We, the Latin American Rural Sociology Association (ALASRU), have been honored with an invitation to preside the XIII Ibero-Latin American Congress of Rural Studies (CIER). On behalf of us all, I welcome you most warmly to the XIII CIER Congress to be celebrated soon in the facilities of the Austral University of Chile, located in the beautiful city of Valdivia from 26th to 28th January 2022. This event consists of a series of encounters between academics, researchers, and students from a diverse range of disciplines, institutions, and countries, gathered to discuss issues affecting rural areas.
On this occasion, our host will be the Department of History and Social Sciences, part of the School of Philosophy and Humanities, located in the Isla Teja campus. Valdivia, a medium-size city in the South of Chile, is surrounded by a marvelous green and blue landscape. Surrounded by forests and lakes, Valdivia is crossed by the Calle-Calle river, which temporarily takes the name of the city before reaching its mouth in the Pacific Ocean.
The CIER Congress is a successor of many scientific encounters held since 1988 in Évora, Portugal. The last occasion, in Segovia, Spain 2018, gathered many representatives from scientific associations of Rural Studies from all over the world, such as the Sociedade Portuguesa de Estudos Rurais, the Sociedad de Estudios de Historia Agraria de España, the Asociación Española de Economía Agraria, the Federación Española de Sociología, the Grupo de Geografía Rural de España, the Sociedad Mexicana de Administración Agropecuaria, the Sociedade Brasileira de Economia, Administração e Sociologia Rural, and the Asociación Latinoamericana de Sociología Rural. We would be delighted to receive them, as well as any regional association who shares our interests, in our home in Valdivia.
In this occasion, our motto stands for “the construction of rurality in the present times: territories for life”. Our objective is to comprehend the diversity of interests and theoretical, methodological and empirical approaches of those who are interested in participating in the CIER, as well as understanding the multiple territories, populations, and local dynamics in the contemporary globalized world. The Congress aims to include among its topics the interest in rural territories, their use and sustainability, socioenvironmental disputes and conflicts, the capability of maintaining their qualities, and tools to face the challenges that agriculture, agrobusiness, food chains, and rural development demand from us. For this purpose, this Congress intends to analyze rural labor markets, public policies, territorial development and welfare, innovation and technological change. In addition, it is particularly interested in the inhabitants of rural areas, inclusion and inequality, identities, and social representations in a context of vast territorial and social imbalances, a situation that forces rural populations to device adaptation strategies in times of rapid change.
This edition of the CIER Congress provides the opportunity to analyze and debate proposals, research findings, and real-life experiences in rural areas in diverse geographic and sociocultural contexts, especially in Europe and the Americas.
We hope to count on your participation
Welcome to Valdivia 2022