Localized Rural Histories and Connected Worlds: Interdisciplinary Narratives of Transformation, Emigration and Interaction

In contrast to discussions of urban lifeways traditional discussion of the economic and social landscapes of rural life are often framed around themes of marginality, isolation, and abandonment. In many, if not most cases, rural villages, farmsteads and households existed as distinct crossroads of economic interaction and social change, reflecting social and economic reconfiguration, and the movement of people lined to national and global changes. In this symposium presenters draw upon interdisciplinary research, including archaeological, historical and documentary filmmaking, to understand points of interaction and engagement between rural and urban settings, and the movement people away from historical rural lifeways to other worlds.