Final call for Papers
CfP: ESRS 2017 Ageing, austerity and engagement: implications for participation and knowledge production in rural civil society across the lifecourse
The European Society for Rural Sociology Congress, Kraków, July 24th-27th
2017
Ageing, austerity and engagement: implications for participation and knowledge production in rural civil society across the lifecourse
We are inviting contributions to a number of sessions that consider the intersections between uneven processes of economic austerity and population ageing on voluntary organisation in rural communities.
Reductions in public sector funding have been keenly felt in many rural areas, where a diversely ageing population faces long-standing issues of accessibility, service proximity, mobility and social isolation. However, the impacts of this context are not only felt by older members of the community but are experienced throughout the voluntary and community sector tasked with responding to these socio-political challenges. In addition, we have witnessed a ‘shifting landscape of voluntarism’ (Milligan and Conradson, 2006) that has resulted in the creation of multiple knowledge’s as volunteers take on increasingly pivotal roles in rural communities and the provision of rural services.
Responding to a call to produce more ‘enlivened’ understandings of volunteering (Smith et al., 2010) this working group wishes to draw on Mills (2014) use of a lifecourse analysis to consider the diversity of these multiple knowledges across different ages of volunteers in rural communities. It proposes to explore how the development of such knowledge’s contributes both to the individual as well as the social and economic wellbeing of the communities and organisations concerned. Such issues are of critical concern in the ongoing context of austerity, where differentiated patterns of volunteer availability and retention, motivation and values, and responsibility and obligation are emerging.
This working group welcomes empirical contributions from international case studies as well as papers considering different theoretical approaches for better understanding the changing social, political and economic climate within which rural volunteering occurs. We especially welcome contributions that critically engage with Stebbins’ typology of volunteering (Stebbins, 2006) as Professor Stebbins will be participating in the working group to provide his expertise on the use of a serious leisure perspective on the above questions.
Those interested in submitting a paper for this working group should submit
an abstract which should include:
Your name, affiliation and email address
Title of the abstract
Keywords (max 5)
Abstract (200 - 400 words all inclusive)
Please send all proposed abstracts no later than the 13th January 2017 for
this session to Dr Sophie Yarker: [log in to unmask]
Further information about the ESRS 2017 conference can be found:
http://www.esrs2017.confer.uj.edu.pl/start
Many thanks,
Dr Sophie Yarker
Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Aberystwyth University
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