Nous organisons, pour le XVI Congresso Mundial de Sociologia Rural (IRSA) qui se tiendra à Porto Allegre du 19 au 23 juillet 2026, un working group sur le thème « Beyond urban and rural sociology: towards a spatialised and circulatory analysis of social structure ». Ce working group est le fruit d’une réflexion collective nourrie de plusieurs réseaux (Laboratoire international EMMA, réseau Ethnographie des mondes ruraux…) et d’un programme de recherche européen en démarrage dont vous trouverez les premières informations sur le site RURALITIC. 

Argument

In Europe, rural studies have historically developed specific concepts for studying rural worlds: community, part-studies, notable, peasant society, village, etc. The development of transport and circulation, the penetration of state and media institutions throughout the territory, and the unification and globalisation of markets have all removed the idea of a civilisational and then social singularity of rural worlds, calling into question the very idea of rural studies and rural sociology. The classic concepts of sociology - class, then gender and race - are now applied to all territories. In keeping with this perspective, we feel it is important to reintroduce geography into the analysis, given that the spatial uniformity promised in the twentieth century has by no means been achieved, producing instead an unprecedented concentration of capital and the upper classes in certain notable points of the territory, notably the major conurbations, but also the rural seaside and recreational areas. Conversely, parts of the urban periphery, medium-sized towns and rural industrial and agricultural areas in particular are becoming poorer. The major social changes of the 19th to the end of the 20th century, which promised to reduce the size of the territory, have in no way led to a social averaging of space, but have on the contrary contributed to more segregated spatial polarisation, in both urban and rural areas. Thus, the social reorganisation of space, in both residential and productive terms, is taking place on a much larger scale than that of the city, encompassing a city hinterland or, more generally, defining specialised functions for large areas. Similarly, the significant spread of mobility and dual residences is leading to a rethinking of the urban-rural divide, which until now has been measured only in terms of primary residences. Many areas that were once agricultural, often poor and remote (islands, seasides, mountain tops, etc.) have become seaside resorts and tourist resorts, and are now appropriated by social categories from outside the former rural activities, which are now residual. Finally, the recent episode of Covid 19 highlighted this new social geography of Europe, strongly linking certain privileged points of the territory, connecting bourgeois urban districts and privileged villages, increasingly limiting the movement of the working classes to devalued territories. The aim of this WP is therefore to study the various social morphologies of rural areas (proportion of upper classes, working classes, types of productive and recreational social activities), which create class boundaries and differentiated social groups within the same country.

Main goals of the WG

The first major objective is to share examples of the specific social morphology of rural worlds on different continents. While it seems to us that geography makes places specific from the point of view of social uses and therefore of social morphologies, it seems to us that the space of possibilities is not infinite and that, on the contrary, it is relatively small. We could therefore move towards a typology of rural areas on a global scale, probably specialising regions or even continents in the different functions of their rural areas (nature reserve, extractive zone, leisure area, agricultural and forestry production area, etc.). In this sense, the second induced objective would be to redefine rural areas by giving them socio-professional characteristics and not just density or remoteness, and therefore to characterise their social plurality, with bourgeois (seaside) or working-class rural areas. This would mean incorporating the heterogeneity of rural worlds into their definition. The third objective is more theoretical, since it involves making progress in the spatialisation of the main concepts of sociology, without thinking that they operate in an equivalent way in all territories. What can geography do for the theory of class, gender and racialisation? In this sense, this WP will be very attentive to potential theoretical renovations of the Bourdieusian model, which has enriched the Marxist analysis of social classes centred on spaces of production by opening them up to cultural relations and therefore to residential scenes, but has only very partially succeeded in including geography and in particular rural physical spaces within the theoretical model of the very urban-centred social space. The fourth central objective is to develop comparative fieldwork tools on an international and geopolitical scale in order to understand how the temptations of the countries of the North to develop ecological, resilient and connected countryside presuppose tight political control of the countryside in the countries of the South, given that extractive activities and polluting industries have to be located somewhere. 

