From 30th September to 2nd October, the congress ‘New Cultural Geography’ ("Neue Kulturgeographie") on the topic ‘Speculative geographies of the new climate regime’ will take place at the University of Augsburg and is organised by the Chair for Urban Climate Resilience. The Call for Sessions is now online.

The complete call for sessions got published on the official Webseite: https://kulturgeographie.org/call-for-submissions-nkg-xx-augsburg/

Background:

In recent years, speculative thinking – generally understood as systematic reflection on fundamental questions of human existence (e.g. knowledge) and the nature of things (e.g. reality) – has experienced a renaissance and developed into a dazzling field of academic debate across large parts of the social sciences and humanities. Whether in the form of ’speculative realism‘ (Bryant et al. 2011), ’speculative pragmatism‘ (Stengers 2011), ’speculative empiricism‘ (Debaise 2017) or ’speculative research‘ (Wilkie et al. 2017), all these interventions share the aim of creating space for alternative futures by emphasizing the principles of contingency over necessity, novelty over stability, symmetry over anthropocentrism, and plural rather than complete forms of knowledge (Williams & Keating 2022).

At the “Neue Kulturgeographie” (NKG) conference, held at the University of Augsburg from 30^th September to 2^nd October, 2025, we aim to collaboratively explore what this new speculative thinking might mean for geography. In light of the New Climate Regime (Latour 2018), but also due to the progressive breaching of the human-machine divide through AI and the global rise of undemocratic structures, we want to further ask how speculative thinking could better equip us to confront these developments.

We invite contributions from all disciplines to engage with these questions. To foster a structured discussion, the conference theme is grouped into three thematic categories: Ontologies, Epistemologies, and Geographies.

Call for Contributions

We are looking forward to submissions and contributions that reflect the main theme of the conference conceptually, methodologically and/or empirically. Submissions from the broader field of cultural geography that do not directly address the central theme are also welcome and will be included in a dedicated fourth block of sessions.

Proposals for sessions (90 minutes) should consist of three to four presentations or explore alternative formats such as plenary discussions, fishbowl sessions, or other innovative approaches. These session proposals will be published in advance, allowing interested contributors to apply with their respective presentations. Alternatively, pre-curated sessions, where all participants are determined beforehand, are also encouraged.

For individual contributions, participants are invited to submit paper proposals, which will be thematically grouped into open sessions by the organizing committee.

Deadline for submissions of (curated) sessions: 31^st March 2025

Deadline for submissions of paper presentations: 31^st May 2025

All submissions should be sent via email to nkg@geo.uni-augsburg.de

We are looking forward to receiving diverse and inspiring contributions that will enrich the debate and deepen our collective exploration of speculative geographies at NKG 2025.

Please visit the website https://kulturgeographie.org for further information.