SAFRIG Mini-Conference Call for Papers

As part of SAFRIG’s contribution to the RSS 75^th anniversary celebration , we will convene a mini-conference in Chicago on July 26^th, 2012. This is the day of the Presidential Address and the day before the annual meeting program begins in earnest.

The mini-conference is designed to allow us to have an extended collective dialogue on a theme that we believe will be of general interest. While we welcome astracts from people who are not SAFRIG members, we are particularly eager to attract interest from our membership in order to advance the cohesion and intellectual vibrancy of the group. The mini-conference planning committee consists of Steven Wolf, Alessandro Bonanno and Wynne Wright.

Find the call for papers below, and you are invited to distribute and post widely. Looking forward to seeing you in Chicago.

Call for Papers

The Neoliberal Regime in Agri-Food: Crisis, Resilience and/or Restructuring

Mini-conference organized by the Rural Sociological Society (RSS), Sociology of Agri-food Research Interest Group (SAFRIG)

July 26, 2011

Palmer House, Chicago Illinois

For the last three decades, the Neoliberal regime has shaped production and consumption processes in agriculture and food. At present, social instability and protest, economic recessions, political uncertainties and ecological degradation and risks have prompted claims that we now confront a systemic crisis. The regulatory mechanisms and patterns of material flow that constitute the contemporary agri-food regime are implicated in contemporary global insecurities, both physical and metaphysical on an unprecedented scale. The capacity to maintain the legitimacy and material coherence of the neoliberal regime is in doubt. We propose a one-day mini-conference devoted to an informed, constructive dialogue and debate around the thesis that we have reached some institutional and material limit. Is the neoliberal regime exhausted? Are we at the outset of a new regime? And if so, what are the opportunities and risks linked to the construction of a new regime? Of course, in contemplating radical restructuring we must account for the historical capacity of agri-food governance to deflect critique, co-opt rivals and sustain the unsustainable. We seek to advance understanding of the evidence supporting claims of rupture of, or incursions to, the Neoliberal model. We also seek to encourage the submission of papers that develop programmatic outlines of pragmatic responses to these critiques including policy initiatives, social mobilization and research targeted at various scales and points of entry.

This mini-conference celebrates the 75^th anniversary of the Rural Sociological Society and SAFRIG’s rich tradition of conceptualizing agriculture and food as reflecting and structuring larger developmental processes. We seek theoretical contributions that address overarching debates regarding systemic crisis, including papers that address financialization, ecological overshoot, the status of nation states, transnational agents, market logic and civil society in governance and the prospects for realization of democratic ideals. We also seek empirical contributions that explore particular aspects of crisis and responses, including the potential for continued resilience, a neo-productivist return, as well as the emergence of new alternative models and scaling up of new or existing alternative models.

We invite submission of abstracts from all interested people through the RSS Annual meeting webpage (go to http://ruralsociology.org/). Deadline for abstracts is February 15^th 2012. Include the phrase “SAFRIG mini-conference” in the title of your abstract to differentiate it from regular submissions to the RSS annual meeting. Authors of papers selected for the mini-conference will contribute a 3000 word paper by June 15^th, which we will post online in order enhance the quality of scholarly exchange during the mini-conference. Questions can be directed to Steven Wolf at saw44@cornell.edu.

Position Announcement

EcoAgriculture Partners

Food Security and Climate Resilience Consultant

Posted December 15, 2011

EcoAgriculture Partners seeks to hire a half-time Consultant for 5-6 months, to contribute to an exciting project developing landscape scale strategies for “climate smart” agriculture that improve livelihood security and resilience of farmers and their communities while concurrently protecting and restoring ecosystem services. The Consultant will be a member of the professional team that will implement the project. The work will begin in January, 2012. The Consultant may be based in the Washington, DC area or near Ithaca, New York and Cornell University, or possibly elsewhere.

