Message posted on 14/03/2018

Invitation to EASA panel on railroads

Dear all,

We would like to invite you to submit your paper abstracts to our EASA = panel "Revisiting Railroads: Sociality, Mobility and Infrastructure=E2=80=9D= https://nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2018/conferencesuite.php/panels/6595

The abstract submission deadline is April, 9. The submission is executed = through the online submission platform = https://nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2018/conferencesuite.php/paperproposal/6595=

In case of questions or queries, please, contact panel chairs: Olga Povoroznyuk, University of Vienna, e-mail: = olga.povoroznyuk@univie.ac.at Stephanie McCallum, University of California, Santa Cruz, e-mail: = stephiemccallum@gmail.com Peter Schweitzer, University of Vienna, e-mail: = peter.schweitzer@univie.ac.at =20

Panel abstract

Mobility and the transport of goods have rested on transportation = infrastructures since times immemorial. While railway technology = characterized the industrial transformations and nation-building = processes in Europe during the 19th century, renewed interest in = railways stems from technological advances of the 21st century, the = production of new geopolitical and resource frontiers, and the increased = density and sprawl of urban centers. Railways, however, produce = particular configurations of remoteness and (dis)connection, linking = certain places and disavowing others. Their promise of progress and = modernity entangled in complex local histories is often haunted by the = specter of failure. In the growing body of anthropological literature on = transportation infrastructures, railroads have largely fallen out of the = main research focus, particularly in the recent studies with their = methodological shift from a developmentalist paradigm to one focused on = material culture. This panel aims to extend the scope of topics = connected to railroads as well as to revisit the approaches to the = studies of (transportation) infrastructures existing in anthropology and = social sciences. We invite presentations focusing on railroads as = (post)modern projects engendering new forms of (im)mobility, remoteness = and (dis)connection, social engineering and interactions, involving = human and non-human agents. How have railroads been used to engineer = particular configurations of remoteness and dis/connection? How do = particular affordances of railroad infrastructure, in specific = ethnographic locales, shape (im)mobility? What are some of the = entanglements and encounters with human and nonhuman others engendered = or enabled by railroads? What is the affective and material life of = railroads in contexts of modernization and ruination?=20

Olga Povoroznyuk Postdoctoral researcher Department for Social and Cultural Anthropology University of Vienna Universit=C3=A4tsstra=C3=9Fe 7 A-1010 Wien=20

https://ksa.univie.ac.at/institut/mitarbeiterinnen/post-docs/povoroznyuk-o= lga/ http://core.univie.ac.at tel.: +43 1 4277 49580 e-mail: olga.povoroznyuk@univie.ac.at

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