5-9 May 2025

University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal


Day 0 Sunday – travel


Day 1, May 5, Monday - "Initial meeting, Lab Work & Agromaritime cultures"

Room: Postgraduate Room, Geography Department (Building 1, 1st floor)


9:00 - 10:00 Welcome


10:30 - 12:30 Laboratory Project Work I


14:00 - 20:00 Fieldtrip I - Apúlia & Neiva [led by João Sarmento and Luís Moreira] 



Day 2, May 6, Tuesday - "International Seminar and knowing the city"

Room: Building 11, ground floor, amphitheatre 0.03 

9:30 - 11:00  Keynote speakers


** Panel discussion**


11:00 - 11:30  Coffee - Break


11:30 - 13:00 Keynote speakers


** Panel discussion**


15:00 - 20:00 Guimarães field trip (Led by Chisoka Simões, Cultural Studies PhD program, University of Minho & Research Fellow at the MigraMediaActs Project)



Day 3, May 7,  Wednesday - "Out in the field: Mining Landscapes: ruins and New Green Extrativism"

8:00-20:00 Fieldtrip I - Minas da Borralha & Covas do Barroso [led by Luís Moreira & João Sarmento]  


Day 4, May 8, Thursday - "Lab Work & Project presentations"

Room: Building 2, ground floor, amphitheatre 31 


9:30 - 12:30 Laboratory Project Work II (Postgraduate Room, Geography Department)

14:00 - 19:00 Project presentations (Room Ed.2 - 0.31)



Day 5, May 9, Friday  "Out in the field: Protected areas and transforming landscapes"

8:00-20:00 Fieldtrip III [Castro Laboreiro & Melgaço....led by João Sarmento & Sara Silva] 


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Abstracts for Tuesday's Seminar


Food System Dynamics and Prospects for Peripheral Rural Areas of Southern Europe

Colin Sage


The presentation will consider the consequences of intensive agricultural enclaves and their global supply chain logistics as well as new technologies around novel foods, controlled environment agriculture and deepening digitalisation for the marginalisation of peripheral rural areas unable to compete with such competitive efficiencies. Where will they fit in a more uncertain future where the narrative is dominated by the imperative of ‘sustainability’? Proposals include rewilding / ecological restoration; forestry (carbon capture); tourism and production/protection of traditional foods (gastronomy).  To build a future for areas of ageing population and loss of service provision can a vision of a regenerative food system offer a way forward?


Ecomuseums and local development in marginal mountain areas: the case of the Val del Biois Ecomuseum

Fabio De Lorenzo Smit


The contribution offers a reflection on the role of ecomuseums in the processes of regeneration and resilience in peripheral rural areas, starting from the experience of the Val del Biois Ecomuseum (Veneto, Italy). In territories marked by depopulation, abandonment, and the loss of traditional knowledge, the ecomuseum emerges as a tool to strengthen local identity, to connect institutional and associative actors, and to promote forms of sustainable development.

Val del Biois represents a case of mountain marginality. In this context, the ecomuseum has activated participatory processes and initiatives aimed at enhancing the landscape and cultural heritage, contributing to the creation of a community map, helping the recovery of knowledge related to livestock and pastoralism, and promoting the development of new forms of cultural and slow tourism. Through educational activities and collaborations with schools, local authorities, and businesses, the ecomuseum safeguards collective memory, stimulates the creation of micro-economies, and strengthens social ties.

This experience shows how the ecomuseum can foster the transition towards more inclusive and sustainable development models, starting from the community, by offering tools to enhance and reinforce local identity and to collectively design the future.


A palavra rural trata de quê?

Álvaro Domingues


No passado, a Varziela era uma “inverneira” de Castro Laboreiro abrigada dos rigores da montanha. Pequenos mundos e grandes sobressaltos originados pela permanente escassez. Era a tradição em modo comunitário. A emigração abriu esses horizontes tapados e a terra ficou vazia. Anunciam-se agora tempos novos. Um influencer investe o capital social das plataformas electrónicas, compra parte da aldeia e anuncia um estilo de turismo ético e sustentável e outros adjectivos politicamente correctos. Negócio promissor e clientes que facilmente se recrutam nos seguidores. A arquitectura e as novas ambiências prometem conforto e uma estética genérica, global e instagramável. O resultado é um choque frontal. Aquilo a que se chama território é uma construção sempre inacabada, como se sabe. O turismo é um dispositivo eficaz para produzir metamorfoses aceleradas. O rural, como é uma palavra de uma língua morta, serve para tudo. Do passado e da tradição bastam alguns condimentos reais/ficcionais suficientemente eficazes para produzir encantamentos que caracterizem e distingam um produto turístico. O resto é paisagem.


Peneda-Gerês National Park (PGNP)

Fernando Gonçalves

Peneda-Gerês National Park (PGNP) was established in 1971. It covers a mountainous and border region of 69.596 ha. The proximity of the ocean, the diversity of landscapes and the elevation range created a wide range of microclimates and promoted biodiversity. The climacic forests of oaks (Pyrenean-oak and Pedunculate-oak) associated or not with holly, strawberry tree, yew, cork-oak, Gerês fern, juniper, birch and Gerês iris, give this region a high botanical value. Associated with this botanical richness there is a diverse and important fauna. Although several species became extinct in the past, such as the bear, the ibex (recently reintroduced), the lynx and the red-deer, we can still find today wolves, roe-deer, wild-boars, badges, otters, Pyrenean desmans, Iberian adders, golden eagles, among others. There is also a small group of Garrano horses, the last individuals of this luso-galician breed living in the wild. The National Park also holds a rich geological patrimony: glacial cirques and valleys, geological faults, huge granite domes and unique rock formations.

The human occupation of this territory dates back at least to the Neolithic. This long occupation left several monuments, including large megalithic necropolises, medieval castles and monasteries. Living testimony from those times are the archaic communities dispersed in the mountains such as the “brandas” (summer villages) and the “inverneiras” (winter villages), or yet the corncribs (“espigueiros”) and the communitarian stone yards for drying and thrashing corn (“eiras”), relics from the introduction of corn in the XVII century. These communities, isolated in the hostile environment of the mountains, developed an agro-pastoral activity for their subsistence, and were able to maintain an identity and a communitarian culture whose origins are lost in time.