Primarily, the Consultant will prepare a paper on approaches to achieving food security and ecological resilience for at-risk households and communities engaged in agriculture and natural resource management in the face of climate change. The paper will be based principally on a comprehensive review of scholarly and grey literatures related to linkages between food security/poverty alleviation and agroecosystem/ecosystem management. The Consultant will explore economic, sociological and policy literatures as well as literatures linked to international development programs concerned with food relief, food security and poverty alleviation through agriculture and natural resource management in the context of climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation goals. The paper will suggest ways that programs and projects might be designed and implemented to deliver food security and ecosystems benefits through integrated investments and management systems.

The paper will be organized around a framework for analyzing potential interfaces between ecosystem management at farm, community and landscape scales, and food security and resilience in the face of threats from drought and natural resource degradation. Through research for the paper and interaction with other team members the consultant will help to elaborate the framework. The Consultant also will conduct interviews with strategically selected informants to inform the paper. The paper will be distributed at “Rio+20” in June 2012, and submitted to an appropriate journal for publication. A draft of the paper, in written or power point format (to be determined) will be presented for feedback and input at the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Forum in Nairobi, in March 2011. http://landscapes.ecoagriculture.org/

Required skills and experience:

• Masters degree in natural resources, agriculture, development economics, regional planning, international development, policy, development sociology or a related field;

• Experience working on food security, disaster management and/or ecosystem resilience issues and analysis;

• Excellent analysis and writing skills;

• High level of organization and self-direction; and

• English fluency.

Desirable:

• Field work in developing countries

• Spanish and French language.

Compensation:

• $2,000 - $3,225/month for half-time work depending on experience

To apply:

Please email your curriculum vitae; a cover letter stating your interest in and qualifications for this position; a sample of your scholarly/academic writing on a topic related to this position; and, names and contact information for two references, with subject line Consultant – [your name] to Courtney Wallace, cwallace@ecoagriculture.org. Review of applications will commence as they are received and continue until this position is filled.

EcoAgriculture Partners is a non-profit organization that works to facilitate sustainable food production, rural livelihoods, and environmental conservation through integrated approaches to rural landscape management. The organization does so by providing training, research, policy solutions, and support to farmers, communities, and organizations at the local, national and international levels. To learn more about EcoAgriculture Partners, visit our website at www.ecoagriculture.org.

Call for Papers: World Congress of Rural Sociology, 2012

XIII World Congress of Rural Sociology, July 29-August 4, 2012 | Lisbon, Portugal

SESSION 4 STANDARDS AND INNOVATION TRANSITIONS: Practising and Knowing Sustainable Rural Futures

Deadline 15 January 2012

Session Organisers:

Allison Loconto, Marc Barbier, Pierre-Benoit Joly

Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA - Sciences en Société) | Institut Francilien Recherche Innovation et Société (IFRIS) | Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée

Maarten van der Kamp

Lancaster University Management School

Lawrence Busch

Michigan State University, Center for the Study of Standards in Society (CS3)

Eve Fouilleux

CIRAD (Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement)

Maki Hatanaka, Jason Konefal

Department of Sociology, Sam Houston State University

Call for Papers:

Standards are instrumental in ordering the diverse practices of rural life such as how farming is done, how produce is traded and how rural enterprises operate. Specifically, voluntary standards for agriculture and food serve as examples of 'responsible innovations' which assemble networks of actors in the creation, implementation and evaluation of technologies and practices aimed at radically changing how food is produced and consumed. Yet, to move beyond discursive accounts of such sustainable futures, it is important to explore how 'sustainability' is known and practised in rural contexts.

This panel will explore the themes of innovation transitions, the governance of/by standards and sustainable rural futures in light of the recent boom in 'sustainability' standards through three sessions (Theoretical Contributions, Methodological Considerations and Empirical Cases). We invite papers that exemplify a diverse range of standards and intend to foster in-depth discussions based on experiences from different disciplinary backgrounds and geographical contexts.

