Rural and Urban Futures Conference – Call for Papers

RURALIZATION has been observing future trends & dreams of our European youth for years, but we always seek new opportunities to learn and discover new angles to our research. That’s why we need YOU!

Many of the contemporary societal challenges have place-specific causes, manifestations and impacts, related to, for example, food system, energy system, transportation system, climate change, biodiversity and land use patterns. While some studies have a specific regional focus, many foresight and trend analyses lack the spatial dimension. Indeed, what is the nexus between places and futures?

RURALIZATION has observed that all trends have a region-specific incidence. We have also observed that future dreams of the youth differ substantially between the regional destinations, especially between urban and rural destinations. For this reason we are keen to know more about the interplay of futures-oriented developments and specific places: urban fabrics, rural areas in urban proximity, villages, remote rural areas. Are all the alternative futures place-specific – why, in which respects, how and with what consequences for the practice and policy?

To answer these and other questions and to even reach beyond our usual research methods by applying a “thinking outside the box”-approach, we would like to welcome you to share your ideas, insights and observations on (but not limited to) these key topics:

  1. Alternative futures (visions, images, scenarios) of specific rural and/or urban places
  2. Agency in designing and implementing place-based futures in rural and/or urban fabrics
  3. Land as an issue in place-based futures
  4. Sustainability transition in agriculture, forestry or fishing and the governance of natural resources
  5. Young people and place-based future trends
  6. Spatial dimension in the evolution of systems (food, energy, housing, mobility etc.)
  7. Futures-oriented spatial planning practices
  8. Methodologies for designing, assessing and communicating place-based futures
  9. Futures-oriented policies to address place-based societal challenges
  10. Path dependence of place-based futures – does the history matter?

The first step is to submit an abstract (max. 250 words) by May 10th, 2021. Authors of the accepted papers will be invited to give a presentation on their research insights and to exchange ideas with other participants at the RUFUS conference 2021!

Submit your abstract here: https://rufus2021.eu/call-for-papers/