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International Rural Sociology Association

International Rural Sociology Association - IRSA

Homepage About IRSA Prior C ongresses C onferences and meetings Rural sociologists in media Member societies Australia and Oceania Network (AON) Asian Rural Sociology Association (ARSA) Latin American Rural Sociology Association (ALASRU) European Society for Rural Sociology (ESRS) Rural Sociological Society (RSS)

President's Corn

The objectives of the Association are to: foster the development of rural sociology; further the application of sociological inquiry to the improvement of the quality of rural life; and provide a mechanism whereby rural sociologists can generate dialogue and useful exchange.

Landgrabbing is occupying the minds of rural sociologists throughout the world. How should interpret the phenomeno large-scale land acquisi that are occurring, increased frequency, in developing and develo nations?

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Council Corner

The latest special edition of the International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food (IJSAF) features a collection of papers on private food standards: Editorial Introduction by Ransom, Bain and Higgins: Private Agri-food Standards: Supply Chains and the Governance of Standards Hatanaka and Konefal: Legitimacy and Standard Development in Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives: A Case Study of the Leonardo Academys Sustainable Agriculture

IRSA Council mem Professor Lutgarda Tolen moves to new position WorldFish

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Book series: Research in Rural Sociology and Development

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Standard Initiative

Challies: The Limits of Voluntary Private Social Standards in Global Agri-food System Governance Trauger and Murphy: On the Moral Equivalence of Global Commodities: Placing the Production and Consumption of Organic Bananas Toschi Marciel and Bock: Modern Politics in Animal Welfare: the Changing Character of Governance of Animal Welfare and the Role of Private Standards Wiegel: A New Breed of Tomato Farmers? The Effect of Transnational Supermarket Standards on Domestic Cultures of Production and Trade Schewe: Negotiated Decision-Making: Understanding Farmer and Processor Certification Lockie, McNaughton, Thompson and Tennent: Private Food Standards as Responsive Regulation: The Role of National Legislation in the Development and Evolution of GLOBALG.A.P.

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Professor Philip Lowe Receives Prize for Lifetime Achievement On January 28th this year, Professor Philip Lowe, Professor of Rural Economy at the Newcastle University in Britain, received Swedens Bertebos prize for his significant contribution to sustainable rural development, land-use management and interdisciplinarity. The prestigious award, presented by the King of Sweden on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy, is for distinguished and practical research in food, agriculture, ecology or animal health. Congratulations Philip! For more information, please visit the ESRS website

Forthcoming Conferences
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The 5th International Conference of the Asian Rural Sociological Association (ARSA) will be held in Vientiane in Laos, September 2014. Deadline for panel proposals is December 5 2013, and the deadline for abstract submission is January 15, 2014. Download pdf for more information, or visit the ARSA website.

XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology will be held in Yokohama Japan in July 2014. For details of the Research Committee on the Sociology of Agriculture and Food (RC 40) program please visit the congress website. On-line abstract submission will be open in the period June 3, 2013September 30, 2013.

Early conference information: The next IRSA Congress is to be held in Toronto, Canada, in August 2016 (dates are still tentative). Read more

Other News
The making alternative food networks work: hitching the horse of critique to the wagon of improvement conference was held in Los Angeles, California, 9-13 April 2013. This was the annual conference of the Association of American Geographers and the organisers received papers on how alternative food networks are making a difference locally and globally. More information is available at the AAG Annual Meeting website.

The XXV Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology was held in Florence, Italy, from 29 July 1 August 2013. For more information please visit the website: http://www.florenceesrs2013.com/.

The 2013 Annual Meeting of the Rural Sociological Society was held at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel from 6-9 August. The theme was An Injury to One is an Injury to All: Resistance and Resilience in an Age of Retrenchment. This theme calls attention to the rural roots of solidarity and change in the context of global restructuring and political retrenchment. What can we learn from the struggles of rural peoples? How can we assist in the construction of local alternatives to the global that revitalize networks and enhance community and social well-being? Looking forward, how can the field of rural sociology continue to make contributions to public policy and civil society? Papers and sessions will deal with past and present rural social movements and with what we can learn from their successes and failures. Interest groups will be encouraged to develop sessions on the social bases of resistance and resiliency across place and space. The injuries endured by rural peoples across the globephysical, social psychological, and socioeconomicwill be explored as a cross-cutting theme for scholarship and action.

The special edition of the International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food (IJSAF) features a collection of papers on private food standards:

Editorial Introduction by Bain, Ransom and Higgings: Private Agri-food Standards: Contestation, Hybridity and the Politics of Standards Kimura: Standards as Hybrid Forum: Comparison of the Post-Fukushima Radiation Standards by a Consumer Cooperative, the Private Sector, and the Japanese Government Fisher and Sheppard: Pushing the Boundaries of the Social: Private Agri-food

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Standards and the Governance of Fair Trade in European Public Procurement Renard and Loconto: Competing Logics in the Further Standardization of Fair Trade: ISEAL and the Smbolo de Pequeos Productores Berman: Make It What Way? The Impact of Multiple Standards Regimes Aasprong: Entangled Standardizing Networks: The Case of GLOBALGAP and Fairtrade in St Vincents Banana Industry van der Kamp: Inferring the Unknown: Enacting Certification Organic Standards through

Viteri and Arce: The Negotiation of Quality Standards: A Social Interactionist Approach to Fruit and Vegetable Distribution in Argentina

Opening address XIII World Congress of Rural Sociology Lisbon, Portugal July 29 2012 Former President Reidar Alms' opening address at the XIII World Congress of Rural Sociology is available here

In-coming President's Address at the XIII World Congress of Rural Sociology, Lisbon, Portugal August 3 2012 In-coming President Geoffrey Lawrence's Address at the XIII World Congress of Rural Sociology, Lisbon, Portugal August 3 2012.

The XIII World Congress of Rural Sociology A very successful XIII World Congress of Rural Sociology was held in Lisbon, Portugal, between 29 July and 4 August 2012 with over 1000 participants delivering close to 1500 papers. The President congratulates the organizers and Program Committee for an excellent outcome.The final program along with a number of on-line papers can be found at the congress website: http://irsa2012.com/event/wcrs-2012/

Australasian Agri-food Research Network Conference Last year's Agrifood conference was a resounding success with over 70 delegates from as far afield as the US, UK, Australia and Germany attending the 2012 Agrifood Conference in Palmerston North, New Zealand. The conference offered a lively program of keynote presentations, workshops, parallel sessions and social events. For an overview of the conference please visit: http://www.afrn.org.au/?e=15#body-anchor

Reidar Alms and Hugh Campbell have edited and contributed to a new book on agricultural sustainability: "Rethinking Agricultural Policy Regimes. Food Security, Climate Change and the Future Resilience of Global Agriculture" now published by Emerald Publishing. This is the first book to try and understand global agricultural policy in the light of new shocks like the World Food Crisis of 2008-2011. This book provides the first discussion of the new term neo-productivism in the context of European agricultural policy, and introduces the concept of resilience to discussion of global agricultural policy. Prominent contributors include scholars with an international reputation in the field of agricultural policy, agricultural history and rural sociology. Read more about the book

Rural sociologists in the media In order to expose how rural sociologists have made a social impact we are going to post news on the IRSA website, showing how colleagues have been active in the media recently. It can be interviews, chronicles or newspaper articles in which rural sociologists are referred to in a substantial way.

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Please send media news about yourself and your colleagues to: g.lawrence@uq.edu.au

Earlier Postings Copyright 2002-2013, The International Rural Sociology Association, All rights reserved.

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