Application Deadline: 19 February 2018.
The Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape,in partnership with Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS), is pleased to announce a call for participation in an innovative new venture. This call is open to scholars and activists, with a focus on young people based in Southern African countries who have a grounding in rural politics.
The global Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative
New exclusionary politics are generating deepening inequalities, jobless“ growth”, climate chaos, and social division. Rural areas are particularly marginalised. This crisis reaches beyond the mere question of material inequality, and includes questions of individual and collective identity as well as the lack political representation and participation of rural constituencies.
The Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI) is focused on the social and political processes in rural spaces that are generating alternatives to these regressive, authoritarian politics.
Objectives
- Engaging young scholar-activists in envisioning emancipatory approaches on rural politics;
- We specifically encourage partnerships between activists and researchers who can collaborate on papers reflecting on rural politics;
- Spreading critical analysis on key food and agrarian questions, using the ICAS “small book on big ideas” series . Read more here.
- Offer a starting point for young scholar-activists to interact with rural social movements
Benefits:
a) R30,000 South African Rand to write up a case study of 20-30 pages,
b) Participation in a workshop in South Africa on 26-27 February 2018 and
c) Attend and contribute to a global conference in The Hague, Netherlands, 17-18 March 2018.
Thematic focus
nvite proposals for papers – which can be co-authored by activists and scholars – on these themes:
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The current conjuncture: an analysis of political realities, rural structures and socio-economic conjunctures in the respective region
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Resistance and alternatives: identify emancipatory strategies, projects and policy concepts, and agrarian alternatives in theory and practice, including in the food system.
Please submit your proposal of not more than one page, indicating the themes, cases and locations of your work, and how this relates to the wider themes of the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative – see https://www.iss.nl/research/research_groups/political_economy_of_resourc… and also the initial paper http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03066150.2017.1339693. Please include a short bio or mini-CV.
Submit your proposal
Proposals must be submitted by Friday 8 December to Ruth Hall at PLAAS [email protected]. Small grants will be disbursed in January 2018. Final papers must be submitted by 19 February 2018.
The workshop will take place at PLAAS in Cape Town on 26-27 February 2018
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the global Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative 2017