Please feel welcome to INPACT webpage! The project INPACT, which stands for “INdustrialization and the Process of modernity: the ArChaeological Transformation of the rural world (18th-21st c.)”, is a scientific project funded by the European Commission through a Marie Curie-Individual Fellowship and led by Carlos Tejerizo-García. As it states in the description of the project, the main aim is to analyse the historical process by which rural areas and societies enter the period what we may call “modernity” (even though this is a quite difficult concept, isn’t it?), mainly through the transformation that implied the introduction of industry and the subsequent impact it had over landscapes and rural communities. This will be performed by the application of a multi-disciplinary methodology, which includes disciplines such as Archaeology, Environmental Studies, Ethnology or Botany, among them. Even though the main case study of the project will be the little village of Casaio, located in the current province of Ourense, in Galicia (Spain), the project will also open new insights in other parts of Western Europe, through the collaboration with other European projects.
Here you will find fascinating stories, dealing with the Second War World, the conflict over tungsten during the 30s and the 40s, the Spanish Civil War, the daily life of rural communities or the management of pre-industrial economies through the common lands, among many others. Moreover, you can find all the resources and outcomes of the project in the related page, including several image galleries and spatial data, and also news and activities we will be developing within the project. Finally, you can find further information in our social media, such as Facebook or Instagram.
From our point of view, the rural world is going to play an increasing role in the post-COVID future, due to the resilience of the rural economies and societies, as organizations such as La Vía Campesina have stated, both in the present and in the past. For example, in December 2018 the United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP) after 10 years of negotiation over a previous text presented by the world organization La Vía Campesina. This declaration can be considered a crucial landmark in the long history of peasant struggles against the setbacks of globalization and the extension of liberalism, which threatened the way of life of thousands of rural communities around the world (Bryceson, Kay, Mooji 2000; Van Der Ploeg 2018). Moreover, this declaration supposed a direct recognition of the contribution of peasantry and rural economies for the achievement of a sustainable world. As we can read from the preamble of the Declaration:
Recognizing also the past, present and future contributions of peasants and other people working in rural areas in all regions of the world to development and to conserving and improving biodiversity, which constitute the basis of food and agricultural production throughout the world, and their contribution in ensuring the right to adequate food and food security which are fundamental to attaining the internationally agreed development goals.
Thus we think it is crucial to better understand the rural world of the present by looking at the transformations it had in a historical perspective, both in terms of environment and societal systems. This is what motivates the present project, taking into account also the knowledge and activities developed in previous initiatives, such as Sputnik Labrego (https://sputniklabrego.com/), in which this project is also collaborating.
So sit back and enjoy our journey to the most recent history of Western Europe.