In December 2018 the UN General Assembly adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People working in Rural Areas (UNDROP). 

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The Declaration can be seen as symptomatic for how “the rural” is witnessing radical transformations, conceptually as well as spatially. The status of rurality in a so-called urban age is increasingly subject to controversy as the physical imprint of urbanization seems to span the entire globe.

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As we witness how spaces become destabilized both in their environmental, economic, political and cultural sense, “the rural” and “the urban” can no longer be seen as fixed spatial categories.

 

And yet we believe that there is an urgent need for addressing concepts of ‘contemporary ruralities’ from the perspective of what has been coined ‘planetary urbanization’.

 

With this symposium we hold a two-fold ambition of, on the one hand, addressing alternative spatial framings of ‘contemporary ruralities’, and on the other hand, investigating ways of engaging in strategic actions and policies related hereto.

 

The symposium brings together architects, researchers, artists and practitioners from diverse backgrounds to convey the cracks and lines in approaching rurality today.

 

The symposium was organized by Rural Agentur in association with ARENA Architectural Research European Network Association and the Danish Architecture Centre, and took place in relation to the exhibition ‘Going Rural’ (1.11.19 - 2.2.20) by Rural Agentur at the Danish Architecture Centre.