Please address any questions about this session to Allison Loconto (loconto@inra-ifris.org) and Maarten van der Kamp (m.vanderkamp@lancaster.ac.uk).

Please submit a brief abstract (150 words) by 15 January 2012 online (http://irsa2012.com/event/irsa-2012/proposals/). Please indicate that you are submitting your paper to Session 4 (Standards and Innovation Transitions). Note that only online submissions will be accepted.

Call for Papers: “Gender, Family and Peasant Farming: North-South Perspectives”

Dialogs between academic, development and teaching worlds

Call for articles

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

UMR Dynamiques Rurales, ENFA, Toulouse,

UMR CNRS 5600, « Environnement, ville, société », Lyon,

Réseau « Genre en action », Bordeaux

May 22, 23, 24 & 25, 2012

Scientific context

The conference “Gender, Family and Peasant Farming” offers a gendered social and cultural reading of the evolution of agricultural worlds in the North and the South confronted to a certain number of difficulties and impasses. This conference aims at showing how a gendered reading of agriculture throws light on new organizational experiences, but also on new ways of producing, on choices of productive systems, and on particular relationships to the land. Particularly, the conference questions the links between agriculture, community development, and environment by mobilizing the tools of gender analysis.

These broad questions are both of interest to the academic world and the area of development and meet major current societal challenges. Our hope is that the academia, on the occasion of this conference, builds the adequate conditions to strike a dialogue. To that end, we will organize workshops aiming to become fora for exchanges and discussions among researchers, experts and on- field actors. We will encourage different forms of expression including paper presentations, research movies, discussions, etc.

Encouraging a dialogue between research/teaching/development with a significant diversity of actors is a way for the academia to create a proxemics involving new objects, new questions, and new methods. This conference answers the need to bring academia closer to the professional world by paying attention to innovations and male and female actors in rural worlds.

Eligible papers should focus on four different themes:

Theme 1 : Family Organizations and Social Forms of Production in Agriculture

Theme 2: Gender and Social Management of Resources

Theme 3: Gender Inequalities in the Definition and Impact of Agricultural and Environmental

Policies.

Theme 4: Men and Women in Territorialized Food Systems

Conference organizers: Anne Marie Granié, Dynamiques Rurales, Toulouse ; Hélène Guetat-Bernard, UMR 5600 CNRS « Environnement, ville, société », Lyon 3

Schedule

Abstracts for articles should be sent before January 15, 2012 and should include: - The name, the position currently held and the institutional affiliation of the author(s), and - 5 key words Abstract should be 5000 characters (including spaces) in length. Please, mention the number and the title of the theme of your abstract.

You will be informed if your proposed article has been selected by the scientific committee from February 15, 2012.

Selected articles should be sent by April 30, 2012 (Word .rtf format, Times 12, 1.5 line space) and should include a duly completed conference registration form and fees. Articles should incorporate an abstract in French and in English, and should not be more than 45,000 characters (spaces included). Only articles meeting these requirements will be accepted.

All articles should be sent to the following e-mail addresses:

http://blogs.univ-tlse2.fr/genre-et-agricultures/

Information related to the conference will be available on the conference website

(http://sites.univ-Tlse2 and ENFA website)

Required format for proposed articles

Last name(s) and first name(s) of authors

Position held by author(s) (student, researcher, professor, expert, etc.)

Institutional affiliation (name of the department, research team or research lab):

First author’s contact information: Mailing address: E-mail address: Phone number:

Tittle of article:

Key words:

Specify here the number of the theme of your article, the name of the workshop in which your article is included, as well as the theme of your workshop:

Faculty Search: University of Michigan, Urban and Regional Planning

(link with this same information)

For over 100 years the mission of Taubman College has been to prepare students for positions of responsibility within a wide spectrum of professions, organizations and institutions whose goals are to improve the quality of our lives and the built environment. The college offers a complement of programs, ranging from undergraduate to doctoral degrees in Architecture, Urban Planning, and Urban Design.

