Postsocialist/Postcolonial Rural Lifeworlds vs Degrowth, Defuturing, Decoloniality – Call for Papers

Telciu Summer Conference, 6^th edition,

Telciu-Bistrița, 11th-12th of August 2017

The 6th Annual Telciu Summer Conference seeks contributions on the history, impact and perspectives of “alternatives to development” (Arturo Escobar), rather than alternative developments and of approaches to sustainability considered in relation to rural lifeworlds, subsistence economies, and rural-urban networks. We are interested in contributions conceiving rurality as an extended field and exploring the historical, social and economic positionalities of peripheries in the context of delinking (Walter Mignolo) from liberal and neoliberal development projects and global designs that lead to “defuturing” as “a condition of mind and action that materially erodes (un-measurably) planetary finite time, thus gathering and designating the negation of ‘the being of time’, which is equally the taking away of our future” (Tony Fry). What differing histories and ideas respond to the urgent necessity of building an ecological and non-consumerist world, against models of civilization based on the extraction of life and resources? How are the projects of modernization and the continuous encroachments on the commons, natural resources and subsistence economies articulated and answered in different regions? What characterizes the modern histories of social composition of the ruralities of Europe? What are the range and limits of rural subsistence economies and their social networks? How do the “East”, the “South” and the multiple “others” of Europe, including its internal, imperial and colonial others, see or redefine their well-being? What are the realities and possibilities of change, particularly at the local and regional level? What models, counter-histories and alliances are relevant in this juncture?

We encourage submissions that engage with these topics both theoretically and in terms of specific historical experiences, across disciplines and on any scale, from the local to the global. Seeking balance between specific case studies and comparative/transnational approaches, we invite contributions engaging with, but not limited to, the following thematic foci:

• Reconceptualizing Peasantries, Reassessing Modernities
• Rural Sustainable Economies and Subsistence Economies
• Degrowth and Sustainability
• Land Grabbing and Resistance
• Alternative Regionalisms and Ruralities of Europe
• Social Histories of Rurality
• Rurality and Transnational Flows
• Rurality and Technology
• Interactions between Rurality and Urbanity
• Capitalism, Socialism, and Cooperativism in the Rural World
• Modernities, Temporalities, and Ruralities
• Decolonial Options to the Rural-Urban Divide
• Vernacular Religion and Peasant Culture
• Agriculture and Socio-Economic Modernization
• Folk-Populisms, Nationalisms, and Imperialisms
• Projects of Internal Colonialism and Peasant Resistance
• Thinking from the Rural Periphery
• Reagrarianization and the “End of History”

To apply for the conference, please send a title and an abstract of your paper (max 300 words) in English to telciuconferences@gmail.com until 5th of May 2017. Romanian scholars are requested to send the abstract also in Romanian. We will inform you about our decision by 15th of May 2017. All meals for the speakers will be offered by the organizing committee. We can offer free accommodation for maximum 5 speakers that cannot afford it, especially independent researchers or junior researchers. Those interested in should write a mail in order to ask for. As usual, there are no fees for the conference.

Organizing Committee:

• Manuela Boatcă, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, (Freiburg, Germany)/ Center for the Study of Modernity and the Rural World (Telciu, Romania)
• Madina Tlostanova, Linköping University (Linköping, Sweden)
• Alina Branda, Babeș-Bolyai University (Cluj, Romania)/ Center for the Study of Modernity and the Rural World (Telciu, Romania)
• Ovidiu Țichindeleanu, IDEA arts+society (Cluj, Romania)/Center for the Study of Modernity and the Rural World (Telciu, Romania)
• Norbert Petrovici, Babeș-Bolyai University (Cluj, Romania)/ Center for the Study of Modernity and the Rural World (Telciu, Romania)
• Valer Simion Cosma, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Budapest, Hungary)/Center for the Study of Modernity and the Rural World (Telciu, Romania)
• Bogdan Vătavu, Center for the Study of Modernity and the Rural World (Telciu, Romania)
• Theodor Constantiniu „Gheorghe Dima” Music Academy (Cluj, Romania)/Center for the Study of Modernity and the Rural World (Telciu, Romania)

Organized by the Center for the Study of Modernity and the Rural World (Telciu, Romania)

http://www.centrulpentrustudiereamodernitatiisialumiirurale.ro

Funded by: Telciu City Hall and „George Coșbuc” County Library

Partners: Institut für Soziologie, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (Germany), Social Science Journal (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/socsci), Secondary Technical School of Telciu, Observator Cultural, CriticAtac, Gazeta de Artă Politică, Platzforma, Transindex, Liga Oamenilor de Cultură Bonțideni, Bistrițeanul, Observator BN.