Call for Papers (Deadline Monday 13 February 2017)
RGS-IBG Annual Conference, Royal Geographical Society, London
Wednesday 30 August – Friday 1 September 2017
Organiser: Nick Rush-Cooper (Durham University): nicholas.rush-cooper@durham.ac.uk
Sponsored by Digital Geographies Working Group
Session Abstract
Computer, video, mobile and digital games are fundamentally geographical: They are sites of social relation, spaces of exploration and agency, affective experiences and are developed through globalised and globalising technologies and networks. This session seeks to stimulate debate on digital games as sites and objects of geographical enquiry by bringing together papers that examine games, players and the games industry by asking ‘how are games geographical’? Key questions that games present geographers include: How might we attend to the affective and non-representational aspects of games and game playing (Ash 2012)? Often aligned with colonial, militarised geopolitics (Graham 2010, Shaw 2010) yet also used for critique and contestation, how might we understand games as sites of political representation and agency? What methodological challenges do game spaces present (Paiva 2015)? What are the global economic and labour geographies of the games industry? What role do geospatial and mobile technologies play? The use of games in data collection, or game-creation as method? By bringing together diverse empirical and theoretical responses through a focus on games as objects and sites of enquiry, this session will offer a consideration of digital games in their specificity and the challenges and opportunities they present for geographical study.
Topics might include, but are not limited to:
- Games as sites of cultural and political representation and agency.
- Affective, embodied & non-representational understandings of game spaces & game playing
- Game-worlds as social spaces.
- The role of geospatial and mobile technologies.
- Data collection through games.
- Games, smart cities and ‘hacking cities’
- The global economic and labour geographies of the games industry.
Instructions for Authors
Please submit title, name & affiliation and an abstract of no more than 250 words to the session organizer, Nick Rush-Cooper:Nicholas.rush-cooper@durham.ac.uk by Monday 10 February.
The expected format is 15-minute presentation slots with 5 minutes for questions afterwards and a chaired discussion. Submissions from post-graduate researchers are especially welcomed.
