Dear colleagues,

Rural area was traditionally connected with agriculture. To compare with urban, rural areas were considered to be backward, retarded, not worthy of an intensive research. But the situation has changed in the last time. Although cities are still centres of development in the globalization process, people in Europe leave them as a result of the processes of suburbanization and counter-urbanization. The share of rural population slowly increases in European countries. In addition, farmers form only a minority in contemporary rural settlements. The countryside is getting to be a multi-functional space. Secondary and tertiary sectors penetrate to the countryside. Tourism and agro-tourism develop in the large scale. Agriculture is getting focused more on the maintenance of landscape than on the production. On the other hand, environmental problems also have an impact on rural landscape. European countryside develops within the globalization process. Rural communes and micro-regions are searching for their own ways of local development as full-fledged entities. Academic research should respond to the new situation.

We have the honour of inviting you to the EURORURAL '14 conference on EUROPEAN COUNTRYSIDE WITHIN THE POST-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY. It is the 4th of Moravian rural conferences organised by the Department of Applied and Landscape Ecology, Faculty of Agronomy, Mendel University in Brno. The aims of the conference are as follows: to map European rural research and particular interests of investigators, to gain a space for presentation of contemporary knowledge about rural research, to continue in the tradition of international conferences dedicated to rural problems, to support intra-personal contacts among experts of different disciplines dealing with rural problems, to present South Moravian rural landscape. The conference is aimed at relatively complex view of rural problems from different viewpoints (ecology, geography, demography, sociology, economy, territorial planning), less at research of specific problems in detail. The conference follows the IGU Regional Conference in Kraków. Both the events will be connected with an excursion Kraków – Brno (within the IGU Conference) held on August 23-24.

The conference is open for all scientists dealing with rural matters from universities, research institutions or other public or private bodies from European countries and around the world. The participants are asked to complete the registration form till June 26, 2014 to have their abstracts published in the Collection of Abstracts.

UP