About RC40 

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RC-40 is a Research Committee within the International Sociological Association (ISA) dedicated to the sociology of agriculture and food. The core intellectual work within the ISA takes place within its 57 RCs and the purpose of these groups is to bring together scholars from around the world to discuss their cutting-edge scientific research, engage in intellectual debate, and stimulate professional exchanges and collaborative research projects.

 

RC-40 members do not follow a single theoretical approach to studying agriculture in food. In fact, RC-40 members have been some of the pioneers in the scholarly advances in agrarian political economy, food regime theory, agri-food standards, financialization of agri-food systems, food democracy, civic food regimes, sociological readings of food security and food sovereignty, rural dynamics and farm labor in global agri-food systems – just to name a few of the contributions from the group.

 

RC-40 meets every 2 years in the ISA World Congress and Forum, and at the International Rural Sociological Association (IRSA) Congress. Beyond these global meetings, RC-40 members meet more frequently in their national and regional sociological networks and lead discussions in these networks on agri-food topics that have both local and global relevance.

 

The objectives of RC 40 are to:

 

1. Promote and encourage scientific analysis of the social organization of agriculture and food systems.

2. Organize the substantive content of the RC40 session of the quadrennial meetings of the ISA World Congress of Sociology.

3. Organize additional international meetings, including those that are held in conjunction with national and regional associations and other scientific meetings.