Connecting People, Participation and Place

Connecting People, Participation & Place

An international conference of participatory geographies

Collingwood College, Durham University

14th and 15th January, 2008

The conference is over, until next time.....

thanks to everyone who participated

and made it a success....

* * Abstracts, papers and the results of the Open Space

exercises are available to download under 'Resources' * *

organised by the Social Well-Being and Spatial Justice research cluster at Durham

the Participatory Geographies Working Group of the RGS/IBG

First Announcement

Confirmed Speakers

Sara Kindon (Victoria University of Wellington) - keynote

Caitlin Cahill (University of Utah)

Gaby Kitoko (African Community Advice North East)

Giles Mohan (Open University)

Paul Routledge (Glasgow University)

Jasber Singh (Independent participatory researcher, UK)

Participatory approaches to research, learning, action and change have in some ways become a new orthodoxy in social and environmental science disciplines, voluntary sectors, statutory agencies and community-led organisations across the world. The development of conceptual insights, creative techniques and radical practices is exploding. At the same time participatory approaches are highly contested and debated, and are profoundly affected by the environments, social settings and institutional webs in which they are embedded.

This conference will showcase original and collaboratively produced contributions to theory, practice and social/environmental change which focus on the relations between people and places. The themes are:

Connecting people and places - innovative approaches to understanding and using participation for research and change

Charting the geographies of participation: settings, scales and spatialities

The conference will coincide with the publication of Participatory Action Research Approaches and Methods; Connecting People, Participation and Place (Routledge, London) edited by Sara Kindon, Rachel Pain and Mike Kesby.

The draft programme is now available on the 'Programme' page. It includes papers, workshops, posters, artwork and other visual products from researchers and practitioners from the academic, public, private and voluntary sectors. They will discuss conceptual, practical and political issues in participation from settings including Australia, Cambodia, Canada, El Salvador, Ireland, Ghana, Kenya, Aotearoa New Zealand, Southern Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, UK, USA.

There will be ample time for discussion and dialogue, and the afternoon of the second day is given over to an Open Space exercise where delegates will raise and respond to key issues in more depth in small groups and plenaries. The conference also includes plenty of rest and relaxation through social events, yoga and collaborative drumming.

The conference aims to:

Be open to anyone with an interest in participatory methods and approaches for research, learning, action and change

Encourage discussion and debates around the conference themes between academics, practitioners, and all those ‘in between’

Include a range of different formats for participation including: papers, workshops, performances and use or demonstrations of technologies

Consist of invited papers and workshops (Day 1), and an open space format (Day 2) where content and format are decided by participants through discussion before and during the conference.

A fee is payable to cover registration, tea, coffee and lunch over the two days. The conference will be held in Collingwood College (which is fully accessible) in beautiful and historic Durham. Bed & Breakfast and hotel accommodation are available in the city.

Durham is well served by high-speed mainline rail services from the major UK cities (2.5 hours from London). Newcastle and Durham Tees Valley airports are within 30-40 minutes drive with frequent connections to major London airports. Ferry services link the River Tyne to ports in Scandinavia, The Netherlands and Germany.

The call for participation is now closed.

The deadline for registration is 12th December2007 (please note that accommodation in the city is limited so early reservations are recommended)

We look forward to welcoming you to Durham.

Organising committee

Catherine Alexander, Kye Askins, Natalie Beale, Caitlin Cahill, Helen Charnley, Paul Chatterton, Christine Dunn, Duncan Fuller, Peter Hopkins, Roy Huijsmans, Kathrin Horschelmann, Sara Kindon, Sara MacKian, Julia McMillan, Rachel Pain, Jonathan Rigg, Paul Routledge, Nadine Schafer, Divya Tolia-Kelly, Louise Waite, Friederike Ziegler