RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2011

London, 31^st August to 2^nd September

CALL FOR PAPERS

Diversity in transitions to adulthood and implications for residential mobility

Convenors: Nissa Finney (University of Manchester) and Naomi Tyrrell (University of Plymouth)

Sponsored by the Population Geography Research Group and the

Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group

Migration has long been recognised as an experience associated strongly with life stage. However, it is relatively recently that substantial attention has been paid to the interaction between migration and lifecourse, as demonstrated by the publication of special issues on this topic in Population, Space and Place (2008) and Demographic Research (2007). This emerging arena of research has been propelled by findings that transitions to adulthood and migration’s relation to family change are more complex than previous understandings recognised. So too, the geographies of migration across the lifecourse have increased in their complexity. Thus Geist and McManus (2008, 283) assert that “the increasing complexity of career and family trajectories throughout adulthood call for a re-examination of geographical mobility across all age groups”.

In lifecourse research, there has been recent theorisation about destandardisation and the increase in complexity of transitions to adulthood, in parallel with more general concerns in the social sciences with individualisation of experiences. This has led to calls for the study of the experiences of subcultures and subgroups and the comment that “the life course literature has largely ignored these alternative life course patterns” (Dannefer 2003, 651).

This session engages with these debates by focusing on the implications of diverse transitions to adulthood for residential mobility. Papers are welcomed from any national/regional context. Themes of papers may include:

-          Career aspirations and trajectories

-          Access to housing; changing housing markets

-          Ethnic differences in higher education participation

-          Cultural meanings of marriage

-          Understandings of home

-          Gender and mobility

-          Intergenerational transfer (e.g. of cultural norms, economic resources) and housing choice

-          Community ties and networks

-          Family influence on housing decisions

-          Financial constraints and material resources

- Methods for researching transitions to adulthood and residential mobility

If you would like to present a paper in this session, please send an abstract of 200 words to Nissa Finney (nissa.finney@manchester.ac.uk) and Naomi Tyrrell (naomi.tyrrell@plymouth.ac.uk) by 7th February 2011.

MOVE is the Swiss interdisciplinary network for mobility studies, linking the universities of Neuchâtel (leading house), Berne, Lausanne, and Zürich. In addition to having created the Swiss Chair for Mobility Studies (a visiting professorship), MOVE offers grants for post-doctoral studies on topics related to the mobility of persons, ideas, goods and institutions.

The candidate who will be awarded the grant offered in the present call will be based at the University of Lausanne to conduct research on the mobility of higher education programmes and institutions, also called transnational or cross-border education.

Candidates with an interest and experience in this or a closely related field are invited to apply. In addition to carrying out his/her own research, the successful applicant will supervise and monitor two doctoral students working on the transnationalisation of academic institutions.

The position starts in autumn/winter 2009-2010 (no later than January 2010).

More details in this word document.

A new book launched under the Understanding Population Trends and Processes  (UPTAP) programme, edited by John Stillwell,  Ernestina Coast and Dylan Kneale

     Fertility, Living Arrangements, Care and Mobility

      Understanding Population Trends and Processes – Volume 1

      Stillwell, John; Coast, Ernestina; Kneale, Dylan (Eds.)

      2009, Approx. 350 p., Hardcover

      ISBN: 978-1-4020-9681-5

      More information

Many parts of the world are experiencing rapid demographic restructuring, resulting in an ageing population with increasingly significant work and care pressures on cohorts less able or willing to provide support. This book examines some of the important trends that have underpinned reductions in fertility, including delayed child-bearing and increased childlessness. It demonstrates how relationships between partners have resulted in new living arrangements with changing attitudes from marriage to co-habitation as the social norm, and it considers the health and well-being for particular at risk groups such as the elderly and stepparents as well as aspects of mobility such as household migration and commuting to school.

The book brings together a series of studies that all involve quantitative analyses of secondary data from censuses, surveys or administrative records. The trends and patterns reported provide new and interesting insights into behaviour of the household and the roles of adults and children, and point to questions of critical importance for practitioners and policy makers.

“This book is the first of three volumes on ‘ Understanding Population Trends and Processes’. Volume 2 will report the findings of research on a further set of dimensions including population change, deprivation, educational attainment, employment, health and well-being, identity, religiosity, social values and trust, whilst Volume 3 will have a more specific focus on ethnicity and integration.”

13th -14th May 2009, jointly hosted by the University of Brighton and University of Sussex

A two-day international conference of the Population Geography Research Group of the RGS-IBG

Call for Papers and Registration Form

This conference aims to explore the many ways in which different, yet possibly interconnected, forms of contemporary migration, for example internal and transnational migration, are being reconfigured in the developed and developing worlds, and how these shifts are being theorised by academics from different (sub)disciplines of academia. Key here is how and why these shifting expressions of migration flows may have major implications for new theorisations of migration. Papers are therefore sought which critically engage with one or more of the above issues.

Conference organising committee: Darren Smith, Russell King, Rebecca Elmhirst and Ron Skeldon,

Please send expressions of interest, or a 150 word abstract to either Darren Smith (D.Smith@Brighton.ac.uk) or Russell King (R.King@Sussex.ac.uk), by 30th March 2009.

Some of the papers from the conference will form the basis of an edited book publication. There is an expectation that presenters will therefore provide full papers at the conference.

 Confirmed keynote speakers are: Professor Rachel Silvey (University of Colorado at Boulder, USA), Professor Adrian Favell (Aarhus University, Denmark) and Dr Keith Halfacree (University of Wales Swansea, UK).

Details of registration and accommodation will be circulated.

RE-INVENTING THE RURAL: BETWEEN THE SOCIAL AND THE NATURAL

XXIII European Society for Rural Sociology (ESRS) congress

Vaasa, Finland 17-21 August 2009

Rural areas and people in Europe stand at a crossroads, caught between global and local flows and processes. The ESRS Congress will address this critical moment through the following five key themes:

1. Mobilities and Stabilities in Rural Space
2.The Rural Bites Back
3. Animal Farm
4. The Sciences of the Rural
5. Sustainable Ruralities

The Scientific Committee are pleased to announce the opening of the Call for Abstracts of the XXIII ESRS Congress to be held in Vaasa, Finland 17-21 August 2009.

If you are interested in presenting a paper at the congress, please decide which Working Group you would like to be in, and send a title and short abstract (circa 200 – 250 words) to the convenor of that Working Group by February 28, 2009.

http://www.esrs2009.fi/index.html