{"id":5048,"date":"2026-10-28T01:08:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T23:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kehitystutkimus.fi\/conference\/?page_id=5048"},"modified":"2026-10-28T20:02:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T18:02:44","slug":"wg-13-emptying-landscapes-rural-outmigration-and-the-transformation-of-people-nature-relations-in-the-global-south","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.kehitystutkimus.fi\/conference\/working-groups\/wg-13-emptying-landscapes-rural-outmigration-and-the-transformation-of-people-nature-relations-in-the-global-south","title":{"rendered":"WG 13: Emptying Landscapes? Rural Outmigration and the Transformation of People\u2013Nature Relations in the Global South"},"content":{"rendered":"
Coordinators:
\n<\/b><\/b>Edward L. Webb <\/span>(Viikki Tropical Resources Institute, University of Helsinki)
\n<\/em>Heini Vihem\u00e4ki <\/span>(Viikki Tropical Resources Institute, University of Helsinki)<\/em><\/p>\n
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\nDescription:
\n<\/strong>Rural, farming-based landscapes across the Global South are losing people as individuals and entire families seek new livelihoods elsewhere. The drivers of this outmigration are well studied. Far less understood is what happens to the landscapes and communities left behind. How are relationships between people, communities and land changing in depopulating rural areas, especially in the landscapes in diverse parts of Global South?\u00a0 How are socio-ecological systems adapting, or failing to adapt, as agricultural labour declines, remittances reshape household economies, and food security shifts? Where farming persists, it may move from subsistence and staple cropping toward market-oriented, profit-maximising modalities. Elsewhere, land could be abandoned, consolidated, acquired by outside actors, or reclaimed by forest and wildlife.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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These transformations raise tricky questions about who controls land and resources in rural landscapes of the Global South as communities thin out. The changes also raise the question on what becomes of commons and customary tenure, including so called community-based resource management systems.\u00a0 Furthermore, such transformations make us ask whether abandonment opens space for biodiversity recovery or for new resource frontiers, and how, when and where the remaining residents are capable to shape their own futures.<\/p>\n

This Working Group invites proposals related to the questions raised above, and related dynamics. The Working Group will take the form of an interactive poster session, enabling participants to share their key findings, receive feedback on their work, triggering exchange and discussion across disciplines, schools of thought, and geographic regions. We invite contributions in the form of posters and associated short oral presentations that highlight the main questions raised and bring out key theoretical, methodological or empirical contributions, possible reflections and questions raised by the work.<\/p>\n

We aim at 5-6 posters and associated short talks and interactive discussions.<\/b> We are especially interested in research-based posters. Yet we also welcome examples from practice and related reflections on rural depopulation, its consequences for people\u2013nature relationships. We welcome a wide range of perspectives and cases, including changing agricultural, forestry and land-use systems, ecological outcomes, and cultural, philosophical or conceptual transformations.<\/p>\n

Type of call:
\n<\/b>Open for abstract submissions<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Participation mode:<\/b><\/span>
\nIn-Person Only (Helsinki)<\/span><\/p>\n

Submission Details & Funding Note:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

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