** High Priority **
Apologies for cross postings
CALL FOR PAPERS
XI WORLD CONGRESS OF RURAL SOCIOLOGY TRONDHEIM, NORWAY, JULY 25 - 30, 2004
SOCIAL FORESTRY: CRITICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF FORESTS
IN RURAL SPACES
Workshop convenor: Paul Milbourne, School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff
University, UK, email [log in to unmask]
Forests continue to represent significant components of rural land in many
countries. Traditionally, academic investigations of these forests have focused
on the science and economics of their production and management; themes that
have only been of limited concern to rural sociologists. More recently, though,
shifts in forestry policies and practices in developed countries have begun to
open up more interesting social science research agendas.
Changes in global timber markets and the increasing importance of discourses of
sustainable development have meant that forests are now less likely to be
constructed solely as economic resources requiring particular styles of
scientific management. Instead, forests have been awarded a broader social
significance linked to rural regeneration and development, leisure and
recreation, social well-being and socio-cultural identities.
Over recent years, sociologists and geographers working around ideas of social
and cultural natures have focused critical attention on some of these themes,
with attention given to the shifting political economies of forests, their
regulation and governance, and the ways that forests are awarded a wide range of
social and cultural meanings at different spatial scales. The aim of this
workshop is to develop these types of critical assessment of the broader social
significance of forests and forestry in rural areas.
Offers of papers are sought that address one or more of the following themes,
with particular reference to advanced capitalist countries: political economies
of forests, including the shifting modes of production and regulatory processes
associated with forestry linkages between the forestry sector and other 'nature
industries', such as mining and water production the changing relationships
between the private and state forestry sectors connections between the forestry
sector, rural development and rural governance the role of forestry within
projects of area-based regeneration and social inclusion in rural spaces social
and cultural meanings of forests, including place-based forest identities
interactions between forestry, forests and place-based communities constructions
of forests as spaces of belonging, deviancy, safety and fear.
The deadline for the receipt of abstracts is 12th February 2004. Information on
how submit an abstract and the Congress can be found at:
http://www.irsa-world.org/XI/program/index.html
Research Associate
Environment Research Group
Sch of City and Regional Planning
Cardiff University
King Edward VII Ave
Cardiff CF10 3WA
+44 (0) 2920876243
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