If you are attending the RSS meeting in August, then you are invited to register and attend the SAFRIG mini-conference on The Neoliberal Regime in Agri-Food: Crisis, Resilience and/or Restructuring. This event will be held on July 26 (9:00 am 4:00 pm) at the Hilton Palmer House in Chicago. Discussion and paper presentations will continue throughout the SAFRIG regular RS sessions in the following conference days. Break food and coffee will be provided for those who register.

Sign up by logging into your account under Registration on the RSS Meeting page to indicate your participation.  Registration is for the mini-conference is free, but participants and attendees need to register by June 15, 2012 so that they can be counted in. 

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

RSS SAFRIG mini-conference

July 26, 2011

Palmer House, Chicago, Illinois

Information

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.  This mini-conference is devoted to an informed, constructive dialogue and debate around the thesis that we have reached some institutional and material limit.

Sociology of Agriculture and Food Research Interest Group Student Paper Award

The Sociology of Agriculture and Food Research Interest Group (SAFRIG) will present a Student Paper Award at the 2012 Rural Sociological Society meetings in Chicago, IL. Requirements for this award include that the paper: 1) is authored by a student or group of students (no faculty co-authors), 2) focuses on an agrifood topic, and 3) uses the Rural Sociology journal guidelines for style, formatting and references.  Papers will be particularly competitive if they demonstrate effective use of innovative theories and/or methods. In order to compete, all authors must be members of the Rural Sociological Society. The winner will receive a certificate and monetary award.  The winner must present the paper at the RSS Annual Meeting, and the award will be presented during the SAFRIG Business Meeting.
Submissions for this competition should be sent as an e-mail attachment by July 6, 2012 to Spencer Wood (sdwood@ksu.edu).

Post Doc Position at Iowa State University

The Department of Sociology at Iowa State University invites applications for a post doc position to conduct sociological research in agriculture, natural resources, and community with faculty in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

This position entails working with Department of Sociology faculty to conduct research including work with primary survey data and secondary data sets, analyses for social, economic, and cultural patterns applying sociological theories, and preparing manuscripts with faculty for peer reviewed journal publication and general public audience. We are looking for a self-motivated, highly-organized and self-directed person with ability to work independently and as a member of a team

Job duties and responsibilities

1. Conduct research on agriculture and conservation land management, natural resource management, and community

2. Analyze socioeconomic, perceptions, and ecological impacts of the biofuels industry at multiple scales

3. Prepare manuscripts for scientific journal publication as author/co-author

4. Participate in multidisciplinary grant proposal writing

5. Work closely with faculty to conduct research

Minimum qualifications

1. PhD in sociology with expertise in one or more areas: agriculture, natural resource management, and/or community

2. Proficiency in quantitative data analysis, working with survey data sets, combining primary and secondary data using a variety of techniques including statistical analyses, modeling and spatial representation

3. Skillful writer; demonstrated ability to communicate effectively in writing technical and professional journal articles

4. Strong sociological theory and application to natural resources, agriculture, and/or community

Preferred qualifications

1. Knowledge of federal secondary data sources, such as Census, BLS, BEA, etc.

2. Survey research experience

3. Knowledge of GIS concepts and software

4. Critical thinker, able to analyze data, connect to sociological theories

5. Grant writing experience

Salary commensurate with candidate’s academic and professional qualifications [min ~ $40,000]

Location: Iowa State University, Department of Sociology, Ames, Iowa State University

To be considered please send CV, example of writing, three letters of reference and mail to: Post-Doc Search Committee, Dr. Lois Wright Morton, Department of Sociology, 303 East Hall, Ames, Iowa 50011

Provide Input on USDA Research Priorities

USDA Seeks Public Comments on Research Priorities -- due Mar. 22

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting public comments regarding future research priorities and program solicitations for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. A public meeting for stakeholders will be held on 22 February 2012 in Washington, D.C. Written comments will be accepted through 22 March. More information is available at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-02-01/html/2012-2100.htm.

Submission Deadline for SAFRIG Mini-Conference Extended

The deadline for abstract submissions for the SAFRIG Mini-Conference has been extended to Wednesday, February 29.

As before, if you would like to submit an abstract to be considered for the SAFRIG mini-conference, simply include the phrase “SAFRIG mini-conference” in the title of your abstract to differentiate it from regular submissions to the RSS annual meeting.

And, please remember the corrected date for this mini-conference: Thursday, July 26.

See the Call for Papers below.

-----------------------

SAFRIG Mini-Conference Call for Papers

As part of SAFRIG’s contribution to the RSS 75th anniversary celebration , we will convene a mini-conference in Chicago on July 26th, 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 attached, 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, 2012

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 75th 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 29th 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 15th, which we will post online in order enhance the quality of scholarly exchange during the mini-conference. Questions can be directed to Steven Wolf atsaw44@cornell.edu.

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.