM)

The research frontier in urban modelling: the agenda and the challenges – Alan Wilson

On-line Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Network Data and Road Developments – Tao Cheng

Twitter Tags and Real-Time Visualisation of Complex Geographic Data with MapTube – Richard Milton

Tales of Things and Electronic Memory ­ Creating and Mapping The Geography of Everything – Andrew Hudson-Smith

Panel Discussion with Mike Goodchild, Keith Clarke, David Maguire, Carl Steinitz

Coffee at convenient points is provided, but lunch is not.

Afterwards, there will be a reception in the Wilkins Building Jeremy Bentham Room.

CCSR is a multidisciplinary research centre in the School of Social Sciences. Part of Manchester’s top-rated Sociology submission in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise, CCSR is world renowned for cutting edge research under the broad banner of Quantitative Social Science.

Social Statistics is the newest discipline area within the School of Social Sciences and one of very few such groupings in the UK. The discipline is committed to high quality research, and collaboration with other disciplines within the university, to improve the methodological rigour and range of quantitative enquiries in social science.

Applications are welcomed in a number of subject areas including:

Census & Survey Research
Longitudinal Data Analysis
Multilevel Modelling
Confidentiality & Privacy
Social Network Analysis
Health Inequalities
Work & Employment

The premium funded studentships commence in September 2010.

Five ESRC studentships are available. These prestigious awards include fees
and an annual stipend of up to £16,290 and an additional allowance for
research expenses. For more information please visit : www.ccsr.ac.uk/phd

Deadline for funding applications is 19th March 2010.

To discuss your proposal please contact Margaret Martin
(ccsr@manchester.ac.uk)

For information on how to apply contact Vicky Barnes
(vicky.barnes@manchester.ac.uk)

To apply online visit http://www.manchester.ac.uk/postgraduate/howtoapply

http://www.pop.psu.edu/aag/psgnews-w10.pdf

The conference promises discussions regarding radical application of statistics as well as chance for socialising.

More details, booking etc can be found here: http://www.radstats.org.uk/conf2010/

Papers are invited, consisting of abstracts of maximum 300 words. The deadline for submission is 12th March 2010.

For submissions and further inforamtion please see: www.nuigalway.ie/labour_migration/conference/

https://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/lsewebsite/bsps2010/

More information is available in this pdf.

This is an international conference bringing together researchers working in the economic, social, psychological and health fields to present state of the art analyses of ageing processes; pinpoint existing gaps in knowledge and identify priorities for future research and data collection.

The keynote speakers are: Jim Heckman, University of Chicago; David Barker, University of Southampton and Jack Guralnik, National Institute of Ageing.

The focus of this conference is the use of longitudinal data from studies such as the British Birth Cohorts and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing to understand life-course determinants of healthy ageing, including the effect of early-life circumstances on outcomes in later life.

Research using such data is essential to inform sound policy that can address the needs of an ageing society. Themes addressed in the conference include: Frailty, disability and physical functioning at older ages; Ageing and cognition; Employment at older ages and transitions to retirement; Economic and financial circumstances over the life-course; Ageing, social participation and wellbeing in later life; Government policies and the ageing population.

Further information and booking is available as the conference website: www.ageingconf.org

Booking is now open, with an ‘early bird discount’ available.

This GEOMED 2010 1st Circular details the initial considerations for the conference.

MIGRANT TRANSNATIONALISM, INTEGRATION AND PLACE

SESSION ABSTRACT:
This session aims to explore the intersections between migrants’ transnational engagements and integration in the destination country.  The session is based on the premise that our understandings of the interactions between transnationalism and integration depend on how we understand and use the two terms.

If integration is understood as a process whereby migrants and the mainstream population become more alike, transnational activities that link migrants with their country of origin can be a signifier of difference – transnationalism can be perceived as a barrier to integration.  This is especially true if the mainstream perceives migrant transnational activities to be a cause, or indicator, of ‘divided loyalties’.  At the same time, integration understood in this way can be seen as decreasing or limiting transnational ties, especially for the second generation.  Alternatively, if integration is understood as a process of migrant adaptation to life in a new country, then it could be considered as a complement to transnationalism, assuming that is also understood as form of migrant adaptation.

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the intersections between transnationalism and integration (see for example, Joppke and Morawska, 2003, Kivisto, 2001; Levitt, 2003; Nagel and Staeheli, 2008; Snel et al., 2006; Vertovec, 2007).  These studies indicate a growing consensus that integration and transnationalism are not mutually exclusive – but are they instead simply concurrent, overlapping, or even mutually supportive?  And, how do relationships between integration and transnationalism play out in different contexts?

For geographers the exploration of interactions between transnationalism and integration brings together issues of global connections (transnationalism) with how they influence the ways that migrants negotiate membership in their cities and countries of settlement. Geographers have contributed to the study of migrant transnationalism, among other through focus on transnational spatialities (e.g. Featherstone et al 2007), the significance of space in transnationalism (e.g. Ley 2004), transnational urbanism (e.g. Smith 2005) and bringing forward a place perspective (e.g. Gielis 2009).

We invite paper proposals that address (empirically and/or theoretically) aspects of the following themes:

- Has the growing acceptance of migrant transnationalism altered our approach to the analysis of integration, and how?
- How does the linking of transnationalism and integration affect our interpretations of the importance of place and space?
- Are there particular forms of transnationalism that interact differently with integration? i.e. transnational activities with an economic focus versus a socio-cultural focus?
- Do different forms of integration (e.g. structural or socio-cultural) interact with transnationalism in different ways?
- What is the impact of differences between immigrants (e.g. gender, age, human capital, generation) on the questions above?

SESSION KEY WORDS:
Migration – transnationalism – integration – place

SESSION FORMAT:
4 papers and 1 discussant, for a session of 1 hour and 40 mins. Should there be larger interest; consecutive sessions can be proposed, allowing for 8 papers to be included.

DEADLINE
Please submit abstracts by email no later than the 1st of February to Ceri Oeppen (co13@soas.ac.uk) and Marta Bivand Erdal (marta@prio.no).