The Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI)

The Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI) logo

Understanding the contemporary moment and building alternatives: An invitation to a new initiative

New exclusionary politics are generating deepening inequalities, jobless ‘growth’, climate chaos, and social division. The Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI) is focused on the social and political processes in rural spaces that are generating alternatives to regressive, authoritarian politics.

We aim to provoke debate and action among scholars, activists, practitioners and policymakers from across the world who are concerned about the current situation, and hopeful about alternatives.

The ERPI Framing Paper was published as an article in the Journal of Peasant Studies.

A new resource hosted by openDemocracy explores how authoritarian populism has taken hold, and how rural people are responding to it. A series of videos and articles features perspectives from scholars and activists from around the world.

We accept Working Paper submissions on a running basis.

Working Papers should be under 10,000 words and need to be in final format, in line with LDPI Working Paper series style. They should relate to one or more of the themes outlined in the framework and provisional questions in the ERPI Framing Paper.

Authoritarian populism and emancipatory politics

Papers that push our theoretical understandings of authoritarian populism and emancipatory politics in rural contexts are encouraged, as are empirical ones that engage with understanding particular contexts and conjectures, and the emergence of alternatives, resistance and mobilizations in all parts of the world, north and south.

We have a limited number of small grants available for those aiming to produce Working Papers, allowing perhaps additional fieldwork to supplement work already done. Following a selection procedure, the following researchers were selected in recent years to receive a grant.

We are encouraging brief comment/think pieces in any form. They can be in the form of text blogs, graphic novels, short stories, spoken word poetry, short videos/vlogs, infographics, and discussion notes/provocations.

Surprise us!

In March 2018, ERPI held its first conference on 'Authoritarian Populism and the Rural World'. This international conference focused on the social and political processes in rural spaces that are generating alternatives to regressive, authoritarian politics.

The papers presented at the conference are available for download on the conference page.

Contact the ERPI team

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