Courses, seminars, & workshops

Southern Africa: International conference on 'political economies of displacement in post-2000 Zimbabwe’

2008-01-11, Issue 335

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/45306

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This conference, to be held at Wits Campus in Johannesburg from 9-11 June 2008, emerges from an ongoing collaborative research project initiated in late 2006 by the Nordic Africa Institute entitled Political Economies of Displacement in Post-2000 Zimbabwe. The project links researchers located within and outside Zimbabwe who share an active interest in mapping the complex dynamics of change related to the crises, uncertainties and multiple displacements of contemporary Zimbabwe and their effects on neighbouring states and diasporas further afield.

FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS
International conference on 'political economies of displacement in post-2000 Zimbabwe’
Wits University Campus, Johannesburg, 9-11 June 2008

Organised by Nordic Africa Institute Uppsala, Sweden and Forced Migration Studies Programme Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa

This conference, to be held at Wits Campus in Johannesburg from 9-11 June 2008, emerges from an ongoing collaborative research project initiated in late 2006 by the Nordic Africa Institute entitled Political Economies of Displacement in Post-2000 Zimbabwe. The project links researchers located within and outside Zimbabwe who share an active interest in mapping the complex dynamics of change related to the crises, uncertainties and multiple displacements of contemporary Zimbabwe and their effects on neighbouring states and diasporas further afield. Recognising that within the multiple spheres of transformation that emerge in the present times of turbulence, the boundaries and relationships between the official and the unofficial, the legal and the illegal, the public and the private, are constantly being redefined. This is part of what explains the paradox of displacement: namely, that while it produces profoundly negative effects for large numbers of people, it also generates complex and creative dynamics of survival, inventiveness, productivity and even prosperity for some. Understanding this requires broader intellectual reflection on how ‘displacement’ and ‘the displaced’ are conceptualised and studied. This means, among other things, moving beyond homogenising labels often used to describe situations and populations affected by forced displacement. It also demands that we look beyond the violence and victimisation of subjected populations by acknowledging their heterogeneity, their individual and collective resourcefulness, and their abilities to address displacement and loss while creating alternative futures. In line with the overall project, the Conference is especially interested in investigating the following kinds of questions in the context of post-2000 Zimbabwe:
- How and why have particular displacements (material and symbolic) been generated, and how are they understood by those involved;
- What new dynamics and patterns of inclusion and exclusion have emerged, and how is this reshaping categories of belonging and generating new ideas of state, nation, citizenship and kinship;
- How have systems and practices of rule, politics, and sovereignty altered in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in the region;
- How have modes of production, exchange, distribution and accumulation been reconfigured at different scales and in different locations. The Conference seeks especially (but not only) empirically grounded contributions from researchers from different disciplines, whose work on post-2000 Zimbabwe (yet with linkages to other times and places), helps to address some of these issues.

Abstracts of approximately 350 words should be submitted to the following mail address by 15 February 2008: displacement.conference@gmail.com
You might consider relating your abstract to one or several of the following themes:

1. Agrarian Displacements, Replacements and Resettlement
2. Reshaping Youth, Gender and Belonging in Cities
3. Displacement Economies and Changing Modes of Investment and Exchange
4. Border Crossings, Mobile Livelihoods and Reinventions of Kinship
5. Diasporic Divides and Diverse Futures
6. Altered States of Security, Politics and Development


Funds will be made available for those participants successfully selected from
within Southern Africa to assist them with the costs of travel and subsistence in attending the conference. Those whose abstracts have been accepted will be informed by mid-March 2008. Papers by presenters will be expected in advance by 16 May 2008.

Several keynote speakers will provide innovative conceptual framings to situate, stimulate, and move the discussions beyond the context-specific focus on post-2000 Zimbabwe.
These will include such renowned scholars as Jane Guyer (Johns Hopkins University), Achille Mbembe (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research), Brian Raftopoulos (Solidarity Peace Trust, formerly of Institute of Development Studies, University of Zimbabwe), and Finn Stepputat (Danish Institute for International Studies), and possibly others. For further queries, please contact: Amanda Hammar (amanda.hammar@nai.uu.se <mailto:amanda.hammar@nai.uu.se>) or Tania Berger (tania.berger@nai.uu.se <mailto:tania.berger@nai.uu.se>) at the Nordic Africa Institute, and Loren Landau (Loren.Landau@wits.ac.za at the Forced Migration Studies Programme at Wits University.

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