IGU Commission Report 2004-2008
IGU Commission on Geography and Public Policy
The report is structured following the instructions of the IGU Executive Committee.
- Membership
A. Steering Committee 2004-2008
Commission Chair: Doris Wastl-WalterGeography and Public Policy
Department of Geography, University of Berne, Hallerstrasse 12, CH-3012 Bern, SWITZERLAND / Phone: +4131 631 8016
Fax: +41 31 631 8511
Email:
Vice-Chair: Brij Maharaj
Department of Geography, University of Natal, Private Bag X01, Pietermaritzburg, SOUTH AFRICA / Email:
Full Members
Petr Dostal
Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, CharlesUniversity, Albertov 6, 128 43 Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC / Email:
Carlos Nunes Silva
Department of Geography, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa, Cidade Universitaria, 1600-214 Lisboa, PORTUGAL / Phone: (351)217920000
Fax: (351) 217960063
Email:
Richard Welch
Department of Geography, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, NEW ZEALAND / Email:
Eran Razin
Department of Geography, The HebrewUniversity, Jerusalem91905, ISRAEL / Email:
Sungjae Choo
Department of Geography, KyungHeeUniversity, Seoul 130-701, KOREA / Phone: 2-961-9360
Fax: 2-961-0251
Email:
Shannon O'Lear
Departement of Geography, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045-7613, USA / Phone: 0064 9 373-7599
Fax: 0064 9 373-7434
E-Mail:
WillieSmith
School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92109 Auckland,
NEW ZEALAND / Phone: 0064/9/373-7599
Fax: 0064/9/373-7434
E-mail:
Xiaoping Yang
Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O.Box 9825 Beijing 100029, CHINA / E-mail:
B. Membership by country (as by December 31st 2007) in alphabetical order.
Membership by decreasing number:
C. Membership by gender (as by December 31st 2007)
1.Meetings
A. Organized meetings
2008
August 25-29 2008, Tunis, Tunisia
IGC International Geographical Congress “Collaboratively Building our Territories”.
2007
June 3-6 2007, Bern, Switzerland
IGU International Conference on “Local Governance & Citizenships”
February 23rd - March 1st 2007, Kathmandu, Nepal
"Public Policy and Local Development: Opportunities and Challenges"
2006
October 18-222006, Bratislava, Slovakia
IGU GAPP Conference on
"New tasks, approaches and spatial perspectives in public policy"
July 3-7 2006, Brisbane, Australia
IGU Regional Conference and joint meeting of the Institute of Australian Geographers and the New Zealand Geographical Society on„Regional Responses to Global Changes. A view from the Antipodes“
2005
November 3-5 2005, Iowa, United States of America
IOWA (USA)joint conference with the AAG West Lakes Division "Geography Of and For Public Policy."
2004
August 16-20 2004,Glasgow, United Kingdom
The 30th Congress of the International Geographical Union on "One Earh - Many Worlds"
B. Summaries, Conclusions and Discussion
2008
August 25-29 2008, Tunis, Tunisia
IGC International Geographical Congress “Collaboratively Building our Territories”.
2007
June 3-6 2007, Bern, Switzerland
IGU International Conference on “Local Governance & Citizenships”
February 23rd - March 1st 2007, Kathmandu, Nepal
"Public Policy and Local Development: Opportunities and Challenges"
From February 23rd to March 1st the Commission sponsored the IGU GAPP Conference in Kathmandu, Nepal. With the main focus lying on the opportunities and challenges of public policy and local development, the topic was approached from very different angles ranging from groundwater use conflicts and community forestry over conflict transformation and social mobilisation to the wiping out of indigenous knowledge and domestic violence. The organiser and Chair of the conference, Prof. Pushkar K. Pradhan succeeded not only in attracting international participants, but also a group of very interesting young Nepali scholars, several of them female, who presented their most exciting empirical work. Along with the high quality of papers, the very active participation and comments from our Colleagues from the region made the conference a very enriching experience. With this regard, we need to extend our heartiest gratefulness to the University Grant Commission for providing partial financial support to the Conference and the GaneshManAcademy for its sincere sponsoring of dinner cum folk cultural programme to the conference participants. Acknowledgements also go to the Park Village Hotel for ist kind heart support to the conference. Our sincere gratefulness goes to Mrs. Soni Joshi, Mr. Gyanu R Maharjan, Mr. Dhurba Bogati, Ms. Geeta Shrestha, Mr. Bigya Pradhan and Ms Priya Joshi for their sincere and untiring efforts to the conference. Last but not the least, the sincere cooperation provided by all participants is highly appreciated who actively participated in all conference sessions. To conclude, I’d hereby like to express my deepest gratitude to our host Prof. Pushkar K. Pradhan and his whole team who altogether did a great job by putting a great idea into practice. Without the warm hospitality and perfect organisation this conference certainly wouldn’t have been as inspiring as it as turned out to be. We’re all already looking forward to hold in hands the publication of the conference papers, which should be out by the end of the year.
