[Commlist] CfA on Community-making in an age of polycrisis

*Call for Abstracts - "Community-making in an age of polycrisis" (SS36), 
2025 Regional Studies Association Conference.*

**

As part of the Regional Studies Association 2025 conference, Dr. Eeva 
Puumala, Dr. Johanna Hokka (Tampere University), and Dr Bridget Backhaus 
(Griffith University) are currently looking for participants for our 
special session entitled "Community-making in an age of polycrisis" 
(SS36). We invite anyone interested to submit an abstract of 200-300 
words that responds to the below call.

*"Community-making in an age of polycrisis" (SS36)*

At a time of growing geopolitical instability, escalating attacks on 
democracy, and the ongoing climate crisis, national, regional, and local 
futures alike feel increasingly uncertain. Though this age of polycrisis 
transcends borders, the experiences of life under crises are localized 
in the everyday and navigated differently according to their unique 
context. What is lost in broad-scale, transnational discussions of 
polycrisis is the nuanced and specific impacts on communities and how 
these crises can also change what community stands for, for diverse 
people. This special session seeks to explore how communities are 
formed, and how they navigate and negotiate the regional impacts and 
transformations prompted by polycrisis.

Here community is understood as a foundational building block of regions 
and nation-states: collectivising actors through shared geographies, 
interests, or lived experiences. However, communities are not 
pre-determined, rather they are constructed and maintained through 
ongoing processes and practices of inclusion and exclusion. Thus, in 
light of growing polarisation and social inequalities, we frame 
community-making as a contentious act, one that is both banal and 
radical in its aims. The global context of polycrisis has significant 
implications for the everyday practices of collaboration and 
coexistence, which may even require how the ‘common’ is thought about. 
This special session offers a space for interdisciplinary discussions of 
how communities are created and sustained in the face of intersecting 
and compounding crises, and the role of research in conceptualising and 
catalysing possible transformations.

We invite participants to share ideas related but not limited to the 
following themes:
– Community-making across difference
– Communities in conflict
– Urban and rural place-based communities
– Affective entanglements and communities
– Practices of care, compassion, and co-existence
– Regionalism, exclusion, and the limits of community
– Communication and identity in emerging and established communities
– Critical perspectives on participation
– Boundaries, peripheries and liminal spaces of communities
– Political and civic engagement within/across communities
– Creative engagements with community

The Regional Studies Association conference will take place in Porto, 
May 6-9, 2025.

The deadline for abstract submission is *19^th  December*, and the 
abstracts can be submitted here: 
_https://lounge.regionalstudies.org/Meetings/Meeting?ID=529 
<https://lounge.regionalstudies.org/Meetings/Meeting?ID=529>_

Be sure to select SS36 to be considered as part of this special session.

For further info on the conference please consult the following link: 
https://www.regionalstudies.org/events/rsa25/ 
<https://www.regionalstudies.org/events/rsa25/>


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