The Urban + Regional Planning Program offers a professional Master of Urban Planning as well as a Ph.D. The program has about 130 master's students and about 15 Ph.D. students in residence each year. About one-third of students are enrolled in dual degrees with Law, Business, Public Policy, Public Health, Social Work, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, and Natural Resources and Environment.

---

Taubman College seeks to make three appointments to begin September 1, 2012 in the following areas:

Tenure-track faculty members (Assistant Professor) in Urban and Regional Planning

The Michigan Urban and Regional Planning Program has been awarded three new faculty positions within the University's Interdisciplinary Junior Faculty Initiative. These positions, which will substantively link to others in different units in "cluster hires," will build upon Michigan's strength in scholarship that cuts across academic disciplines, while also improving connections between students and faculty. (Applicants should consult the full cluster proposal for the position for which he or she wishes to apply, available at the bottom of this posting.)

The three cluster-hire positions awarded to the Urban and Regional Planning Program are:

Sustainability and Behavior (UM Job Posting No. 60809):

This cluster will lead to new faculty positions in the Ford School of Public Policy, the School of Natural Resources and Environment, and the Urban and Regional Planning Program. It will explore the sustainability implications of individual behavior, the design of policies and institutions, and the interaction of the two. Within this cluster the Urban and Regional Planning program is seeking a specialist in land-use planning and management. We particularly invite applications from candidates whose research and teaching address behavior relevant to the production and functioning of the built environment and the conservation of the natural environment at both the individual level (e.g., lifestyle, consumption behaviors, conservation behaviors, political action) and the institutional level (policy formation and institutional design). The faculty member appointed through this hire will teach primarily in the graduate planning curricula, although the ability to teach at both undergraduate and graduate levels is a plus.

Urban Studies (UM Job Posting No. 60577):

This cluster, designed to create a "Detroit School" of urban studies, will lead to new faculty positions in the Department of Afro-American and African Studies, the School of Social Work, the Department of Sociology, and the Urban and Regional Planning Program. We are most interested in candidates with research and teaching interests focusing on urban inequality and/or urban sustainability in metropolitan areas such as Detroit that in the past depended on manufacturing employment and that have experienced considerable decline. An applicant need not have focused on Detroit and its metropolitan area in previous research, but an interest in working in a Detroit-centered research and teaching cluster is essential. An applicant should have a background in urban planning and strong interest in the professional field's concern about how planning, policy, and design changes can solve problems related to inequality in places. Experience or interest in conducting research that derives findings from a particular city and contributes findings to the solution of urban and regional challenges is required. Prior scholarship related to urban challenges in historically industrial regions is desirable. The faculty member appointed through this hire will teach undergraduate urban studies courses and courses in the graduate planning curriculum.

Sustainable Food Systems (UM Job Posting No. 60576):

This cluster will lead to new faculty positions in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, School of Business, School of Natural Resources and Environment, School of Public Health, and the Urban and Regional Planning Program. In Urban and Regional Planning, the person hired for this position should teach and conduct research in at least one of the subspecialties of economic development, community development, land use planning and policy (including the ecological aspects of land use planning), infrastructure systems planning, and physical planning. The ideal applicant will integrate different subspecialties and contribute to the body of knowledge on community-based, sustainable food systems issues. Productive collaboration with researchers from the environmental, ecological, business, and/or public health disciplines is a plus, as is interest and experience in conducting research on sustainable food systems in non-U.S. and/or comparative international settings. The faculty member appointed through this hire will be expected to teach at least one synthetic graduate course on sustainable food systems, possibly co-taught with one or more members of the cluster hire from other units, as well as other courses in the graduate planning curriculum. The candidate may also teach a course in the University of Michigan's undergraduate Program in the Environment, depending on the interests and needs of both the candidate and PitE.

