CFP: Florida

full name / name of organization: 
Jeff Rice
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CFP: Collection

Florida

Globalization or post-industrialization, we are often told, has erased or diminished boundaries among states, nations, and peoples. Despite that declaration, public and private identity with specific spaces still dominate everyday perspectives. Indeed, studies of space have long proposed that spatial meanings cannot be contained in one place, but instead, must be considered as networks of shifting meanings influenced by competing and complimentary actors. In recent years, Florida has been a space of such shifts: it has affected the outcome of a presidential election, has been in the foreground of a shifting entertainment industry that struggles with digital rights, and has seen its housing market collapse. Politics, entertainment, and economics - these are only three actors within a larger network of spatial meaning still in need of definition, exploration, and consideration. To approach Florida or any space within Florida with only one actor in mind is to limit one's perspective regarding a space's potential meaning. The challenge, then, for any study of space is to expand outward from a given site so as not to be limited by what Henri Lefebvre called "the blind field," the ways we view concepts that "were shaped by the practices and theories of industrialization" Florida can serve as a focal point for understanding how such meanings can be teased out and presented in an age dominated not by industrialization, but by media, technology, and networks.

This collection proposes Florida as a nexus of various contested moments, ideas, concepts, and relations. In particular, contributors demonstrate how Florida serves as a space for composing and inventing new types of responses that traditional images of Florida do not provide. The economic, pedagogical, filmic, digital, professional, technical, tourist, and personal relations the state promotes provide insight into how a given meaning expands and contributes to new meanings. Rather than understand a specific phenomenon or idea as isolated, however, contributors explore the intersection of various moments in order to trace the ways spaces can be written. Each contribution, in turn, contributes to a larger compositional space we can call Florida.

This volume differs from other collections on space in that:
1. Each contribution will focus on a specific space in Florida (i.e., Miami, Epcot, Orlando, the Keys, etc.) and will break down specific meanings associated with that space in order to frame a new exploration.
2. Each contributor has a personal relationship with Florida (i.e., the person currently lives or works in Florida, the person grew up in Florida, the person graduated from a Florida university, etc.)
These two perspectives allow contributors to blend personal insight and experience with their object of study. The result of this juxtaposition will be a unique perspective of and relationship with the state of Florida.

This collection will contribute to both disciplinary studies of Florida as well as broader studies of space and place.

This call is for contributions on a specific Florida place from individuals who have a Florida connection. Of particular interest are creative and innovative pieces that explore a city, site, community, suburb, or other place in order to foreground a non-traditional, networked meaning a typical audience is not yet aware of. As a whole, the collection will pose contributions as part of a larger network called Florida.

Please send 250-300 word abstracts and bio to Jeff Rice j.rice@uky.edu by June 1, 2012.