This year, the European Society for Rural Sociology Conference 2019 (ESRS) is hosting 32 working groups along three thematic areas that will explore rural futures in Europe. Under the core theme of Rural Futures in a Complex World, we identify three further themes which raise questions for rural studies and which necessarily transcend disciplinary boundaries:

• Innovation, artificial intelligence and digitisation
• Social justice and rural spaces and places
• Knowledge production, policy making and research agendas

An open call for abstracts was launched earlier in the year resulting in the selection of the abstract “Developing Participatory Public e-services for Rural Peripheries”, prepared by Ruralia Institute, to be part of the working group on WG 2 SMART RURAL FUTURES: NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND DIGITISATION IN RURAL REGIONS.

We find this a good opportunity to disseminate the work carried out in EMERGREEN as well as to learn from others how to use digital technologies to address the challenges in rural areas.

Find out more about ESRS2019 here.