CALL FOR PAPERS
XXIXth European Society for Rural Sociology Congress: Crises and the futures of rural areas
Rennes, France. July 3 – 7, 2023
WG 11: Social and political consequences of spatial inequalities – the rural gap, peripheralisation and left behind rural areas
https://esrs2023.institut-agro-rennes-angers.fr/call-papers
convenors:
@Jerzy Bański, @Josef Bernard, @Luis Camarero, @Renato do Carmo, @Andreas Klärner, @Jesús Oliva, @María J. Rivera
Objectives: The objective of the Working Group is to offer a platform for discussing social and spatial inequalities embedded in centre-periphery and urban-rural relations. The Working Group addresses (1) the rural gap issue, which refers to the inability of rural regions to match the standards of quality of life, services, and opportunities with urban areas, and it investigates (2) the specific role and position of rural areas and rurality in debates about “places, that don’t matter“ and „left-behind regions“.
We plan a meeting that enables a thorough feedback for the presenters, with the potential for arranging a joint publication in form of a special issue or an edited volume.
Topic: In recent years, growing scholarly attention has focused on the social and political consequences of spatial inequalities within nation states, which have been repeatedly described as a risk to social and territorial cohesion, a repository of social and political cleavages, and a source of perceived injustice and marginalization in the rural population.
Spatial inequalities regarding rural areas have been described using the concept of the rural gap. It refers to the inability of rural regions to match the standards of quality of life, services, and opportunities with urban areas. The down-sizing of public services, austerity policies and current economic crises give rise to growing social concerns about regional inequalities and fear of losing the local futures under the processes of peripheralization. Political consequences of the rural gap are reflected in the discussion of “the revenge of places that don’t matter”. It argues that spatial inequalities lead to widespread discontent in the populations of disadvantaged regions who feel “left behind” and neglected by central governments. In this context there is renewed discussion of conflictual centre-periphery and urban-rural relations leading to political cleavages in modern nation states. Rurality and rural regions play an important role in the discourse.
In these lines, the WG particularly invites papers dealing with geographical peripheralization and its social, demographic and political consequences, rural-urban divides and rural well-being, the role of mobilities in access to opportunities and services, practical examples of areas feeling left behind, as well as the discursive framing of rurality and peripherality in public and political discourse.
Format: Extended discussant workshop: The convenors intend to prepare an intensive meeting with an in-depth feedback for the presenters. Applicants are invited to develop full/draft papers to which discussants will be assigned in advance and that will be commented by discussants during the workshop. However, organisers welcome sole presentations as well and finalise WG schedule and choreography according to the number of participants.