Royal Geographical
Society with IBG
Annual International Conference, July 3rd to 5th, 2012.
University of Edinburgh
Call for Papers
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Agri-tourism in the global south: Geographies of rural-urban linkages
Organisers:
Rohit Madan and Dr Roberta Sonnino (Cardiff University)
In recent years agri-tourism has been promoted as environmentally
conscious tourism on rural farms, but is deeply connected with urban areas
through rural-urban linkages such as tourism, markets, expertise, economics,
migration and governance. Agri-tourism intends to provide tourists with
accommodation,
activities, entertainment and learning with a flavour of the agrarian landscape.
Agri-tourism belongs to the global discourse of agricultural multifunctionality:
the broadening of agricultural revenue generation; but in the south it is also
constructed
as a tool for poverty alleviation. Although agri-tourism is widely marketed as
"ethical" and "green", but its correlation with road
construction, land-take and use of natural resources raises serious concerns
around environmental equity. Moreover agri-tourism's tendency to rely on urban
markets
may expose underlying biases which favour commercialization over rural
interests.
In this session, we are particularly interested in the
global south, where agri-tourism evolves through a specific set of policies,
politics
and practices related to international, national and regional interests in
development and urbanisation. While policymakers construct it as a model for
rural
empowerment, such claims need to be investigated in terms of agrarian
resilience. How is agri-tourism's construction as "ethical" tourism made
possible if agri-tourism has to rely on infrastructure, car-use and natural
resources to attract "consumers"? Since agri-tourism relies on urban
accessibility of rural sites, how is the balance between improving
infrastructure for boosting agri-tourism sites affect smaller farmers who may
lose their livelihood due to land-take? Often rural development initiatives
including agri-tourism claim to "empower" rural communities, but how
valid are these claims when agri-tourism relies upon "expert
knowledge" for branding and undermines traditional rural forms of knowledge?
How is agri-tourism related to rapid urbanization and industrialization,
consumption and increasing middle-class affluence, resource use and mobility?
What
is the relationship between agri-tourism and international commitments made by
national territories towards development, sustainability and climate change?
Keywords: Rural-urban
linkages, sustainable development, urbanization, agrarian resilience,
governance,
migration and environmental justice.
Papers can address but are not limited to the following.
Transformations
in rural-urban linkages.
Urbanization
and globalization as agents of agrarian transformation.
Sustainable
development and farm tourism.
Agrarian
governance and rural environmental policies.
Scientific
knowledge, professional expertise and indigenous knowledge.
Rural
tourism branding.
Geographies
of rural, social and environmental justice.
Migration,
agriculture and rural livelihoods.
Please send in a title and brief abstract (max. 300 words)
to Rohit Madan by email to [email protected]
by 31st December 2011.
Details of the Conference can be found at
http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Annual+international+conference.htm
Rohit Madan
PhD Researcher
School of City and Regional Planning
Cardiff
University
Glamorgan Building
King Edward VII Avenue
Cardiff CF10
3WA
Wales, UK
email: [email protected]
