On the 21st of February (Friday) 2020, the Division of Natural Resource Economics will be holding a special seminar entitled “New Rurality? Reflection on Territoriality and Rural Life (Style)” presented by Prof. Claudia Neu from the University of Göttingen as part of the Japan Gateway: Kyoto University Top Global Program (JGP) and also as part of the Division of Natural Resource Economics English Lecture Series.
All interested students and faculty are welcome to attend!!
[Talk Title]
“New Rurality? Reflection on Territoriality and Rural Life (Style)”
[Speaker]
Prof. Claudia Neu
Professor of Rural Sociology
Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development
University of Göttingen, Germany
[Abstract]
In postwar Germany, processes of social and territorial integration were driven above all by the country’s increasingly strong labor market with full-time employment, but also by the expansion of infrastructure. In the golden age of the welfare state, a fruitful symbiosis emerged between economic growth, high-quality public services (expansion of educational systems and medical care), and large-scale consumption. In the years that followed, social and territorial inequality declined: urban and rural lifestyles got closer together. Rurality and the rural lifestyle seemed to disappear.
We know the golden age of the welfare state is over: Structural changes in the economy and demographic change are placing major burdens on remote rural areas and urban agglomeration. The result we see before us is a society that is becoming ever more socially and territorially polarized that is deeply insecure despite positive economic forecasts and a consistently high standard of living. On the one hand more and more private households are moving back to the countryside – not just as a critique of globalization and mass consumption but also as a coping strategy in case of the high rents in the city. On the other hand, urban gardening and the rural lifestyle are en vogue. What does rurality mean in a digitalized world? Will co-working spaces be a chance for a new rural lifestyle?
The lecture will focus on the current discussions about the concept of “rural”, “rurality” or “rurbanity”. New research on special inequality will be presented, too.
[Time & Date]
14:00-15:30 on February 21 (Friday), 2020
[Venue]
Room E217, 2nd Floor, Faculty/Graduate School of Agriculture Main Bldg.
Click here for a map of the venue.
[Language]
English
[Contact]
Makoto KURODA, Assistant Teaching Staff, Division of Natural Resource Economics, Graduate School of Agriculture
E-mail: kuroda.makoto.6a@kyoto-u.ac.jp
Please click here to see the flyer in PDF.
