The Maringá State University (in Paraná, Brazil) invites to the International Symposium on work in agriculture 2016, 8.-11. November. The aims of the symposium are to capitalize on knowledge of changes in farming work, to take into account the diversity and dynamics of the forms of work organization in different farming models (family-based, agribusiness, high-tech…), and to reflect on the future of the work of men and women, family workers and paid employees. For further information, please see attached flyer (PDF) or visit the symposium website.

The theme of the 2015 conference will be “Knowing Rural: Situating the Lived Experience of Rurality in Definitions of Rural” and will take place in Madison, WI August 6-9, 2015.

Around the globe, official definitions of rural vary, and each definition has implications for how we understand and give meaning to rural spaces and places. Making sense of rural experiences requires understanding the diverse geographies, economies, and communities that make up rural places. As rural populations age and rural communities confront the emergent complexities of contemporary life, the lived experience of rurality is undergoing rapid transformation. What social, economic and political factors are shaping and re-shaping the lived experience of rural populations? How are rural populations responding and adapting to these changes? And, finally, how might these changes challenge the ways we understand and define rurality? We invite you explore these and a wide variety of other questions at our next annual meeting. We look forward to seeing you in Madison.

Extended Abstracts:
Extended abstracts should be approximately 350-500 words (about 1.5-3 pages) and briefly outline the purpose and theoretical framing of the paper, methods and data used, and preliminary (if available) or expected findings. We offer this description as a general guideline and understand some papers may include other information.
The Extended Abstracts deadline is February 6, 2015.
To submit, please visit the “Call for Papers” tab on the RSS website, or click here.
Please contact Lauren McKinney or Jessica Crowe with any questions or ideas for special panels and events at the Annual Meeting.

The second “Agriculture in Urbanizing Society” will be held in Rome, Italy, 14-17 September 2015. It is being jointly organised by Pisa University and Wageningen University. A call for sessions is currently open. Please click here for more information.

The XXVI European Society for Rural Sociology Congress will be held in Aberdeen Scotland, 18-21 August 2015. The theme for the Congress is “Places of Possibility? Rural Societies in a Neoliberal World”. Visit http://www.esrs2015.eu/ to read the call for working groups, and to register your interest for the conference.

The Fifth CIRIEC International Research Conference on Social Economy will be held in Lisbon, Portugal, from 15-18 July 2015. The call for abstracts has been extended until 31 January 2015.
All information can be found on the conference website.
The call is available here.
Submission is online only before deadline January 31st.

Toronto, Canada August 10-14, 2016
Sustainable and Just Rural Transitions: Connections and Complexities

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. In the coming months, we will invite session submissions that invoke the overarching theme of the XIV World Congress of Rural Sociology: the connections and complexities shaping the prospects for sustainable and just rural transitions in the present era of crisis and change.

Click here for more details

The European Society of Rural Sociology invites PhD students to the 2014 Summer School on the 7th to 12th of September. The 2014 ESRS PhD Summerschool will take place near Avignon, France. In order to apply PhD students have to submit an abstract by the 31st of May. Please see attached file for further details.

The Chair of “Food Studies: Food, Culture and Health” at Taylor’s Toulouse University Centre invites submissions of papers and posters relevant to the theme “Towards an International Network for Studying Food Habits”. The Research Seminar will be helt at Taylor’s University, Subang Jaya, Malaysia at 20th and 21 May 2014. Abstract deadline March 25, 2014. For further details please read attached PDF.

The Programme Committe for the 5th International Conference of the Asian Rural Sociological Assocation decided to expand the deadlines of abstracts and full papers. New deadline for Abstracts: February 15, 2014. New deadline for Full Papers: March 31, 2014. For further details please see the attached Revised ARSA 2nd Circular.

Call for papers: The 2nd Energy & Society Conference (Midterm conference of ESA RN 12, in cooperation with ISA RC 24) will be held in Krakow 4th – 6th June 2014. The conference theme is Energy Transitions as Societal Transitions: Challenges for the Present and the Future. Abstract deadline 15th of December 2013. Continue reading →