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COMMISSION NEWSLETTER

DECEMBER 2013

CONTENTS

Welcome

Commission meeting in 2014

Meeting at Krakow regional conference

Pre- or post conference excursion (optional)

Report about 2013 conferences

Kyoto 2013 business meeting

Kyoto 2013 paper sessions

Kyoto 2013 post conference excursion

Penghu (Taiwan) conference on Island development 2013

Commission Publications – brief overview

Obituaries

Administration

The commission objectives, focal interest and research themes, 2013-2016

Steering Committee 2012-2016

http://www.igu-marginality.info/

University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia

December 2013

Commission on Marginalization, Globalization and Regional and Local Responses C12.29

International Geographical Union – Union Géographique Internationale

C12.29 Newsletter December 2013

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WELCOME

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Another year is coming to an end and it is therefore time to report about our annual activities. Since 2011 IGU regional conferences are held annually and this yearʼs conference took place in Kyoto. This was also the opportunity for our commission to hold its annual meeting and to contribute to the success of the whole event.

We are now preparing next yearʼs major event, and that the regional conference in Krakow. In 2014 we will also have to concentrate on publication matters as we have quite a backlog from past meetings.

Unfortunately we also have to report about the loss of two of our faithful members, both dear colleagues and friends of many of us. We have been informed that Richard C. Lonsdale and Steve Kale have passed away this year.

The basic information about our commission is included in this newsletter, which you can also find this together with much more on our website: http://www.igu-marginality.info/.

Stanko Pelc [email protected]

COMMISSION MEETING IN 2014

Meeting at Krakow regional conference Our central attention in 2014 is dedicated to Krakow regional conference where

we intend to have our annual meeting. As we were not able to find an appropriate date to organize a conference in Quebec we decided to concentrate all our efforts on the event in Poland. The Regional conference is scheduled for August 18-22 under the title “Changes, Challenges, Responsibility”.

The title of our commission session is:

“Changing nature of globalization, marginalization and marginality – new challenges for understanding and responding”

Within this framework we are accepting papers covering the topics listed below:

The world we live in is constantly changing and we are all changing with it as individuals and societies. Globalization is not something new and depending on how we define it, we can trace it back in the past for centuries or even millenia. However, it is more influential today than ever before and it can be observed in many new forms. Its effects are positive in some cases and negative in others. When we observe it in relation to marginality and marginalization we can notice the emergence of new forms of marginality as well as new drivers of (de)marginalization. The topic of the session is wide enough to include all the papers dealing with: • critical issues of marginalization in a globalizing world, • drivers of (de)marginalization in a globalizing world, • environmental, social, economic and technological perspectives on globalization and

marginalization, • community, local and regional responses to globalization and marginalization, • the changing dynamics of centre-periphery relations, • marginality: past, present and future, • social inequalities and social exclusion.

One of the challenges we are focusing is certainly how people in different kinds of

marginal situations connect with their living space and what their impact on the environment is. On the other hand the opposite is also important: what are the impacts of “others” on the environment


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that marginalized individuals, social groups (societies) depend on. Papers covering this kind of topics are welcome too.

We believe that this is wide enough to embrace all possible research dealing with

the problems addressed by our commission and we encourage you to participate. The submission of abstracts is now open and you are welcome to choose the above title to present your paper within the framework of our commission. The deadline for abstracts submission is January 15!

In Krakow we also plan to hold two joint sessions, one with commission C12.15 Geography of Tourism, Leisure, and Global Change and the other one with commission C12.28 Local and Regional Development. If the topic you intend to present corresponds with one of the below titles of these two titles you are also kindly invited to submit an abstract for either of the sessions:

C12.15 and C12.29 joint session title and description of thematic field:

“Tourism and marginality – local initiatives shaped by global trends”

The aim of the joint session of two commissions is to focus on tourism as economic activity that is often considered as a shortcut from economic deprivation and marginality in peripheral/marginal regions with valuable natural or/and cultural features. Tourism is also the activity that faces many changes on the global scale and can on the other hand play a role of a driver of (de)marginalization. Nevertheless it is commonly seen as an activity having favourable economic and social impacts that introduces new sources of income and new opportunities for work. In the case of marginal regions, tourism can transfer wealth from the richer central areas to those facing different forms of marginality. It can also promote the modernisation in such regions. It is often used in regional development processes and projects in marginal areas encountering serious developmental challenges. Globalisation affected traditional economies and forced them to change and decrease. Economic transition of peripheries and marginal areas towards activities based on tourism and leisure is therefore an often-observed phenomenon. However, tourism may also have social, economic and environmental effects that are not acceptable. The papers submitted for this joint session should discuss the challenges of the economic transition process of marginal areas towards tourism and its effects on demarginalization of the area as well as and the complex relationships between tourism, regional development and local communities that are/were facing marginality in any of its forms.

