Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società

 

15 dicembre 2023 ore 9.00
Torino, CLE, Aula C4 | Webex

 

The “International Rural Mobility Workshop” concludes the international research and networking project Rural Mobility initiatives. Comparing hosting communities’ and participating student’s expectations promoted by UNITO «GRANT for INTERNATIONALIZATION – GFI 2022» and realized in collaboration with different partners of the UNITA Consortium (i.e. UNIZAR, USMB) and other universities (UPO, Insubria) as joint partners. Starting from the experience of the UNITA Rural Mobility program and investigating other similar programs, the project has explored the role of the rural mobility initiatives in producing and promoting differentiated ruralities.

In the last decades, increasing scientific and institutional attention has been paid to conceptualize rural areas as socially, culturally and politically constructed territorial systems, highlighting the micropolitical processes, based on mediations and conflicts, that involve different populations. New imaginaries of rurality arise as a network of significations, collectively shared by specific groups to think about the multiple countryside. Old and new populations – resident or temporal – move and interact in the rural arena, contributing to reshaping wider trajectories of territorial development.

Within this framework, our discussion, building upon a transdisciplinary international connection and practitioner-led contributions, aims to answer the following questions: How are the imaginaries of rurality evolving between different populations? How are mobilities in rural areas changing? What is the current role and impact of temporal mobilities in the rural world (according to specific cases)? Which are the relations between mobilities and processes of rural hybridization? Consistently, we will also discuss the role of academia in these processes by focusing on the experiences of the UNITA-Montium’s Rural Mobility Program (RMP).

Our aim is to activate an animated multi-level discussion about the potentiality that temporary mobilities may have in supporting (or obstructing) ongoing and emerging local development trajectories. In light of this, our hope is to strengthen the relationship between the university and territory by collectively identifying rural areas as centers for higher education and identifying organizational tools that may facilitate both student mobility there and the territorialization of the initiatives.