The main objective of this volume is to address a timely and pressing issue in contemporary academic and policy debates on rural development: the dynamics, drivers, and consequences of population decline in rural areas. By focusing on the factors influencing the intensity and spatial variability of depopulation, the book aims to provide a comprehensive analytical framework for understanding how this demographic challenge shapes rural societies and territories. It also seeks to critically examine and synthesise the social, economic, spatial, and political impacts of population decline, highlighting their implications for rural sustainability and cohesion.

The volume will be included in the Research in Rural Sociology and Development book series by Emerald Publishing, which is indexed in Scopus. The series publishes research at the forefront of rural sociology.

The full Call for Chapters with the deadline is available in the following link: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/calls-for-books/call-chapters-rural-depopulation-europe-challenges-resilience-and-opportunities

The editors invite abstracts of no more than 400 words on topics related to rural depopulation, along with short CVs of the chapter authors. Abstracts should be sent to both Editors: Apostolos G. Papadopoulos at apospapa@hua.gr and Maria Jesus Rivera at mariajesus.rivera@unavarra.es

Apply for the Duke of Northumberland International Visiting Research Fellowship 2026
The Centre for Rural Economy (CRE) at Newcastle University invites applications for an International Visiting Research Fellow. The fellowship offers £6,000 to support travel, accommodation, and visas for a six-week visit (or two shorter visits) to collaborate with CRE staff on research activities. Fellows will engage with PhD students and deliver seminars. To apply, submit a CV (max 2 pages), cover letter (1 page), and a one-page outline of planned activity and CRE collaborator. See attached PDF for more information. Deadline March 20th 2026

The congress website is now launched, please visit https://www.even3.com.br/sober-irsa2026/?lang=en for updated information on the 16th World Congress.

The Centre for Rural Economy at Newcastle University has an opening for a PhD studentship to Research Farm Tenancies in the North East of England. Click here for more details

Penn State University has two positions available as Assistant Professor in Rural Sociology. For further details and instructions on how to apply, please click on the links below:

• Assistant Professor in Rural Sociology
• Assistant Professor-Rural Sociology
  

Sponsors: RC40 (Agriculture and Food), RC23 (Science and Technology), RC24 (Environment and Society)

• Allison Loconto and Maki Hatanaka, President & Secretary RC40
• Nadia Asheulova and Gary Bowden, President & Secretary RC23
• Koichi Hasegawa and Debra Davidson, President & Secretary RC24

Proposal Coordinator: Steven Wolf (RC40)

Abstract & Justification
Analysis of metrics, and standards more generally, has emerged as an important focus within studies of environmental governance. Accountability is attracting increasing attention, as there is a need to address questions about material consequences as part of an effort to move beyond analysis of institutional design.

Heightened attention to metrics has accompanied increasing emphasis on market-based and outcome-based policy designs, but bureaucratic modes of governance have long been predicated on the specification of categories and systems of representation. Metrics can be understood as a resource for democratic accountability, and they can be instruments of authoritarian discipline at a distance. Metrics support empirical analysis and policy learning, but at the same time they obscure knowledge claims, technical uncertainty, and alternative problem definitions. This ambiguity demands attention. Analysis of the metrics of governance, and the governance of metrics, presents opportunities for theoretical and empirical engagement on questions of “Power, Violence, and Justice: Reflections, Responses, and Responsibilities”(2018 Theme).

This collaboration between three ISA Research Committees aims to realize topical, theoretical, and methodological synergies. Linkages between environment and agrifood production and consumption are highlighted in the biological and land-based nature of farming (inputs to agriculture) and by the negative implications of agriculture for water, biodiversity, and climate (outputs of agriculture). Attention to interdependence among discursive constructs, local action, political economic structures, and multiply-scaled material flows characterize both the sociology of environment and agrifood sociology. Science and Technology Studies has served to highlight the socially embedded nature of technical acts including promulgation of standards. Further, this field has championed a methodological commitment to analysis of (grounded, local, actor-centered) practice as a complement to production of overarching histories of design (abstract representations).