For All Positions:

A graduate degree in planning or a closely related field, such as geography, American studies, African-American studies, environmental studies, urban design, or law, is required, as long as the candidate has a strong background in urban planning. A Ph.D. in urban planning or a closely related field is highly desired. The demonstrated ability to conduct academic research is required, and demonstrated engagement with interdisciplinary collaboration is highly desired. Candidates should have a record of teaching, scholarship, publication and/or several years of related professional experience.

Candidates hired through this initiative will be expected to contribute to core courses in the graduate Urban and Regional Planning Program curriculum and to courses in one or more concentration areas: land-use and environmental planning; physical planning and design; transportation planning; planning in developing countries; and housing, community and economic development.

Candidates hired through this initiative will also be expected to collaborate with the cluster faculty hired in the other units for the respective cluster, and they will be encouraged to collaborate with other faculty within Taubman College.

Review of applications will begin December 1, 2011, and will continue until the positions are filled.

Applicants should send the following materials electronically as a single PDF file, organized as follows: (1) a letter explaining your interest in a position (outlining both teaching and research agendas); (2) a current curriculum vita; and (3) the names and contact information (including mailing address, phone number, and email address) for three references. Email the application to Jennifer Pinkham (pinkhamj@umich.eduu), indicating the desired position and Job Posting number in the subject line.

The University of Michigan is a non-discriminatory, affirmative action employer.

About the Urban and Regional Planning Program

The Urban and Regional Planning Program offers a professional Master of Urban Planning as well as a Ph.D. The program has about 130 master's students and about 15 Ph.D. students in residence each year. About one-third of the master degree students are enrolled in dual degrees with Law, Business, Public Policy, Public Health, Social Work, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, Natural Resources and Environment, and others.

• URP UM Cluster Initiative Proposal – Sustainability and Behavior (PDF 133KB)
• URP UM Cluster Initiative Proposal – Sustainable Food Systems (PDF 207KB)
• URP UM Cluster Initiative Proposal – Urban Studies (PDF 380KB)

Job Posting: Mississippi State University

MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY—The Department of Sociology seeks qualified applicants for at least two (2) tenured or tenure-track positions at the Assistant, Associate Professor or Professor rank to begin in Fall 2012 pending budgetary approval. A Ph.D. in Sociology or related field is required for appointment at the Assistant Professor level, but ABD’s will be considered for appointment at the level of Instructor until the Ph.D. is obtained. Primary areas of teaching and research will be in (1) criminology, (2) social demography (loosely defined), (3) social stratification or (4) community and rural sociology. Applicants who bridge more than one area will be given higher consideration. Maximum teaching load is 2/2. Programs offered include BA, MS, and Ph.D. in Sociology. The department consists of 20 faculty members (18 in Sociology and 2 in Social Work), nearly 400 undergraduate majors and 50 sociology graduate students. The Department also has strong ties to the University’s programs in African American Studies and Gender Studies. Applications should include a vita, a letter describing teaching and research interests, and any supporting materials that demonstrate teaching and/or service achievements. Candidates are requested to note membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Materials should be sent to: Chair, Search Committee, Department of Sociology, P.O. Box C, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762. Candidates should have at least three letters of recommendation sent directly to the Chair of the Search Committee. Applicants must also apply online at www.jobs.msstate.edu, PARF # 6221. Review of applications will begin November 1 2011, though applications will be accepted and reviewed until the position is filled. The largest university in the state, Mississippi State University is a public, land grant university of more than 20,000 students classified as Doctoral/Research Extensive by the Carnegie Foundation. MSU is an AA/EOE.

Contact Lynne Cossman (Lynne.Cossman@msstate.edu) if you have questions.

