Rural Sociology Revival: Engagements, Enactments and Affectments for Uncertain Times

This article, originally a Keynote Address at the XXVIII European Society for Rural Sociology Congress (Trondheim, Norway, 25–28 June 2019), reflects on my positionality as a citizen‐academic at a time when democracies around the world are threatened by runaway incivility, anxiety and hate. Such reflexivity ought to be encouraged in the field and ultimately leveraged as we practice engaged scholarship that also affords empathy and justice. Much of my recent scholarship represents, in part, a response to personal frustrations and anxieties in the face of tensions around authoritarian populism and rural‐urban asymmetries. The research reviewed touches on such subjects as political ontologies, the politics surrounding public and private concerns, the future as a Durkheimian social fact, rural‐urban linkages and social justice. The data presented attempts, collectively, to make the point the while the twenty‐first century is said to belong to cities, the field of rural sociology has never been more salient. The article speaks of how and why a recommitment to our sociological roots, which involves further embracing our sociological imaginations, may help others better grasp the field’s value, while helping the academy better grapple with issues of social justice.