RHN 81/2015 | Call
XIV World Congress of Rural Sociology 2016
10-14 August 2016, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada
Deadline for submissions: 1 November 2015
Sustainable and Just Rural Transitions: Connections and Complexities
XIV World Congress of Rural Sociology 2016
Global environmental changes, shifting resource scarcities, deepening social inequalities, both innovation and crisis in urban centers, and new patterns of voluntary and involuntary migrations are among the conditions and dynamics now shaping the futures of rural places and people. Intensifying and intertwining forces of commodification, industrialization, neoliberalization and globalization over the last several decades have produced uneven and arguably illusory gains, given evidence of the increasingly precarious position of labor and livelihoods throughout the rural world and the widespread distribution of environmental harm and ecological degradation. Within these general patterns and trends, circumstances can vary greatly across rural contexts within and between continents.
Rigorous analysis of the interconnected challenges now experienced by rural people and places, as well as comprehensive assessment of the proposed solutions and diverse experiments now underway will increase our understanding of the pathways which may be open, blocked or yet to be created for movement towards more sustainable and just rural futures. Sociologists and other social scientists addressing rural concerns play indispensable roles in identifying, analyzing and assessing the forms and consequences – both intended and unintended – of the diverse transition aspirations and experiences of rural people and places.
We invite you to submit a paper for presentation at the Congress. Abstracts (in English and limited to 1500 characters or approximately 300 words) must be submitted to one specific session. Each session will run for at least one 90 minute time period that can accommodate up to four presentations of 15 minutes each to allow time for discussion. (Some sessions will consist of sequential 90 minute meetings should there be a larger number of papers addressing that topic.) The program committee will work to ensure disciplinary diversity and content compatibility when assigning individual papers within the sessions.
The XIV World Congress of Rural Sociology encourages interdisciplinary dialogue, exchange and collaboration in order to enhance the contributions and applications of sociological inquiry for understanding and improving the life conditions and experiences of people located in, identified with, and concerned about, rural places and communities worldwide. The program for the Congress will include keynote lectures by invited speakers providing fresh, integrative insights and challenges for rural sociological inquiry and practice. It will also include varied opportunities and venues for participants to present results of their research and engage with other scholars and practitioners from around the world, within traditional paper sessions, thematic panel discussions or debates, roundtables, workshops or performances.
Source: www.ryerson.ca