Call for Abstracts: XIII World Congress of Rural Sociology

The XIII World Congress of Rural Sociology is now accepting abstracts for its paper sessions (deadline for abstracts is Jan 15, 2012). The conference will be held July 29-August 4, 2012 in Lisbon, Portugal. For further details please go to: http://irsa2012.com/event/irsa-2012/introduction/. Abstracts for the paper session can be submitted at http://irsa2012.com/event/irsa-2012/proposals/

Call for Papers: International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food

International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food - Call for Papers

Special Issue: Private Agri-food Standards

Guest Editors:

· Carmen Bain, Department of Sociology, Iowa State University, U.S.

· Elizabeth Ransom, Department of Sociology, University of Richmond, U.S.

· Vaughan Higgins, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Australia

Until recently, government was primarily responsible for developing and ensuring compliance with standards for public goods within the food system. Public uniform standards were intended to ensure that food was safe, reassure consumers of a product’s quality and consistency, and promote fair market competition. However, the liberalization of international trade, expansion of global value chains, and intensification of neoliberal economic reforms have constrained the role of the state in setting standards and encouraged the proliferation of private standards and private standards makers. Private standards now pervade the contemporary global agrifood system.

Food retailers, business and industry associations, development organizations, and social movement organizations (SMO) now play a central role in establishing and enforcing standards. The changing global economic and political environment has created new opportunities and challenges for actors to use standards (together with labels and certification systems) strategically to accomplish various objectives. For example, food retailers and SMO may use standards to differentiate markets (e.g. for baby pineapples or Fair Trade), to provide safety and quality assurances to consumers (e.g. organic or non-GMO), or, in the case of retailers, to minimize the threat of liability and scandal by demonstrating that their products are produced in a socially and environmentally responsible manner.

Standards can no longer be dismissed as simply taken-for-granted mechanisms to facilitate markets and trade or technoscientific tools primarily of interest to specialists. Rather, private agrifood standards have emerged as powerful governance mechanisms that allow actors to ‘act at a distance’; to set rules, define the boundaries of what is good and bad, coordinate activities, and discipline the conduct of people, markets, things and nature across commodity networks. Furthermore, as a product of negotiation and strategic action, standards embody the interests, values, and asymmetrical power relations of different actors in the value chain. Within this context, social scientists have an important role to play in understanding how private standards are used to govern agrifood systems and their implications for relationships of power and inequality.

Authors are invited to submit an abstract addressing one or more of the following topics related to private agrifood standards:

· The relationship between private standards and public forms of governing.

· How consumers and SMOs are driving standards development.

· The role of labels and third-party certification in ensuring trust, transparency and legitimacy of private standards.

· The role of technoscience and experts (e.g. in creating or legitimizing private standards).

· The effect of private standards on corporate responsibility and accountability.

· What values are reflected in private standards (economic efficiency, animal welfare, worker welfare).

· How standards enhance or constrain the capacity of actors to participate in the market.

· The role of standards in transforming national markets and political institutions in developed and developing countries.

· Regional, national, or cultural influences on the operation of standards and the ways this might vary between regions, nations, or cultures.

· How standards construct particular fields of visibility: that is, who or what is made visible (child laborers) and who or what is made invisible (subcontracted workers, women).

Abstracts will be selected based on quality and whether they fit into a coherent issue.

Timeline:

1 November 2011: Submission of abstracts (300 words)

1 December 2011: Notification to authors if abstracts have been selected for special issue

1 March 2011: Submission of full papers (6000-8000 words)

1 June 2011: Reviewer comments to authors

1 August 2012: Submission of final revised papers by authors to editors

Feb/March 2013: Publication

Submission of Abstracts

Please send your abstracts by 1 November 2011 to: Carmen Bain cbain@iastate.edu

Abstracts should include a title, list of authors, contact details, a concise description of the envisioned paper, an identification of the relationship between the envisioned paper and at least one of the suggested themes, and up to five keywords. Full papers are expected by 1 March 2012 after which they will be sent out for peer review. A decision on the papers will be communicated to the authors by the editors by 1 June 2012. Publication is expected in early 2013.

