The Anthropology and Geography: Dialogues Past, Present and Future

Royal Anthropological Institute and Royal Geographical Society
4th – 7th June 2020,  British Museum/SOAS/Royal Geographical Society, London, UK.

PANEL TITLE
A Right to Light, A Right to Darkness? (IN08)

PANEL ORGANISERS
Dr Robert Shaw, Newcastle University, UK

Dr Mikkel Bille, Roskilde University, Denmark

ABSTRACT
Anthropologists and geographers have been among the scholars from multiple disciplines who have turned towards the study of everyday human interactions with natural light, artificial light and darkness. Researchers increasingly conceive of these as relational phenomena, the understanding of which cannot be separated. What has emerged from this research is a contradictory picture of trends of both increasing artificial light in some places, but increasing darkness and lack of access to light in other places. In this session we are interested in exploring how access to both light and darkness is changing across different socio-economic, cultural and political contexts. If there was a ‘right to light’ or a ‘right to darkness’, what would they look like and what would they protect? Do they conflict with each other? Are these rights under threat differently in urban and rural areas? How are technological and infrastructural changes, including but not limited to ‘smart’ technologies, shaping them? How is human access to both light and darkness interfering with non-human access? This session contains both conceptual and empirical explorations of this topic, exploring multiple dimensions of access (or lack of access) to natural light, artificial light or darkness

SUBMIT PAPERS HERE

Deadline for paper submissions 8th January 2020. You will be informed as to whether your paper is accepted by 20^th January 2020.

Please get in touch with Rob (Robert.shaw2@ncl.ac.uk) or Mikkel (mikkelbille@ruc.dk) if you’re interested in submitting a paper, or have any further questions.