Members of the IRSA board: Leif Jensen

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Leif Jensen is Distinguished Professor of Rural Sociology and Demography at The Pennsylvania State University, USA. He received a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Vermont and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His areas of specialization include demography, social stratification, and the sociology of economic change. His publications focus on a range of topics including poverty and inequality, underemployment and employment hardship, informal work, and immigration. In his international work he has studied children and youth, and gender and agriculture. Much of his scholarship focuses on rural people and places, and rural/urban differences. Over the years his research program has been supported by grants from the U.S. federal government and private foundations.

Members of the IRSA board: Myrian Paredes

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Myriam Paredes is an Ecuadorian rural sociologist that works as a professor and researcher at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) in Ecuador. Her teaching and research focusses on heterogeneity studies with feminist perspectives to understand the different faces of Food Sovereignty. Myriam has served as a member of the Latin American Rural Sociology association directorate as well as the co-organizer of the TIERRA group, a rural sociology studies organization of Ecuador. Current research includes leading the project “Evaluating and bringing to scale alternative food networks to address diabetes mellitus and hypertension” implemented by the consortium EKOMER formed by Montreal University, FLACSO and the NGO Ekorural. With her family Myriam runs an agroecological farm outside Quito and a delivery scheme similar to a CSA.

New IRSA board

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A new IRSA board has been elected.

President: Sally Shortall, University of Newcastle
Treasurer: Raymond Jussaume, Michigan State University
Members:
– Leif Jensen, Pennsylvania State University
– Keiko Tanaka, University of Kentucky
– Jan Flora, Iowa State University
– Carla Gras, National University of General San Martín
– Sergio Schneider, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul,
– Myriam Paredes
– Dr Sarina Kilham, Charles Sturt University
– Dr Rudi Messner, Queensland University of Technology
– Prof Hugh Campbell, University of Otago
– Joost Dessein, University of Gent  
– Ruth McAreavey, University of Newcastle
– Ilona Matysiak, Maria Grzegorzewska University Warsaw
– Fatmanil Doner, Istanbul Medenyet University
– Francesca Galli, University of Pisa
– Motoki Akitsu, Kyoto University
– Lutgarda Tolentino, University of Queensland
– Muhammad Saleh S. Ali
– Koichi Igegami, Kindai University

Board member bios will be posted to the website.

Special Collection of essays on COVID-19, Agriculture and Food

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The Editor-in-Chief of Agriculture and Human Values is very pleased to announce a Special Collection of essays on COVID-19, Agriculture, and Food, in Agriculture and Human Values.

This collection assembles in-the-moment essays and commentaries from over 120 scholars, authors, practitioners, farmers, activists, and analysts of agriculture and food systems around the world.  Please find attached the complete list of contributors, listed in alphabetical order (corresponding author last name) and titles of the essays in the Special Collection.  The list is prefaced by my brief editorial introduction.

I am very pleased to let you know that Springer has agreed to allow all articles in this collection to be freely available, for download and viewing, for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.  You can find the essays here (note there are four pages):

https://link.springer.com/journal/10460/topicalCollection/AC_f5a2c2971f8e17ca3f5401cfb405594c/page/1

Statement on the 2021 XV World Congress of Rural Sociology

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As previously announced, the IRSA Council recently decided unanimously to postpone the XV World Congress in Cairns due to COVID-19.  The XV World Congress is now scheduled for July 6th through the 10th of 2021 in Cairns, Australia. The venue remains the Pullman Cairns International Hotel.

We will maintain the basic program framework that was originally developed. All sessions and abstracts accepted for IRSA 2020 will be transferred to the provisional program for IRSA 2021. However, spaces will be available for additional oral presentations. We anticipate that the Congress organizers will be able to welcome new abstract submissions beginning June 30th.

We ask those who want to attend the Congress as a presenter to visit the Congress website at https://www.irsa2021.com/.

The Congress website provides new time-lines for registration for those who have not registered yet and other important information such as for entry visas and ETAS, accommodations, and so on.

The spread of COVID-19 has highlighted various problems, which are hidden behind conventional socio-economic systems. As for agriculture and rural society, challenges such as vulnerability of current agri-food systems, social exclusion and prejudice to poor and essential workers, frowning on the weak, concentration of disasters or calamity just same as bioconcentration have all been made more apparent. COVID-19 is forcing us to reconsider relations between global and local, central governments and local governments, rural and urban societies. We need serious reflection and a bold transformation of conventional socio-economic systems, including agri-food systems, which until now have been based on the principles of efficiency and profit maximization through selection and concentration.

At the 2021 Congress, I am sure there will be a lot of studies about the impacts of COVID-19 and perspectives post or with new Corona virus. I hope for an aggressive discussion on these on-going issues in Cairns.

Koichi Ikegami

President of IRSA

Conference: Ruralidades en América Latina: convergencias, disputas y alternativas en el siglo XXI

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The Latin American Rural Sociology Association (ALASRU) would like to remind rural sociologists everywhere of its upcoming conference to be held from November 25th through the 30th in Montevideo, Uruguay. More information about the conference can be found at http://alasru.org/index.php/congresos.

ALASRU is also the proud publisher of the Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Rurales. This journal is published on-line and the most recent issue can be found at http://www.ceil-conicet.gov.ar/ojs/index.php/revistaalasru/index

Invitation to the 2020 World Congress of Rural Sociology

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Whose versions of sustainability count in the urban century? How does spatial disadvantage intersect with injustices based on gender, ethnic, linguistic, religious and other dimensions of social difference? What opportunities do flows of people, capital, information and commodities between urban and rural spaces present for sustainable rural development?

As a delegate to the 2020 World Congress of Rural Sociology you will consider these and many other questions relevant to contemporary rural society.

Our venue, Cairns, sits on the traditional country of the Gimuy Yidinji and Yirrigandji peoples. Sandwiched between two World Heritage Areas – the Great Barrier Reef and the rainforests of Tropical North Queensland – and with a vast rural hinterland, Cairns is a hub for tourism and tropical agriculture at the heart of the Asia Pacific.

For information on key dates, session and paper submissions, travel and accommodation, registration and tours, check the Congress website.