Session on Food at the Southern Sociological Society Conference in 2012

The Southern Sociological Society will hold its annual meeting in New Orleans, March 21-24, 2012.

Below is a call for papers for a session on food. If you are interested, please contact Deborah Harris [dh57@txstate.edu].

From Deborah Harris:

I am organizing a session on "The Social Dimensions of Food" for the upcoming Southern Sociological Society meetings in New Orleans (21-24 March 2012).

Right now the session is pretty broadly defined, but I would like to highlight the contribution of applying a sociological approach to studying the current food system and relationships within this system. Issues of food consumption and health; the political economy of food; food and the environment; and the intersection of food with personal identities, such as race/class/gender/sexuality are all welcome, as well as additional topics.

If you would like to take part in the session, please email to dh57@txstate.edu the (1) paper title, (2) names, affiliations, and contact information for each author, and (3) an extended abstract between 450-550 words describing research questions, theoretical approach, and methods.

I need this information BEFORE Monday, October 10th in order to submit this information to SSS by the deadline.

Please forward this CFP to interested parties.

Thanks,

Deborah A. Harris

Assistant Professor of Sociology

Texas State University-San Marcos

601 University Drive

San Marcos, TX 78666

512-245-4547

dh57@txstate.edu

Call for Papers: FOOD POLICY

We are interested in proposing a special issue of the journal Food Policy focused on the idea of "zero". By zero, we consider public and private food safety regulations, standards, and grades that impose an expectation of zero presence of substances like residues (antibiotics or pesticides), genetically modified organisms (GMOs), E. coli, gluten, transfats, etc. Zero tolerance of defects or production practices also has a role in food quality, and we consider this type of zero in our definition.

As stipulated by Food Policy, we are looking for "an authoritative review of current thinking and debates in a particular area of food policy, that at the same time takes these debates forward..." To this end, we want to explore the challenges of defining, detecting, and stipulating zero and the constant chase to attain perfection in an imperfect world. Possible research questions include: How does our historical or current conception of zero affect our future understanding or implementations of zero tolerance policies? What are the effects of zero on consumers, producers, regulators and the supply chain? Who is calling for zero, and who is most affected by the regulation? Why do we search for zero? How does the quest for purity differentially affect the way agents perceive the affected foods, the related production processes and value chains? What are the unintended consequences of zero? How does quality or safety change as a result of such policies?

The issue of zero does not fit squarely in a single discipline; therefore, we are looking for articles from the social and bio-physical sciences. Contributions from the humanities about the ethical implications of zero or historical perspectives are greatly appreciated. Interdisciplinary works are particularly interesting for this effort. The diverse disciplinary approaches prompt a diversity of methods to address zero. Therefore, we solicit various methodological approaches to the research questions. New conceptual/theoretical pieces, rigorous empirical modeling and insightful case studies are particularly desirable and useful for this special issue. We are also interested in analysis from the perspective of different countries and regions. In the end we intend to advance the understanding of zero and provide indicators of the future of these policies.

We are soliciting paper ideas. The papers do NOT have to be written, but we need a brief description of the paper (250 word limit), how the paper will address a selected research question, and how it advances our knowledge of zero. If you have published extensively in this area, please indicate the new contribution of your proposed paper. Upon acceptance of the proposal, we will expect completed papers within six months. If you submit a paper, we also expect that you will serve as a reviewer in the double-blind review process. The papers are to average 6000 words (including abstract, appendices, tables, etc.) with a total issue word limit of 45,000-50,000.

By September 30, 2011, please send us a brief paper description that outlines the research question, discipline, method or theoretical perspective, as well as the contribution of the proposed paper. As this is a review process, we will use your descriptions to develop the proposal and send it on to Food Policy for review. For more information on the review process for special issues in Food Policy please review: http://www.elsevier.com/framework_products/promis_misc/3031foodpol.doc.

