scenes of rural life

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Special Events

Special Session sponsored by the RSS 75th Anniversary Committee

The theme for this year's annual meeting is "Rural Sociology as Public Sociology." In recognition of that theme, and to celebrate rural sociology's history of being a public sociology, the 75th Anniversary Committee invites you to attend the session of "The History of Public Sociology in Rural Sociology." As President Jess Gilbert noted in his invitation to the meetings, "Rural sociology has always been a public sociology. From its beginning in the United States, the field has engaged with many kinds of groups and institutions, from farmers and communities to governments and non-governmental organizations. Early rural sociologists in this country were usually situated within colleges of agriculture or the federal government and thus explicitly served public or policy functions. They had an applied mission to work with rural citizens, a mission that soon extended beyond the borders of the U. S." In this session, the presenters address the roles that rural sociologists have played over the decades as professional social scientists, in government policy, and as social critics. From the 1920s to the present, from the Black Belt South through revolutionary struggles in Latin America, and from the halls of academia and government to the mountains and rainforests of the global South, rural sociologists have been long been engaged in public sociology. We invite you to hear about this past legacy of rural sociology and how it bears upon our profession today. Organizers: Curt Stofferahn and Linda Lobao. Presenters: William Flinn, William H. Friedland, Willis J. Goudy, Ronald C. Wimberley, and Julie Zimmerman.

From Facilitation to Stirring the Pot:
Extension Rural Sociologists and Public Activism

Sponsored by the Applied and Extension Interest Group

Rural sociologists within extension and applied research settings have been participating in public work since the inception of the field. However, to what extent this is 'public sociology' may be debatable. Burawoy's renewed call for a 'public sociology' raises a tension within extension between developing objective knowledge that can be provided for policymakers and community leaders and using scientific knowledge to advocate for change. Our featured speaker will be Dr. Theodore Alter, Professor of Agricultural, Environmental and Regional Economics, formerly Penn State's Associate Vice President for Outreach, Associate Dean in the College of Agricultural Sciences, and Director of Penn State Cooperative Extension. Dr. Alter has written extensively on public scholarship, including two books on the subject: Engaging Campus and Community: The Practice of Public Scholarship in the State and Land-Grant University System (eds. Peters, S.J., N.R. Jordan, M. Adamek, and T.R Alter), and Catalyzing Change: Profiles of Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators from Greene, Tompkins, and Erie Counties (eds. Peters, S.J., D.J. O'Connell, T.R. Alter, and A.L.H. Jack). Speakers will address the role of institutions of higher education in promoting civic engagement, working in partnership with advocacy organizations, and the role of extension within this framework.

The AEIG business meeting will follow the discussion. Please look for this session in your program. For further information, please contact AEIG co-chairs Kathy Brasier (kbrasier@psu.edu) or Ron Hustedde (ronald.hustedde@uky.edu)

SAFRIG Sponsors
Mini-conference

The 2008 RSS meeting will feature a special mini-conference of rural sociologists and others interested in activating a coherent research trend supporting agrifood alternative movements and organizations. The intention will be to create a Web site to make papers available one month before the opening of the RSS meeting in Manchester. Sessions within this special track will be devoted to discussion, rather than presentation of the papers by authors. For more information contact: Bill Friedland (friedla@ucsc.edu).