The 12th ESPAnet-Italy Conference “Territorial Welfare: (de-)globalizations, innovative and reactionary outcomes”. 19-21 September 2019 in Urbino Italy. Call for papers will open early March 2019.
The conference will be hosted by the University of Urbino (Department of Economy, Society, Politics).
Conference Theme:
Recent political and social transformations have clearly been affecting welfare institutions. Populist and nationalist forces have been gaining momentum in Europe and elsewhere, and they may boost nationally variable chauvinist welfare outcomes. Exclusionary discourses and practices affecting “marginal” people may spiral; consequently, various types of disadvantaged groups are blamed, some forms of protection are jeopardized, and some social policies are abandoned – in sum, inequalities may increase.
Also, these processes do not seem to occur evenly from a spatial point of view. Evidence of (re-)emerging and plural territorial cleavages at intra- and international levels converge toward a reprise of territorial unevenness. Therefore, the transformation and new hierarchy of rights and right holders should find a place in the scientific and public debate on welfare futures (including the micro-dimensions pertaining welfare spaces in city planning and architectural projects).
Nevertheless, in this context, there is also evidence of innovation and pro-welfare activism aimed at remaking welfare measures in a more inclusive way. Such innovations are sometimes cluttered and hard to generalize beyond their very place-specific experimentation. In the end, the risk exists of a “militant particularism” (to quote Raymond Williams and David Harvey) in grassroots movements, producing a new segmentation of rights. How innovations are institutionalized – and the barriers to their success – requires a specific focus.
In this respect, the twelfth ESPAnet Italy annual conference aims to shed light on the complex intertwining of politics and policy, scales, and opening and closures in welfare transformation, that may increase inequalities.
Dates and deadlines:
Call for papers opens March 2019 check the conference website
Deadline submission of abstracts 31 March 2019
Communication on accepted papers 15 April 2019
Paper submission – Deadline 21 July 2019
Email organizers: espanet2019@uniurb.it
For further information, check http://www.espanet-italia.net/conferenza-2019/ (Tabs for information in English are on the right hand side of the conference homepage)
For the organizers
Eduardo Barberis
DESP
Università di Urbino Carlo Bo
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