C12.28 and C12.29 joint session title and description of thematic field: “Areas of growth and economic stagnation - the challenges of globalization

and marginalization”

By nature, social and economic growth is spatially and structurally diversified. Lack of uniformity and the multiple aspects are commonly regarded characteristic to that growth as well as the reason for limitations to developmental processes. However, the occurrence of diversified growth in space is not a barrier to growth remaining steady. This barrier is created by too large differences in the level of growth which may result from the increasingly acute polarisation which facilitates growth regions at the expense of stagnating and marginalization of peripheral areas. Similarly, the numerous aspects do not limit developmental processes by themselves. This limitation may result from an excessively diversified growth by specific aspects or deficits thereof. A deficit in a way limits the opportunity to obtain optimum growth results in the remaining aspects and the entire process of development. The suggested content of the session entails, but is not limited to: - development of growth areas and areas of economic stagnation in various aspects of level of

socio-economic development in spatial approach, - factors of socio-economic development in areas of growth and areas of economic stagnation, - impact of globalization process and global economic crisis on the behaviour of enterprises

and households, - areas of growth as a “locomotive of development” in polarisation-diffusion model of

development, - polarisation-diffusion model and marginalization of economic stagnation areas.


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Pre- or post conference excursion (optional) We are at the time checking a possibility to organize 3-4 days pre- or post-

conference field trip of our commission that would pay attention to border areas along borders between Czechia, Slovakia and Poland with starting and ending points in Krakow and at Vienna airport. The other option is a longer excursion trough the border areas along borders between Germany, Czechia and Poland with starting and ending points in Krakow and Prague airport. We welcome your suggestions and opinions about this.

Please contact Stanko Pelc ([email protected]) or Walter Leimgruber ([email protected]) if you have any questions or suggestions considering the participation at our sessions or the proposed excursion.

REPORT ABOUT 2013 CONFERENCES

Kyoto 2013 business meeting Our Commission business meeting has been held in Kyoto, during Regional

conference. We had relatively few attendants this time and at our business meeting only Profs. Alison McCleery and Markku Tykkyläinen from the Steering Committee, Prof. em. Walter Leimgruber, Commission Secretary and Prof. Stanko Pelc, Chair along with our local organizer Prof. Yasutaka Matsuo and some other commission attendants were present at the business meeting. We discussed the problem of past publication activities that did not yield positive results. The papers from the Barcelona meeting (2008) are still unpublished, and we received no news from the local organizers. The last information from 2011 was that the publication was imminent. As nothing happened since than, the secretary obliged himself to inform the organizers of the meeting that we are no longer willing to wait and if the publication will not be published by the end of the year to hand us all the papers (including the reviews).

The Malaysia meeting (2009) publication is also pending. Help at editing was offered by Walter Leimgruber, however, by the time of our meeting in Kyoto he did not receive the response.

The Nainital meeting papers are being edited and as far as we were informed there was an interest to publish them by local publishers.

The Dubrovnik meeting papers can be published in Croatian Geographical Bulletin, however, only one was published before the Kyoto conference and 4 more had been submitted to the editorial board.

Only few papers from the Regional Conference in Chile were published on the Conference's CD, and the papers from Köln Congress were also left to be published individually in geographical journals.

The papers from Kyoto are to be published in a book if it will be possible to find financial support in Japan to do so, otherwise we will consider the option to publish these papers and other yet unpublished material in an e-book of proceedings or on a CD with an ISBN number.

We also discussed the proposals for the next meetings. In October we were invited to join the 2013 IGU Islands Conference – October 1-5, 2013, Penghu Archipelago, Taiwan.

The offer to organize next year's meeting in Quebec has been made by Steve Déry, however the starting date was the same day as the last day of the regional conference in Krakow. We were therefore discussing several options - to hold the commission's meeting later or earlier (in September or May - if that is acceptable for the


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organizer). Secretary Walter Leimgruber accepted to discuss these and maybe some other options with Steve Déry. The 2015 meeting is planned to be in Bosnia and Herzegovina and if there will be no other offer for 2016 we will make contact with IC Agri University to consider the meeting in Eastern Turkey. We also decided to hold some sessions at regional conferences, possibly with other commissions (Sustainability of Rural Systems, Geography of Tourism).

We had no discussion about the activities of our members and as we were already well informed about the post-conference excursion we ended our discussion with the conclusion that there is a lot to do considering the publishing matters and that the publishing subcommittee (McCleery, Nel, Leimgruber, Pelc) will have to act in order to resolve all the above mentioned issues.

