Date: Tuesday 3 July 2012 to Thursday 5 July 2012
Location: University of Edinburgh

Theme: Security of geography/geography of security
Conference Chair: Chris Philo, University of Glasgow

Link to the Conference Virtual Issue - a free-to-access collection of recent papers from the Society’s journals (Area, The Geographical Journal and Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers)

Security of geography/geography of security

The theme is to explore the many intersections between geography and security: meaning both the security of geography and the geography of security. The idea is to work between an ‘inward-looking’ concern for the well-being of geographical research, learning, teaching and communication, and an ‘outward-looking’ concern for how worldly geographies are deeply implicated in achieving or compromising the security of environments, peoples and communities.

Attention should be given to ways of securing the subject of geography in the face of educational restructuring at schools and financial restructuring of university teaching and research, as well as set against growing governmental (and even popular) demands to show impact, relevance and applicability. Success in this respect may then depend on demonstrating what a geographical perspective – spanning the sciences through to the humanities – can offer attempts at understanding and countering multiple sources of insecurity (environmental, climatic, economic, ‘national’, digital, personal).

A critical sensibility is needed, however, to ensure that the will to create security, whether for an academic subject or in real-world situations, does not descend into simplistic drawing and policing of boundaries around whatever is to be secured.

The invitation to all geographers, physical and human, is to ask challenging questions about matters of geography and security which advance intellectual and practical agendas, addressing issues of major scientific and social significance, while also cultivating the institutional supports upon which our own ability to contribute as a subject necessarily depend.