2013 Annual Meeting of the Rural Sociological Society

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logo-rssThe 2013 Annual Meeting of the Rural Sociological Society was held at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel from 6-9 August. The theme was ‘An Injury to One is an Injury to All: Resistance and Resilience in an Age of Retrenchment’. This theme calls attention to the rural roots of solidarity and change in the context of global restructuring and political retrenchment. What can we learn from the struggles of rural peoples? How can we assist in the construction of local alternatives to the global that revitalize networks and enhance community and social well-being? Looking forward, how can the field of rural sociology continue to make contributions to public policy and civil society? Papers and sessions will deal with past and present rural social movements and with what we can learn from their successes and failures. Interest groups will be encouraged to develop sessions on the social bases of resistance and resiliency across place and space. The injuries endured by rural peoples across the globe—physical, social psychological, and socioeconomic—will be explored as a cross-cutting theme for scholarship and action.

Council Corner April 2013

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IRSA Council member Professor Lutgarda Tolentino moves to new position at WorldFish

Associate Professor Lutgarda Tolentino who is currently at the Agricultural Systems Cluster, College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines Los Banos is about to take up a new role. From June this year she will be moving to WorldFish, a CGIAR research centre, as a Knowledge Action Researcher. She will be involved in R&D work for the CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems in the Philippines. AAS are diverse farming systems where families cultivate a range of crops, raise livestock, farm or catch fish, gather fruits, and harness natural resources such as timber, reeds and wildlife. Aquatic Agricultural Systems occur where the rural environment exists within or alongside freshwater flood plains, coastal deltas and inshore marine waters. They are characterized by their dependence on seasonal changes in productivity, driven by seasonal variation in rainfall, river flow and/or coastal and marine processes.

As the Program Brief 2011-14 of the WorldFish states, more than 700 million people depend on aquatic agricultural systems for their livelihoods, but the constraints they face mean that a third or more live on less than $1.25 a day. There is a concern within the community development profession that many of the international public goods such as improved crop varieties and management packages have made limited contributions to improving the lives of these poorest and most marginalized people. To overcome this situation CGIAR is moving away from supply-driven approaches (research-for-development) to a much more demand-driven approach (research-in-development) to create solutions to current constraints. The research-in-development approach employs participatory action research methodology to initiate and support processes that have the potential to transform these communities in a way which will help to overcome poverty.

Making alternative food networks work: hitching the horse of critique to the wagon of improvement

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logo_aag_ann_conferenceThe ‘making alternative food networks work: hitching the horse of critique to the wagon of improvement’ conference was held in Los Angeles, California, 9-13 April 2013.

This was the annual conference of the Association of American Geographers and the organisers received papers on how alternative food networks are making a difference locally and globally.

More information is available at the AAG Annual Meeting website.

Professor Philip Lowe Receives Prize for Lifetime Achievement

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bertebosOn January 28th this year, Professor Philip Lowe, Professor of Rural Economy at the Newcastle University in Britain, received Sweden’s Bertebos prize for his significant contribution to sustainable rural development, land-use management and interdisciplinarity. The prestigious award, presented by the King of Sweden on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy, is for ‘distinguished and practical research in food, agriculture, ecology or animal health’. Congratulations Philip!

President’s corner September 2012 Geoffrey Lawrence

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geoffrey-lawrence

The XIII World Congress of Rural Sociology, held in Lisbon, Portugal, in July/August this year, was addressed by Professor Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.
De Schutter’s mandate, as described by the UN Human Right’s Council is to:

  • Promote the full realization of the right to food and the adoption of measures at the national, regional and international levels for the realization of the right of everyone to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger so as to be able fully to develop and maintain their physical and mental capacities;
  • examine ways and means of overcoming existing and emerging obstacles to the realization of the right to food;
  • continue mainstreaming a gender perspective and taking into account an age dimension in the fulfilment of the mandate, considering that women and children are disproportionately affected by hunger, food insecurity and poverty;
  • submit proposals that could help the realization of Millennium Development Goal No. 1 to halve by the year 2015 the proportion of people who suffer from hunger, as well as to realize the right to food, in particular, taking into account the role of international assistance and cooperation in reinforcing national actions to implement sustainable food security policies;
  • present recommendations on possible steps with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the right to food, including steps to promote the conditions for everyone to be free from hunger and as soon as possible enjoy fully the right to food, taking into account lessons learnt in the implementation of national plans to combat hunger;
  • work in close cooperation with all States, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as with other relevant actors representing the broadest possible range of interests and experiences, within their respective mandates, to take fully into account the need to promote the effective realization of the right to food for all, including in the ongoing negotiations in different fields;
  • continue participating in and contributing to relevant international conferences and events with the aim of promoting the realization of the right to food.

    • To access Professor De Schutter’s talk at the Rural Sociology Congress, please visit: http://www.sendspace.com/file/hh1w70

    President’s corner August 2012 Geoffrey Lawrence

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    geoffrey-lawrence

    Address to the General Assembly of IRSA from In-coming President, Professor Geoffrey Lawrence, Friday 3 August 2012

    I’ve entitled my short statement this afternoon: ‘Think Global, Act Rural’. It is not an original title. It is the title of a 2010 film by award-winning French director Coline Serreau. The film argues that industrial agriculture is degrading resources, poisoning the world’s fresh water supply, causing cruelty to animals and destroying farming systems that have fed the world sustainably for millennia. This film is about the emergence and consolidation of a corporate-endorsed farming system that pollutes the land, compromises human health, and undermines the well-being of millions of small-scale producers worldwide. While the film is not without faults, Serreau makes a basic and important point: if you want to change the global, you need to understand – and change – the rural.

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