Call for papers - Religion and rurality: people, place, and faith
RGS-IBG Annual Conference, London, 30th August – 2nd September 2016.
Jesse Heley and Rhys Dafydd Jones, DGES, Aberystwyth University
The emergence of a ‘new geographies of religion’ (Kong, 2001) in recent years has led to a revived and critical geographical engagement with religion, with work on religion and identity (e.g. Hopkins, 2010), planning and place-making (e.g. Dunn, 2001) institutional approaches to accommodating religious differences (e.g. Mills, 2012), and the role of faith and belief in informing citizen activities (e.g. Beaumont, 2008). However, there is a distinct urban focus to these experiences. While spiritual activities in rural areas are well-documented (Heelas and Woodhead, 2005), there is a need for more comprehensive consideration of religion, belief, and faith in rural settings, where there are different social, economic, cultural, and demographic contexts at work. We welcome papers which consider religion, spirituality, belief, and faith in rural settings around the following themes:
• Post-secular activities in rural settings;
• Landscape, embodiment and belief;
• Institutions, participation, and rural challenges and opportunities;
• Identity, belief, and rurality;
• Religious encounters in/with the countryside;
• Methodologies for studying faith, religion and spirituality in the countryside;
• Religion, spirituality, and the rural idyll,
• Nexus thinking, rurality, and religion.
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to Rhys Dafydd Jones ([log in to unmask]) by the 8th February 2016.
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