Welcome to Ruralities and Regions in Transition - Renewing thinking and action for new times

Rural areas across the globe have become sites of ‘sustainable’ development. Through climate interventions such as wind power, climate smart forestry and agriculture and mining, rural areas are taken for granted by politicians and companies alike as the basis for sustainable futures. In parallel, a sense of crisis is an underlying current in rural areas. Depopulation, conflicts over land as well as increasing xenophobic rhetoric are setting the boundaries for what actually is sustainable development in rural and regional politics. Policy measures that strive for sustainable business practices and citizens can have contradictory outcomes for everyday rural lives and the rural economy. But stories of rural and regional development are not only of struggles over resources, colonial domination and exclusions but also about local mobilisation, innovation and collective action aimed at strengthening communities and meeting the everyday needs of the people who live in and care for rural environments. All this and more demand close examination and reflection on the rural. We need new ways to think and act in times of transition. Please join us in Örebro in November!