[STS-Africa] Fwd: CFP: Ontological Insecurity in Africa Urban Spaces, Johannesburg, October 2014

[Luisa Reis de Castro]

FYI


*Vital Instability: Ontological Insecurity in African Urban Spaces *


A colloquium to be hosted by the African Centre for
Migration & Society (ACMS), Wits University Johannesburg, South Africa, 15
to 17 October 2014

Call for Papers and Travel Fellowship Applications





This colloquium
aims to trace, through layered social analysis, enfolding ontological
concerns,
the articulations of manifold insecurities, and responses to these, in
geographically
diverse African urban spaces. We view African urban spaces
as sites in which multiple temporalities, moral and political orders,
mediascapes and plural ontologies become enmeshed and reconfigured in
spatially and
demographically dense locales. Urban spaces include cities but also other
sites
exhibiting these characteristics, including: displacement camps, labour
compounds, ports, boats, and border posts, among others.  In addition we
include African diasporic
spaces outside of the continent in our geographic ambit. African urban
spaces are often characterized by
multiple forms of insecurity which may include: violence; joblessness;
indeterminate legal regimes; infrastructural fragility; deportations;
continual
forced removals by state and private actors; epidemic disease; the threats
of
malevolent spirits or witchcraft, among others. However these insecurities
are
not simply corrosive but may be vital and generative. Responses to
insecurities
have multiple articulations: evolving and diverse systems of healing,
protection, and ritual; inflamed creative and artistic production; civic or
legal
provocations and new forms of alliance and sociality.


Here we
aim to explore and theorize, through comparative papers, the manifold
insecurities experienced by urban dwellers, and responses to these, as
questions of individual, social and
spiritual being.  At stake in the
struggle for security are not only material or biological concerns but also
the
generation, stabilization and vitality of plural ontologies. We propose for
discussion here, with reference to in African urban spaces, ontological
insecurity arises from a proliferation
of synchronous, disjunctive and evolving ontological frameworks that in
exist
in spatial proximity.


This colloquium aims to
provide a comparative empirical and theoretical reflection on understanding
ontological insecurity, and responses to it, in urban African spaces. We
invite
participants from diverse fields in the social sciences including, but not
exclusively, anthropology, sociology, political science, urban geography,
social psychology among others. A collection of papers will be selected for
the
development of a special issue to be edited by Dr Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon
and Mr Peter
Kankonde Bukasa of the ACMS and Dr Lorena Nunez, Department of Sociology, as
part of the ACMS hosted Religion and Migration Initiative.   Prof. Dr
Hansjörg Dilger
from the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität
Berlin, will be a critical respondent.




Several full or partial
travel and accommodation fellowships will be provided.  Priority for travel
fellowships will be given
to African researchers (entailing those from Africa, living in Africa,
working
at an African institution, or part of an African diaspora community abroad)
and
conducting research in a non-South African context, but other applications
are
also welcomed.   Please submit abstracts
of no longer than 500 words by 30 May 2014 (responses will be given within
two
weeks), along with a CV to Matthew.Wilhelm-Solomon at wits.ac.za,
and copied to kankondepeter at gmail.com.
Draft written papers will be required to be submitted by end September for
circulation to respondents. Applications for funding should also be
included in
a motivation letter accompanying the application of no longer than 500
words,
specifying estimated travel requirements, along with potential alternate
sources of funding. Acceptance to the colloquium is not a guarantee of
publication.   The colloquium is funded by the Volkswagen
Foundation "Knowledge for Tomorrow - Postdoctoral
Fellowships in the Humanities in Sub Saharan Africa and North Africa"
programme http://www.vwfoundation-humanities.uni-hannover.de/
and hosted by the African Centre for Migration & Society
www.migration.org.za





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