[News] RGS-IBG CfP: Mapping power relations in assemblages of health and care

[Mara Linden]

Dear All,

apologies for cross posting – we hope this call for papers for the 
RGS-IBG conference will be of interest to list members:

*Mapping power relations in assemblages of health and care*

Royal Geographical Society (with Institute for British Geographers) 
Annual Conference
London, 27th–30th August 2024

Organisers: Jessy Williams (University of Birmingham) and Mara Linden 
(Goethe University Frankfurt)

In a recent intervention on the status of assemblage in health 
geographies, Cameron Duff (2023) argues that a stronger account of the 
role of power is necessary. This assertion draws on Ian Buchanan’s 
(2021) recent book on assemblage theory and method which underscores the 
importance of specifying relations of dependency between components and 
the powers of selection at work in assemblages. These concerns are 
echoed in feminist technoscience of care, for example, Martin et al. 
(2015, p.627) suggest: "Practices of care are always shot through with 
asymmetrical power relations: who has the power to care? Who has the 
power to define what counts as care and how it should be administered?".

Bringing assemblage theory, health geographies and feminist 
technoscience into conversation, in this session we propose to 'map' 
power relations in assemblages of health and care. Deleuze and Guattari 
(1987, p.12) state to "[m]ake a map and not a tracing". We interpret 
this as a claim to ask for the how, when, where and /why/ rather than 
listing an "ever-growing heap of fragments" (Buchanan, 2021, p.119) of 
an assemblage as a collection of heterogenous elements. As such, we 
invite papers that aim to identify and analyse the components and 
relations of dependency in assemblages, in order to explore both 
oppressive and therapeutic arrangements of health, care and wellbeing 
(Duff and Hill, 2022; Duff, 2023).

We welcome work that engages with questions of power, responsibilities 
and control in respect of health and care assemblages. In addition to 
theoretical papers on assemblage and/or related concepts (such as, 
territory, strata, body without organs, abstract machine), we also 
welcome papers with an empirical focus, for example, mapping the 
potential of assemblage in practice, or how an assemblage could be 
arranged differently.

Possible paper themes include, but not limited to:

  * Empirical, theoretical or methodological approaches and examples of
    power relations in assemblages of health, care, wellbeing across
    mental health, physical health; critical, queer, non-Western and
    indigenous knowledges of health; health security; more-than-human or
    planetary health; digital health; health governance
  * De-territorializing/re-territorializing health and care
  * Mapping spaces, infrastructures and ecologies of health and care
  * Critical interventions into ‘why’ assemblage and comparisons to:
    dispositif (apparatus), ANT, affective arrangements, ecology, for
    example
  * Ethics and politics of health and care assemblages: responsibilities
    and relations
  * Interdisciplinary engagements with assemblage in STS or sociology,
    for example

We welcome standard conference papers as well as non-standard formats. 
We hope to provide a space for open questions and constructive comments. 
Details on inclusivity, accessibility and the RGS conference code of 
conduct can be found at the end of this email. We hope to hold 1 or 2 
timeslots, with 15 minutes for individual presentations and time for 
discussion. The session will be held in person.

We are seeking sponsorship from Geographies of Health and Wellbeing 
research group.

Please email a 250 word abstract along with your name, email address and 
affiliation by 23 February 2024 to Jessy Williams 
jxs270 at student.bham.ac.uk and Mara Linden linden at geo.uni-frankfurt.de. 
If you have any questions, please email us.

All the best,

Jessy and Mara


Details on inclusivity, accessibility and the conference code of conduct 
can be found here:

https://www.rgs.org/research/annual-international-conference/inclusivity-and-safety-at-the-conference
https://www.rgs.org/research/annual-international-conference/planning-your-attendance/accessibility-at-the-conference


References:

Buchanan, I. (2021). Assemblage Theory and Method. London and New York: 
Bloomsbury Academic.

Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus. Capitalism and 
Schizophrenia. London/New York/Dublin: Bloomsbury Academic.

Duff, C., & Hill, N. (2022). Wellbeing as social care: On assemblages 
and the ‘commons’. Wellbeing, Space and Society, 3, 100078. 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wss.2022.100078

Duff, C. (2023). The ends of an assemblage of health. Social Science and 
Medicine, 317(115636), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115636

Martin, A., Myers, N., & Viseu, A. (2015). The politics of care in 
technoscience. Social Studies of Science, 45(5), 625–641. 
https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312715602073

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