Subjects that will be discussed

This WP will develop several themes: - Thinking about social structure as spatialised at different local, national and even international scales - Importing the vocabulary of urban sociology into rural sociology - Developing an analysis of all the social groups living in rural areas, without limiting rural sociology to agricultural groups or 'natives'. - Propose a reading in terms of social classes, by developing the tools to reintegrate geography into the Bourdieusian sociology of social space - Examine the concepts of gender and race from a spatial perspective, to include them in the social structure of class - To compare, on a global scale, the evolution of the social morphologies of rural areas over the long period from the second twentieth century to the present day - To study the heterogeneity of contemporary rural areas - Study conflicts (mobilisations, social movements) and class alliances in rural areas 

Proposed methodology

The group of researchers presenting this Working Group is part of a collective that participates in several research programmes, in particular the RURALITIC project (Horizon Europe), the Franco-Argentine EMMA laboratory, the Ethnographie des Mondes Ruraux network and the OPOSOM project (ANR France). The idea of this WP is to identify other researchers or groups of researchers, particularly on continents other than Europe, who are working on issues similar to our own, particularly around the study of the social morphologies of rural areas. The research groups we have set up face major methodological challenges, in both statistics and ethnography. As far as statistics are concerned, circulations are generally not covered by the public statistics available in Europe, so we are in the process of producing a new questionnaire for this purpose. As far as ethnographies are concerned, it is of course a question of understanding the various places as localised social spaces where class boundaries can be partially different, even within the same country. On the other hand, we feel it is important to identify relatively transversal effects of place, by comparative logic. This is why the ethnographies we are conducting are intended to be both monographic and comparative on an international scale, posing major methodological challenges in terms of the status and possibilities of comparison. Finally, our approach is highly sensitive to socio-historical developments, and any archival approach is also welcome. Languages accepted in the WG (English, Spanish)

Calendar

• October 1, 2025 : Start of Registration

• October 1 to December 18, 2025 : Submission of ABSTRACTS to the working groups from the World Congress of Rural Sociology  - IRSA

• January 15 to March 15, 2026 : Submission of proposals for self-organized sections for both congresses
• January 19 to March 31, 2026 : Submission of FULL PAPERS  and EXPANDED ABSTRACTS for the working groups of the Congress of the Brazilian Society of Rural Economics, Management and Sociology - SOBER

Submission guidelines

Application form

Limite du nombre de propositions : chaque auteur·ice peut être inscrit·e dans un maximum de cinq (5) propositions de communication, que ce soit en tant qu'auteur·ice ou coauteur·ice, pour participer à des panels ou comme conférencièr·e dans des sessions parallèles ou des symposiums. Ce total comprend les soumissions au XVIe Congrès mondial de sociologie rurale et au 64e Congrès SOBER, dont la soumission débutera en 2026.

Coauteur·ices : le nombre de coauteur·ices est limité à quatre personnes, en plus de l'auteur·ice principal·e.

Identification : le passeport (pour les personnes étrangères) ou le numéro CPF (pour les participant·es brésilien·nes), ainsi que l'adresse électronique de tous les auteur·ices, seront demandés au moment de la soumission via le site web. Conformément à la loi générale brésilienne sur la protection des données (LGPD), nous informons que ces données personnelles ne seront utilisées à aucune autre fin ni rendues publiques.

Champs obligatoires pour les propositions de communication :

a) Titre

b) Noms des auteur·ices et affiliation/s institutionnelle/s

c) Résumé de 300 mots maximum

d) Mots-clés (3 à 5)

e) Langue préférée pour la présentation orale

Actes : Pour que le résumé soit inclus dans les actes du congrès, il est également nécessaire de soumettre le résumé au format PDF conformément au modèle.

Langues : veuillez vérifier quelles langues sont acceptées par le groupe de travail (GT) pour la soumission et la présentation orale (anglais, espagnol ou portugais). Les auteur·ices peuvent soumettre leurs articles dans l'une des langues acceptées par le GT et doivent préciser la ou les langues dans lesquelles ils sont en mesure de faire leur présentation orale. Veuillez noter que les sessions ne mélangeront pas différentes langues et qu'il n'y aura pas de traduction simultanée dans les groupes de travail.

Pour plus d'informations ou pour toute question, veuillez contacter : sober.congresso@gmail.com

Registration

Aucun frais d'inscription n'est requis pour la proposition d'un résumé de communication. Cependant, si le résumé est accepté, au moins un·e des auteur·ices doit s'inscrire et payer les frais avant le 31 mars 2026.