7th European Conference on
Agriculture and Rural Development in China

London September 2004

Old Royal Naval College, University of Greenwich, Greenwich, London

Wednesday 8 to Friday 10 September 2004


Recently, a group of supporters of ECARDC set up a steering committee to
revitalise the bi-annual conference. It is now on a much firmer foundation,
and we look forward to your participation in the next meeting, to be held
at the Old Royal Naval College campus of the University in Greenwich, part
of the beautiful Greenwich World Heritage Site.
http://www.greenwichfoundation.org.uk/


Invitation and Call for Papers

The next European Conference on Agriculture and Rural Development in China
will be held in London in September 2004 at the University of Greenwich.
(This conference was previously arranged for 2002, and then postponed).

The conference will last for three days, and is planned to include an
opening plenary session, with a panel discussion on the key topic of rural
poverty. It will start on Wednesday 8 September at 9am, and end at 3.30 on
Friday 10 September. You should therefore aim to travel to London by 7
September at the latest to be there for the start, and for the full
conference you will need to stay for three nights.

We hope to be able to encourage non-academics with an interest in China’s
rural development to join us. These participants would include development
NGOs, donors, and other interested groups. Your suggestion of participants
from such groups is welcomed.


Papers and presentations

The conference working language will be English. If you are unable to
present in English, please make your own arrangements to have a colleague
speak for you, or contact the organiser in good time with a translation of
the presentation in advance.

Please note that it is expected that there will be a large number of people
wanting to present papers, and there will be plans for two parallel
sessions, but no more.

Abstracts must be submitted by the registration date if you wish your paper
to be considered for inclusion in the conference. Papers should be
submitted in advance so that participants are able to read them before
coming.

It is anticipate that an edited volume of selected papers will be published
after the conference, as has happened from previous ECARDC meetings.


Organising themes

The overall theme for the meeting is Inclusion and Exclusion in China’s
Rural Development, with a subsidiary theme on the Rural China and the
Global Economy. Presentations which link these two would be particularly
welcome (e.g. the impact of WTO membership on rural poverty). We hope to
have an initial plenary with a keynote speaker and round table panel
discussion on the main theme.

You are therefore invited especially to contribute papers related to these
two themes, or to extract from your work something that is relevant to them
for your presentation.

The Inclusion and Exclusion in Rural Development theme could be organised
on the following basis:
· Measurement and associated controversies (different baselines;
World Bank  claims; Chinese claims);
· Conceptions of rural poverty (regional/spatial versus ‘class-based’
poverty; health poverty; education poverty; food/nutritional poverty)
· Causes of rural poverty and controversies over these (resource
poverty; regional issues; class-based poverty; national minority issues;
asset and income distribution issues)
· Gender issues; (differential male and female access to resources,
income, assets, food, welfare, healthcare)
· Health and education factors in poverty- as both causes and
consequences of poverty
· Taxation and revenue issues; the peasant burden
· Rural governance; institution-building
· HIV/AIDS and rural impacts (drug use; blood collecting)
· Migration issues, including forced migration and displacement
· National minorities and poverty levels and causes;
· Anti-poverty policies and their controversies (welfare programmes
and their decline; county designation and government assistance; foreign
aid; NGOs;) other remedies for poverty
· Environmental problems and natural resource use and abuse

The second theme is also of great significance: the impact of China in the
World Economy: impacts on agriculture and rural areas. Themes that might be
included here are:

· Impacts of WTO membership on trading of agricultural outputs;
· Impacts on sales of domestic and imported agricultural inputs
· TVE products in international trade,
· forest products including timber, herbal medicines,
· rangeland products including meat, livestock, medicines
· compliance, legal requirements, regulation, standards, health issues
· investment issues, inward and outward
· property rights issues, privatisation, governance and public
ownership
· poverty and the WTO; impacts of all the above on income and asset
distribution.

The structure of the conference in relation to these themes will of course
depend on the enthusiasm for them, and the number of participants who want
to be a part of them. On the assumption that there will be other interests
beyond these themes, the following themes are suggested as alternative
organising principles. Please submit your own ideas for other topics. Where
practical, these themes can be used to structure the various sessions.

General themes as alternatives:
· Agriculture and farming – production issues
· Finance issues, banking, taxation
· Environment and natural resources
· Non-farm economy – off-farm activities – rural industry and
commerce, TVEs
· Governance and local government, village elections, democracy
· Gender issues
· National minority issues
· Cultural expressions, religion
· Health, education, age issues
· Environmental and resource issues
· Genetic modification of crops
· Policy debates
· Where are we now on the ‘Who will feed China’ controversy?

