Katrin Hofer and Somaye Latifi participated in the 30th Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology (ESRS), where they organized a session and presented findings from their case study analysis currently being conducted in Schwarzau im Gebirge as part of the SERIGO project.
The congress took place from July 7 to 11, 2025, at Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) in Latvia and focused on the theme of livable futures in rural areas, under the title “Navigating Rural Transitions: Exploring Liveable Futures.” This theme invited participants to reflect on the complex transitions shaping rural regions and to explore a wide range of potential futures—from just, sustainable, and livable prospects for all, to scenarios addressing contemporary crises.
The congress was officially opened on July 7 by Miķelis Grīviņš (RSU), Armands Krauze (Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Latvia), and Agrita Kiopa (RSU Vice-Rector for Science). The keynote address was delivered by Barbara van Dyck (Free University of Brussels, Belgium), titled “Seeking refuge in the future: a tale of fictions and frictions.”
On the second day, nine different excursions were offered, some of which explored regions around Riga. Somaye Latifi participated in the excursion on local entrepreneurship, while Katrin Hofer joined the excursion to the Jelgava region.
The third day began with a keynote by Aura Moldovan (Thünen Institute, Germany) titled “Residential Mobilities Between Urban and Rural Spaces: Experiences and Expectations for Livable Futures.” In the afternoon, the session “Building Liveable Rural Futures: Social and solidarity economy in the light of social and climate justice in rural areas” was held, co-organized by Katrin Hofer and Somaye Latifi together with their SERIGO project partner Marika Gruber from Carinthia University of Applied Sciences and Márta Kiss and Boldizsár Megyesi from the HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences (Hungary). The session format consisted of five short presentations followed by a broad discussion on the role of the social and solidarity economy and rural areas as influential factors, conducted in a World Café setting. The session was a great success, featuring engaging discussions on the diversity of research across Europe. As part of the presentations, the SERIGO project and the planned cross-case analysis in Austria titled “The Potential of the Social and Solidarity Economy to Enhance Social Inclusion: Lessons from Rural Austria” were also introduced. The third day concluded with the congress dinner at the National Library building, accompanied by good food, live music, and many interesting conversations.
The final day opened with the keynote “Toward multispecies food sovereignty: relational futures at the land-sea interface” by Guntra Aistara (Central European University, Vienna). Participation in the congress was an exciting and enriching experience for Katrin Hofer and Somaye Latifi, providing valuable input for their ongoing project work. The 31st Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology will take place in 2027 in Wageningen (Netherlands).
