The deadline for the abstracts submission has been extended to 9 November.
Further information bellow
Évora, Portugal, 11-12 December 2014
In the passage from the 20th to the 21st century, countries of Southern Europe were immersed in a process of modernization and globalization, to a greater or lesser extent. This restructuring process has been radically hit by the deep crisis faced by Europe at present. In addition to the consequences of the economic recession -namely loss of competitiveness and jobs-, and following international directives -namely EU and IMF-, neoliberal policies implemented by countries have caused a severe reduction of public support to social welfare and development.
The impact of these consequences on rural territories is leading to the deterioration of life conditions in an increasing number of rural areas. Many rural localities face the closure of schools, health centers as well as the reduction of social services and public transport facilities. Similarly, rural localities also suffer the depatrimonialization of commons and the increasing impoverishment of population.
Despite this adverse scene, many rural areas show some inspiring features: some of them manage to retain population and even to attract new residents; they become the frame for new economic initiatives; and they may offer to rural population new opportunities to deal with current difficulties, giving birth to new patterns of resilience of rural communities.
In sum, this crisis is causing a profound impact on rural territories as it erodes some of the processes of rural development that these countries were experiencing in the last decades and opens a new scenario in which the sustainability of many rural areas and rural populations might be at stake and a greater differentiation between successful and failed rural areas might emerge, giving birth to an increasing social inequality, etc.
The Research and Study Group of the ESRS ‘Southern and Mediterranean Europe: Social Change, Challenges and Opportunities’ organizes its I Mini-Conference in order to discuss the impact of the current crisis on the rural territories of countries of the Southern and Mediterranean Europe, the social change that these territories are experiencing, the challenges they have to face in the everyday life and the opportunities they may have in order to succeed in this new context. Therefore, contributions should be focused on these topics to stress the diverse problems and issues resulted from them, as well as on the new opportunities that emerge in this upheaval scenario: emergence of new social inequalities, new processes of empowerment and disempowerment of rural communities, resilient strategies, rural mobilities, migrations, new models of rural governance, rural welfare, the rural as an emancipatory space.
Abstracts should be submitted to mjesus.rivera@ehu.es (400 words maximum).
IMPORTANT DATES
– Abstract submission: 31 October
– Abstract acceptance notification: 10 November
SOUTHERN AND MEDITERRANEAN EUROPE: SOCIAL CHANGE, CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES 