RHN 68/2014 | Event
Organising committee: Paul Brassley, University of Exeter; Yves Segers and
Leen Van Molle; ICAG and MoSa, University of Leuven
27- 29 August 2014, University of Leuven, Belgium
Knowledge networks in rural Europe since 1700
The aim of this conference is to unravel the mechanisms of knowledge production, diffusion and reception in the agricultural sector and in the countryside. It aims specifically at fueling research and critical reflection on rural knowledge from an innovative and promising perspective, namely that of networks. According to the sociologists Van Dijk and Castells, we live nowadays in a ‘network society’ steered by new means of communication and spreading of knowledge. It will be revealing to analyse how the sites and bearers of rural and agricultural knowledge (individuals, groups, institutions, media) in Europe, and in its colonial territories, were connected to each other and to the non-rural world, how they influenced each other, and how these networks shaped agriculture itself and sustained, even up to now, a more or less distinct rural identity.
Source: ICAG Interfaculty Centre for Agrarian History - KU Leuven