We would like to invite abstracts for papers to be presented at a panel we propose for inclusion in the 2010 conference of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).  The panel theme is migrant transnationalism, integration and place.

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).

The Health Geography Research Group (HGRG) of the RGS have announced a call for papers for a number of sessions due to take place in the coming year’s annual Royal Geographcial Society- Institute of British Geographers conference.

The sessions cover the following themes:

• Healthy Countrysides?: exploring geographies of rural health
• Healthy Places
• Geographies of (dis)ability, (ill) health, emotion and affect
• ‘Geographers helping’ – Undertaking fieldwork through a participatory role in the ‘helping’ professions
• Body to Body: geographies of donation and transplantation
• Climate Change Adaptation and Human Health
• The Spatial Dimensions of Health

More information on these sessions, including abstracts, deadline (1st of Feb 2010) etc, here.

More information on all sessions at the RGS here.

Well-being and Place: an International Conference

7th -9th April 2009, Durham University, United Kingdom

*Places are still available at this conference- registration deadline extended to 28th February 2009*

Keynote speakers
Andrew Simms, Policy Director, New Economics Foundation
Professor Tim Blackman, Director, Wolfson Research Institute, Durham University

Overview
Over the last ten years the targets of policy have expanded beyond the purely material and economic to embrace more subjective dimensions of human flourishing.  Amongst a range of terms that have entered policy debates, ‘well-being’ has perhaps gained the greatest currency, incorporating both physical and cognitive elements and applied across individual and collective scales of analysis. It is clear that the definition, experience and determinants of well-being will vary in different kinds of places. However, the complex ways in which place and well-being interact remain relatively under-researched and under-theorised. This conference therefore draws together research that explicitly links well-being and place and includes research from a range of different scales of analysis, across different substantive domains and from both policy-linked and more explorative approaches.

Programme
The conference will feature over 70 papers from the academic and policy communities that focus on the relationship between well-being and place, broadly defined including:

·         Home and well-being
·         Theory, methods and ethics of well-being
·         Transitions:  well-being across this life course and the next
·         Therapeutic places and unhealthy spaces
·         Well-being in motion:  flows, networks, relations
·         Healthy environments: housing, urban design and regeneration
·         Well-being, policy and regional development

More details about the programme and registration are available on the conference website (www.geography.dur.ac.uk/conf/wellbeingandplace) or please contact Sara Fuller (s.k.fuller@durham.ac.uk) for further details.

The conference is organised and hosted by the Centre for the Study of Cities & Regions and the Social Wellbeing and Spatial Justice research cluster of the Department of Geography at Durham University, in collaboration with the University’s Wolfson Research Institute.