Call for Papers: XXIInd Congress of the European Society for Rural
Sociology; Wageningen, 20-24 August 2007: “Mobilities, Vulnerabilities and
Sustainabilities: New questions and challenges for rural Europe”
Working group 9: ‘Disease, Rurality and Biosecurity: (Im)mobility,
(In)vulnerabilty and (Un)sustainability?
Animal and plant diseases are posing new and continued threats to rural
people and places. Governments across the world are preparing themselves for
a pandemic of highly pathogenic avian influenza. In Europe, diseases such as
bovine tuberculosis, swine fever and foot and mouth continue to haunt
agriculture. At the same time, governments and rural residents are
struggling to deal with the problems associated with invasive species, and
the reintroduction of traditional species.
In all these problems, rural areas occupy a central role. Diseases are
mobile such that rural space is an arrival point for new and existing animal
diseases carried on the wings of migrating birds or hidden in the networks
of international trade. Rural localities are vulnerable: the activities of
rurality propagate and disseminate and disease to people, animals and places
near and far. Rural areas are the end point for many diseases: from the
burning pyres of foot and mouth infected cattle, to the economic, social and
emotional impacts that mismanaged animal disease can cause. At the same
time, the countryside is viewed as a place of safety, in which to hide away
from the impacts of globalisation.
Animal disease therefore plays a critical role in confounding efforts to
ensure rural sustainability. ‘Biosecurity’ has emerged as a discourse and
technique in safeguarding rural areas from the risks posed by animal
disease. Biosecurity therefore seeks to control the interactions of the
living, the diseased and the dead. It redefines social spaces, creates new
sets of governmental power relations, disrupts traditional understandings
and actions, and shapes new forms of nature-society relations. However, the
threats from animal diseases and the new practices of biosecurity raise
questions about power, legitimacy and agency within rural society.
This working group invites papers to explore these issues in full. It
invites papers which:
- Examine attitudes to biosecurity and animal disease;
- Explore the inter and intranational governance and regulation of
biosecurity;
- Examine the role of local and scientific knowledge within biosecurity
problems.
The working group invites participants to explore the connections between
rurality, biosecurity and the core themes of the congress, through a variety
of theoretical perspectives, European experiences and practical examples:
On vulnerability: the working group invites papers exploring how rural areas
have reacted to threats of animal disease. Which rural areas in Europe have
been affected most by animal diseases? Why have some areas been affected in
different ways? How have government actors sought to mitigate vulnerability?
What perceptions do rural people hold of these diseases – how large are the
risks? What methods can encourage changes in behaviour to decrease disease risk?
On mobility: the working group invites papers that show how governments have
sought to immobilise the spread of disease. What are the main challenges to
implementing biosecurity regulations? How well have actors worked together
at European level to develop biosecurity policies? How have individual
European states worked to develop their own solutions to these problems in
combination with Rural Development Plans and agri-environment schemes?
On sustainability: the working group invites papers that examine how animal
diseases have impacted upon rural economies and societies. What have been
the social, emotional and economic costs? How effective have biosecurity
solutions been in preventing animal disease? How have local people and local
knowledges been implicated in the production of biosecurity strategies?
Offers of papers, including a title and abstract (maximum 300) should be
sent by email to:
Gareth Enticott at [log in to unmask] by 15 November 2006.
More conference details can be found at www.esrs2007.nl
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