AAG CFP, Chicago, IL, April 21-25, 2015
CFP: Geographies of Totalitarianism
Session organizer: Joshua Hagen (Marshall University)
These sessions explore the geographies of totalitarianism, defined broadly to encompass regimes, organizations, and/or movements that aspire to total control over society. In contrast to other non-democratic movements that merely monopolize the levers of politics and government, totalitarian movements seek total control over economics, civil society, leisure, the workplace, housing, gender roles, family life, education, ethnic relations, etc. to build their vision of the ‘common good.’ To achieve these ends, totalitarian movements develop and deploy a range of spatial strategies, mechanisms, and practices. In many ways, totalitarian movements rely heavily on spatial engineering to achieve their goals of social engineering. The presentations may include comparative perspectives or case studies on the spatiality of totalitarian movements from past and present (e.g., Fascist Italy, Islamic State) and from across the political spectrum (e.g., Nazi Germany, Stalinist Soviet Union). Presentations are welcome from a variety of theoretical, empirical, and/or methodological perspectives, as well as different world regions.
If interested, please submit a tentative title and abstract to Joshua Hagen at hagenj@marshall.edu by November 1st.