Sweden 2010

Nordic Rural Futures: pressures and possibilities Research conference on the future of Nordic rural areas, May 3–5 2010, Uppsala.

Welcome to the first Nordic research conference on Nordic rural research. The aim of this conference is to establish an arena for researchers with an interest in the Nordic rural areas as an empirical field and to offer young researchers an arena to discuss their ongoing research with key scholars from the region. For this purpose, a biennial conference circulating between the Nordic countries are planned inviting established researchers as well as PhD-students from the fields of political science, anthropology, sociology, human geography and rural economics etc. In addition to plenary sessions and group work the conference therefore also hosts a PhD-course.

This first conference is held under the theme ‘Nordic Rural Futures: pressures and possibilities’, and has the following subthemes: New understandings and use of nature and landscapes; Flows of people, ideas and images; Politics and policy. The thematic focus has been developed by the Nordic planning group and we want to thank the Nordic participants of this group:

Karl Benediktsson, Professor of Human Geography, Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Iceland,
Marit S. Haugen, Research Manager, Centre for Rural Research, Trondheim, Norway,
Hanne Tanvig, Senior researcher and adviser, Forest & Landscape, University of Copenhagen,
Hilkka Vihinen, Professor of Rural Policy, MTT Agrifood Research Finland,
Michael Kull, Principal Research Scientist, MTT Agrifood Research Finland.

This research conference is the outcome of a long process. The research council Formas, The Swedish Board of Agriculture and especially the Swedish National Rural Network have been important partners in this process and both the Swedish Board of Agriculture and the Swedish National Rural Network are partners in the organisation of the conference. Special thanks to: and we also want to thank the members of the planning group:

Leif Berndtsson, Research coordinator, Swedish National Rural Network,
Lars Pettersson, PhD, Swedish Board of Agriculture and Jönköping University