A wealth of literature documents the apparently profound transformations that rural contexts have undergone in the last three decades, suggesting that the validity of ‘the rural’ as an analytical category has diminished. On the other hand, the distinctive social, economic and political character of rural life has often been understood as backward and/or unchanging and distinctively removed from the constructed urban binary. Such contradictory tendencies have characterized the rural world over different historical periods across South Asia. This workshop explores the varied interpretations of ‘the rural’ as a simultaneous space of both rupture and continuity in terms of its social, political and economic dimensions. Through such discussion, the workshop seeks to question and reimagine the continued relevance of ‘the rural’.

Abstracts are invited on, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Rural spaces as agents and recipients of change;
• Social faultlines of caste, class, gender, ethnicity and religion;
• Political change and movements at local, regional, national and transnational levels;
• Cultural representations of ruralities;
• Ecology and environment;
• Historical transformations and production of the contemporary;
• Infrastructure and technology;
• Rural political economies;
• Processes and contradictions across rural and urban binaries.

Abstracts of 300 words should be submitted by April 15th. Proposed abstracts to be submitted to: ruralities2017 [at] gmail [dot] com  

Read the attached whole CFP announcement