Papers will be strictly timed and will include an allocation for questions
and discussion. It is not intended to use discussants, in order to extend
general question and discussion time.

Please note that people may be able to use Powerpoint, but at the moment we
cannot confirm its availability. Overhead projectors will be available. You
may of course bring your own equipment for Powerpoint.

All papers should be available in advance, and it is intended to make them
accessible through a conference website for downloading. For those without
easy internet access, limited copies will be available at the conference.
Authors will be expected to bring sufficient extra copies for this purpose,
or to pay for printing when they arrive. Again this is to keep costs down.


Costs

It is not possible yet to give the actual costs, but it is likely that the
conference fee will be about £80. The (optional) conference dinner is
likely to cost about £30. There may be some limited financial support for
participants from People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. It is
possible that sponsorship may enable us to reduce the conference fee, but
this will not be known for some time.

Payment will be required in advance, probably by July 2004, by cheque or
credit card where possible. There is likely to be a discount for early
payment.


Accommodation

There will be places enough for all participants in a nearby student
accommodation, costing about £40 per night (not including breakfast). Hotel
accommodation for those who prefer it will be substantially more expensive
locally and even more in central London, but a list of alternatives can be
supplied. Cheaper hostel-type accommodation is available locally – please
indicate if this is of interest to you and significant in enabling you to
attend.

For those wanting to arrive before the conference, it should be possible to
book additional days in the hall of residence. Unfortunately, this is not
available after the conference, and alternatives will be needed.

Meals

At the moment it is not expected that any meals will be included in the
conference fee. For those in the hall of residence, light breakfast will be
available at a small cost. Alternatively, breakfast will be available on
campus.

Lunches will be available in the university café on campus, or at many
restaurants just outside.

Apart from the Conference dinner (optional extra charge), evening meals
will be taken outside the campus, where there are many restaurants with
different types of cuisine from around the world.

Transport

Greenwich is located about 4 miles southeast of the centre of London, on
the south bank of the river Thames.

London is served by several airports. The easiest for access to Greenwich
is Gatwick, from where you can take a train to London Bridge station in
London, and change to a train to Greenwich. London City Airport (in London
Docklands) has lots of connections to Europe, and is not far away on the
opposite side of the river Thames. From Heathrow airport you travel to
central London by Underground or Heathrow Express train, with a change to
the Underground and then train to Greenwich.

Greenwich is served by trains from London stations of Waterloo, Charing
Cross, London Bridge, Cannon Street. It is also on the Docklands Light
Railway with lines from Bank and Tower Hill in central London, and from
Stratford (for connections to City Airport).

Further details will be given nearer the conference.

Local Attractions in Greenwich

Greenwich contains the World Heritage Site designated by UNESCO in 1997,
which incorporates the Royal Naval College (University of Greenwich), the
National Maritime Museum, the Royal Observatory (with the Greenwich
Meridian). Greenwich is a pleasant suburb of London, and next to the site
is the Cutty Sark, a 19th century clipper (sailing ship) which used to
bring tea from China to England!

You can see more at:
http://www.mykreeve.net/london/greenwich/royal_naval_college/

Registration Deadline
Notification that you are participating is needed soon as possible, but no
later than 31 May 2004. Please cut and paste the form below into an email
and return it to the address given, or post it. Please note that ECARDC has
no secretariat, no office, and that all organisation of the conferences is
done on a voluntary basis by the host organiser.

If you plan to present a paper, you must submit an abstract (of around 400
words) at this time.

Correspond please only with Terry Cannon at this email address and not
ECARDC list.
School of Humanities, Old Royal Naval College, University of Greenwich
30 Park Row, Greenwich, London SE10 9LS
Tel: +44 20 8331 8944   or   +44 1634 883025  Fax: +44 20 8331 8850
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Registration form
Please post to the above address, or copy and paste into an email to:
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Name ________________________________________________________

Organisation __________________________________________________

Address ______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

Email

Phone

Fax

Do you expect to present a paper?

Provisional title or topic


Do you want your presentation to be incorporated into one of the themes?
(indicate which)

Do you want to contribute a Poster instead of presenting a paper?

Will you require accommodation?

If so, is it essential that you have a cheap place (e.g. youth hostel) to
enable you to attend?

If you are from outside Europe, are you able to attend only if you get
financial support?


Do you want to suggest any individuals or organisations or newsletters
which should be notified of the meeting?



Give their full name, address and email details below: