3rd Urban and Regional Planning Conference

Rural Matters International Conference

IX ENPLANT – Encontro Nacional de Planeadores do Território

Meanings of the Rural – between social representations, consumptions and rural development strategies

University of Aveiro, 28-29th September 2015

The conference’s full programme can be downloaded here.

Winners of the Photography Contest: [link]


The last decades were characterized by profound changes in rural territories, where agricultural activities had changed dramatically, either through processes of intensification and industrialization or abandonment and loss of economic and social relevance. The consequences of these processes are different among countries and regions, accordingly to the role rural areas play in both economic and social terms. In many rural territories, these changes induced their transformation from productive spaces to consumable places or the overlapping of both functions.

These processes can be understood both as causes and consequences of the current rural reconfigurations, representing constraints and opportunities. One major consequence is the increasing understanding of the rural as a multifunctional space combining the agricultural and forest productions with other activities and functions such as environmental protection, preservation of cultural traditions, and tourism and leisure development. These new functions are also related to the redefinition of the rural in social and institutional representations, inducing new consumptions and new rural-urban relations, as well as the need to readjust the respective development strategies.

The 3rd Urban and Regional Planning Conference, the Rural Matters International Conference and the IX ENPLANT aim to address and debate, from multidisciplinary theoretical and methodological approaches, the meanings of the rural in contemporary societies, unveiling diverse social representations, different demands and consumption practices, as well as the main orientations for rural development policies and strategies.

All presentations and abstracts must be written in English.

The conference themes are available here.