Norbert L. W. Wilson & Micelle R. Worosz

Auburn University

Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology

(o) 1 334 844 5616; 1 334 844 5682

WilsonL@auburn.edu; mrw0016@auburn.edu

Agricultural History Society Annual Meeting, 2012: Agriculture and the State

Join the Agricultural History Society for its 2012 Annual Conference in Manhattan, Kansas from June 6-9, 2012.

Agriculture and the State: The Politics of Farming and Rural Life across Space and Time

Deadline for submissions is October 1, 2011

In view of the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Land Grant, the 2012 conference of the Agricultural History Society is not only taking place at one of the major U.S. land-grant schools (Kansas State University), but seeks to highlight the State's role in agriculture and the development of rural life. We welcome topics such as agricultural education, research, and technology; the development of agrarian ideals and improved farming; and land usage in rural settings in the United States and other countries. We invite panel sessions or individual papers from any of these areas, especially as they may apply to the role of the State and notions of progress and improvement in the construction of a better rural society and landscape.

Submit all proposals to: Sterling Evans, Program Committee Chair, Department of History, University of Oklahoma (evans@ou.edu).

Deadline for submissions October 1, 2011.

Call for Papers: AAG Annual Meeting, New York February 24–28, 2012

Call for Papers
AAG Annual Meeting, New York
February 24–28, 2012

Session Organizers: Gina Thornburg (Kansas State University) and Rachelle Beveridge (University of Victoria)

Navigating the Geographies of Food: People, Place, Culture, and Power

We seek papers using a diversity of perspectives on agrifood geographies that focus, in particular, on the people, places, cultures, and power relations in emerging hybrid networks of food production, processing, distribution, retailing, and consumption. The notion of hybridity has been used to help conceptualize the “blurring between conventional and alternative food supply systems” (Ilbery & Maye, 2005), since the “binary opposites” of so-called conventional and alternative food activities “are not as simple and clear-cut” as much discourse generated by actors in alternative agrifood movements might indicate. The interconnections arising from both alternative and conventional food activities between and within wild, rural, suburban, and urban areas have a wide range of effects across communities in developed and developing nations. Scholars increasingly turn their attention to examining, measuring, and understanding these effects.

The cultural and political ecology of human-environment relations comes to life through the subject of food. Critical questions concerning the burgeoning alternative (or hybrid) food economy may encompass the following: Who is included and who is excluded in new alternative or hybrid activities? What actors are attracted and involved in these activities? How durable are new approaches to food production, provisioning, and distribution? What cultures or traditions are being created, attenuated, revived, and/or strengthened through alternative or hybrid agrifood practices and activities? What is the role of the state and/or supranational regulatory bodies in these activities?

These sessions invite an array of methodological and theoretical approaches to the study of food and food systems at a variety of scales. Accordingly, they will examine interconnections between various actors, places, institutions, and networks related to food production, processing, distribution, preparation, retailing and marketing, and consumption, and their social, cultural, political, and environmental outcomes.

Topics might include alternative agrifood movements and institutions; shortened agrifood-supply chains; food security and sovereignty; local, regional, and global food systems; defensive localism; food availability and accessibility; food and inequality; food trade; food and public health; foodsheds; state policy; supranational and private regulatory bodies; food aid; globalization; food and development; subsistence; food identities and cultures; feminism and food; decommodification of food; alternative distribution systems; farm-to-institution; community-supported agriculture; marketing local foods; food safety and quality; traditional foods; the role of industry and retailers; farmers markets; school food; community gardens; squatters’ gardens; and more.

Instructions: If you are interested in participating in these sessions please register for the 2012 meeting and submit an abstract. Send your abstract and your Program Identification Number (PIN) to either Gina Thornburg (gkt@ksu.edu) or Rachelle Beveridge (rachelle.beveridge@uvic.ca) by Sunday, September 18.