2006
October 18-222006, Bratislava, Slovakia
IGU GAPP Conference on "New tasks, approaches and spatial perspectives in public policy"
July 3-7 2006, Brisbane, Australia
IGU Regional Conference and joint meeting of the Institute of Australian Geographers and the New Zealand Geographical Society on „Regional Responses to Global Changes. A view from the Antipodes“
At this year’s IGU Regional Conference in Brisbane (July 3-7, 2006) we had successfully organized three special sessions covering local government, citizenship, public policy, security and transnational spaces. The first session on “Local government citizenship” focused on Korea, the CzechRepublic and Israel. In the second session on “Public policy and security” social security as well as life after catastrophes were discussed and exemplified on homelessness and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Session three on “Public Policy and transnational spaces” sought to examine issues relevant for states and state policy with respect to migration and integration. We have also organized a keynote session with a keynote lecture by Rex Honey on “Human Rights: Fundamental component of Geography and Public Policy” with Damian Collins and Doris Wastl-Walter as discussants. We thank the presenters for their contributions and very interesting insights and we thank all colleagues who participated for their interest and comments. I also want to thank Jan Bucek from the Comenius University, Slovakia, and his local organizing team for an excellent conference on “Public Policy and Local Government: Opportunities and Challenges”, Bratislava (October 18th-22nd, 2006) and an exciting field trip as well as city walk in this most interesting capital in transition. We all very much enjoyed the inputs and discussions covering a wide field, giving insights into state and community policies as well as participation in decision-making in selected European states on various policy levels. This conference in particular offered PhD. students an occasion to participate in an international conference and to present their research results to a new audience. We all enjoyed the hospitality and the perfect organization at the ComeniusUniversity.
2005
November 3-5 2005, Iowa, United States of America
IOWA (USA)joint conference with the AAG West Lakes Division "Geography Of and For Public Policy."
2004
August 16-20 2004,Glasgow, United Kingdom
The 30th Congress of the International Geographical Union on "One Earh - Many Worlds"
The IGU Commission on Geography and Public Policy (C00.09) has held about 15 sessions with about 60 papers during the IGC-UK 2004 in Glasgow, including. Four join sessions together with the Commission on Evolving Issues of Geographical Marginalit (C00.05) and the Commission on the World Political Map (C00.22). This means, that w have been one of the most active Commissions at the IGC, with many important and interesting contributions and we all thank the organisers, esp. Lorraine Craig, for their hard work and we thank all the presenters of the Commission for their valuable input! However, there are also some points to think about in the future: As several other Commissions, we had also the problem that some speakers did not show up. I understood that they tried to come, announced a paper, and finally could not make it to Glasgow, often due to lacking finances. Although the Organising Committee in Britain has given a great financial support to many participants, some were quite late with their applications. So please take care that you meet the deadlines when you want to apply for subsidies. Nevertheless, the IGU will take care that the next congress will not be as expensive as this one. Regarding the work of the Commission, the broad interest, and participation needs some work to continue to be focussed and to keep the profile. We will work on that for the next meetings.
C. Future meetings
August 25-29 2008, Tunis, Tunisia
IGC International Geographical Congress “Collaboratively Building our Territories”
Summer 2009 Bratislava, Slovakia
Summer 2010, Tel Aviv, Israel
IGU Regional Conference
2011 still open
2012 IGC Germany
2.Networking
A. Collaboration with other IGU Commissions and Task Forces
- IGU Commission on Gender and Geography, University of Zurich (joint planning and vice-versa attendance of meetings)
- IGU Commission on Monitoring Cities of Tomorrow (attendance of meetings)
- IGU Commission on Political Geography(joint planning and vice-versa attendance of meetings)
B. Collaboration with other international, intergovernmental, and inter- and multi-disciplinary groups from 2004 through 2008
- 1000 Peacewomen across the Globe
- IGU national commission of Austria
- MRI (Mountain Research Initiative)
3.Publications
A. Newsletters
- 2004: June, December
- 2005: June
- 2006: January, June, December
- 2007: July
- 2008: April
B. Publications
Max Barlow and Doris Wastl-Walter (eds.) (2004): New Challenges in Local andRegional Administration. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Wastl-Walter, Doris; Lynn Staeheli and Lorraine Dowler (eds.) (2005): Rightsto the City. IGU - Home of Geography Publication Series Volume III. Società GeograficaItaliana, Rome.
Pradhan, Pushkar K.; Wastl-Walter, Doris and Steven Folmar (eds.) (2008): Public Policy and Local Development Opportunities and Constraints. IGU Commission on Geography and Public Policy (IGU/GAPP). ISBN: 978-9937-2-0251-0.Printed in Nepal (The Nikhil Press, Kathmandu).
Bucek, Jan and Andrew Ryder (eds.): Public Policy and Local Government: Opportunities and Challenges. Publication in work, (probably at Ashgate)
C. The URL of the commission’s web site
4.Archival Contributions
All Newsletter have already been sent to Villa Celimontana.
