Welcome to the ‘Rural and Urban Futures – Place-Based Challenges and Solutions’ conference organised online on 10–11 June 2021!

Many of the contemporary societal challenges have place-specific causes, manifestations and impacts. Many visions, scenarios and futures images have been crafted to describe and address the challenges related to, for example, food system, energy system, transportation system, climate change, biodiversity and land use patterns. While some of the studies have a specific regional focus, many foresight and trend analyses lack the spatial dimension. Indeed, what is the nexus between places and futures?

In RURALIZATION H2020 project we have observed that all the trends have a region-specific incidence. We have also observed that the futures dreams of the youth differ substantially between the regional destinations, especially between urban and rural destinations. We have become keen to know more about the interplay of futures-oriented developments and specific places: urban fabrics, rural areas in urban proximity, villages, remote rural areas. Are all the alternative futures place-specific – why, in which respects, how and with what consequences for the practice and policy?

Cross-disciplinary platform for sharing insights concerning place-based futures

The Rural and Urban Futures conference will create a cross-disciplinary platform where the participants can virtually meet, discuss and share insights concerning place-based futures. 

The conference program will consist of keynote lectures and parallel sessions. The conference aims at generating stimulating discussions that promote networking between people from different backgrounds. We invite contributors from universities, research institutes, governmental and non-governmental organisations and companies to join out conference.

The event will be organised online during 10–11 June 2021.

> Call for Papers is open

> Registration for the Conference