5.Continuation
A. The new name of the commission, if it is to be changed
IGU Commission on Geography of Governance
B. A concise (100-200 words) statement of the commission’s mission.
We want to contribute to the ongoing discussions on Democratisation, Citizenship and Governance from a geographical perspective.Through its established international research network the Commission is concerned with structures and processes of governance and administration at all levels regarding mainly issues of human and citizens rights.
The links between geography and governanceare widely recognized, as geographers bring to bear spatial and environmental perspectives that are understated and often neglected by the political sciences.As result geographers can contribute to the understanding of various challenges governance has to face at different scalesas well as levels of analysis (from problem analysis to policy impact analysis) and there is a rich diversity of geographical research that has a policy orientation.
As millions of people are moved by globalisation and migration, new concepts need to be developed to ensure the political and social rights of transnationals and future generations. Issues like citizenship, power distribution and self-governance, focussing on the inclusion of various social groups (minorities, women, migrants and others) in public life andadministration are discussed and developed.
We especially encourage policy-oriented geographical research and we facilitate collaboration and academic discourse between geographers and scholars in other social and cultural sciences.
Furthermore we strengthen links between academic geographers and public sector decision makers.
C. A list of the individuals who will comprise the new commission’s steering committee. Provide complete contact information for all proposed steering committee members.
Commission Chair: Ján BucekDepartment of Human Geography and Demography,
ComeniusUniversity, Mlynska dolina G
Bratislava 842 15, SLOVAKIA / Phone: +421 2 60296310, f
Fax: +421 2 65429064
Email:
Full Members
Eiki Berg
Deans Office: Tiigi 78, Rooms 116-117, 50410 Tartu / Phone: +372 737 5957
Fax: +372 737 5900
Email:
Christine Bichsel
Department of Geography, University of Berne, Hallerstrasse 12, CH-3012 Bern, SWITZERLAND / Phone: +4131 631 8864
Fax: +41 31 631 8511
Email:
Shii Okuno
Faculty of Information Science, University of Marketing and Distribution SciencesKobe 651-2188, JAPAN / Phone/Fax: +8178 796 4131
Email:
Shannon O'Lear
Department of Geography, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045-7613, USA / Phone: +1 2 961 9360
Fax: +1 2 961 0251
Email:
Pushkar K. Pradhan
Central Department of Geography
TribhuvanUniversity
GPO Box, 5488 Kathmandu, NEPAL / Phone: +977 0141 0268
Email:
Eran Razin
Department of Geography, The HebrewUniversity, Jerusalem91905, ISRAEL / Email:
Andrew Ryder
BuckinghamBuilding, Lion Terrace, Portsmouth, Hants, PO1 3HE, GREAT BRITAIN / Email:
Xiaohong Zhang
Institute of Chinese Historical Geography, FudanUniversity, 220 Handan Rd, Shanghai 200433, CHINA / Phone: +8621 6564 2714
Fax: +8621 6564 6816
Email:
D. The work plan envisaged for the new commission, including a description of the results to be achieved during the 2008-2012 period
Membership
The Commission intends to further expand its membership by actively involvingother geographers in our research and activities, and to become members of the Commission. We will especially focus on members from Africa and Latin America where we have only few members. Over the last years, the involvement of Colleagues from Asia has risen remarcably, but not from other continents.
We will also actively invite younger colleagues and female colleagues, who are still underrepresented in the Steering Committee and the commission. Their percentage has improved over the last years, but not yet sufficiently.
Meetings
The Commission will have special sessions at the IGC in Tunis, as well as a business meeting to inaugurate the new Chair and the new steering Committee. We also plan to be very active at the regional conference in Israel in 2010, where one of our most active members, Eran Razin, will support us. For 2009, a meeting for the Commission is planned in Bratislava, around the European Geographers meeting. For 2011 we hope to have a meeting outside of Europe, probably in Asia.
Networking
The Commission plans to expand its Collaboration with other Commissions and to be more involved in the activities of the IGU. We also want to improve the outreach activities of the Commission and to collaborate more with European and international organisations.
Publications
For 2008 we still plan to publish the results of the meeting in Bratislava. There is still the option of Ashgate. If this fails, it will then be published in Acta Geographica Universitatis Comenianae by fall 2008. The Commission is strongly committed to the encouragement of publicationsfor the scientific Community as well as for practitioners and politicians. For the forthcoming meetings theoretical and empirical research will be published as special issues in journals and edited volumes in books.
E) Scholarly Importance
Issues of Governance are by far not yet solved and the IGU Commission of Geography and Governance wants to contribute to the relevant body of knowledge, helping politicians and decision makers to base their work on scientific results. Questions of equal rights for all citizens and the definition of Citizens as well as power struggles between different social groups at different geographical tiers are still gaining importance and the relevance of theoretical reflections as well as empirical case studies and comparative research are of sustained importance.
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