Kyoto 2013 paper sessions We held 3 commission sessions and 3 joint sessions with the Commission on

Sustainability of Rural Systems. The attendance at joint sessions was 17 to 21 participants including chairs and speaker and 9 to 18 at sessions of our commission. There were 23 paper presentations altogether, 11 at joint sessions and 12 at sessions of our commission. Three Steering committee members actively participating were: Alison McCleery, Markku Tykkylainen and Stanko Pelc, chair, as well as Walter Leimgruber, secretary, and Yasutaka Matsuo as our local host and organizer. The common title of all 3 joint sessions was: “Rural areas, Development Dynamics, Policy Options and Marginalization” and they were chaired by Doo-Chul Kim (Okayama University) and Stanko Pelc (University of Primorska/Faculty of Humanities). One session of our commission was dedicated to the “Different contexts of geographical marginality” with only 3 contributions (Alison McCleery, Markku Tykkylainen and Stanko Pelc – while Etienne Nel unfortunately could not attend and his paper has not been presented). The other two sessions with 9 contributors were entitled “Marginality and marginalization - spatial, social and economic viewpoints”. You can read more about this at our website under: C12.29 Report on KRC 2013.

Kyoto 2013 post conference excursion A post conference excursion organised by prof. Yasutaka Matsuo has been held

from August 9 to 12. We travelled from Kyoto to Gifu, Toyama, Ishikawa and back to Kyoto by a chartered bus. We visited the Museum of Mino Washi/Japanese paper and the house and mill of the artisan, Masashi Sawamura. We were acquainted with the work of the Development Bureau of Meiho District in Gujo municipality. We walked to and visited the Hachiman Castle, rode to and observe “Miboro” rock-fill Dam and Reservoir and Miboro Electric Power Hall. Our next visit was to “Shirakawa-go” traditional steep thatched roof houses village and to Taira Local Museum in Nanto municipality. We stayed overnight at the Ainokura settlement with a lot of preserved steep thatched roof houses. The owner of the house we were staying at told us about local and family history. Next day visits were to Inami temple-gate town and we were acquainted with the wood carving tradition of the area, to the Tonami museum and the area of the dispersed settlements. The last day we visited terraced paddy fields, the lacquer Masao Matsumoto and Kenroku-en garden in Kanazawa. More about the excursion with some photos can be found on our website under Excursion 12.29, KRC 2013.

Penghu (Taiwan) conference on Island development 2013 The IGU Commissions on Island Development (12.22), chaired by our

corresponding member Prof. Chang-yi David Chang, had invited our commission to a joint conference in Penghu (Pescadores) Islands from October 1-5. Organized by Prof. Kuo-Yuan Kao of National Penghu University in Magong, the conference united more than 80 participants from 20 countries, of which five from our commission. Altogether 73 papers were delivered: eight keynotes and 65 papers in 17 parallel sessions. They revolved around themes such as climate change, sustainability, bio- and cultural diversity, landscape, culture etc. and allowed to discover and discuss many common points


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between the two commissions, which were particularly stressed in Prof. Leimgruberʼs keynote address. A welcome outcome was also the interest manifested by a number of participants in our commission, which resulted in new corresponding members. Two field trips (half-day by bus and full day by boat) provided a valuable illustration of island life and problems on the Penghu archipelago. An optional pre-conference one-day trip took participants to Yangmingshan National Park (at the northern outskirts of Taipei) and Yeliu Geopark on the northeast coast, while a two-day post-conference trip was devoted to Taroko National Park on Taiwanʼs east coast.

COMMISSION PUBLICATIONS – BRIEF OVERVIEW

• We have been told in Cologne that the papers presented in Barcelona in 2008 are to be published soon. According to the above conclusion of our last business meeting we are waiting until the end of the year afterwards we will try to publish the material sent to the organizers on a CD or on-line.

• Papers from 2009 meeting in Malaysia are still being edited, we are trying to accelerate this process.

• Two publishers in Delhi have indicated their interest to publish the proceedings of the 2011 conference.

• The publication of the 2012 Dubrovnik conference is under way in the Croatian Geographical Bulletin, but only five papers have so far been submitted. Members who would like to see their contributions in print should contact the publications committee. Papers from the 2012 Cologne session could be placed with Fennia, and potential authors should again contact our Publications Sub-committee. In both cases, papers will be peer reviewed. There is still the option that papers from Dubrovnik or Cologne could be published in an e-book of proceedings of our conferences or as a chapter within a thematic marginality book.

• The Publications Sub-committee comprises Profesors Stanko Pelc, Alison McCleery, Etienne Nel and Walter Leimgruber.

OBITUARIES

This autumn we lost two persons who have been faithful members of our commission who had often participated in our meetings and provided us with factual information and critical reflections. We honour their memory and are grateful for their contributions.

Richard C. Lonsdale, Professor Emeritus at New York University passed away on March 11, 2013 in Glenmoor Retirement Community, St. Augustine, FL where he resided for nine years. In 1942 he joined the US Navy, participated in the 1943 landings in North Africa and in 1944 on Utah Beach, where he was responsible for evacuation of the wounded. After the war he studied at Syracuse University where he earned his doctorate in educational administration. In 1964 he accepted a position at New York University. He retired from NYU in 1989. He did research in Futures Studies and was a consultant to the Department of Education in Australia where he lectured.


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Steven R. Kale passed away on November 7, 2013 in his hometown of Salem, Oregon after a brief illness. Although only 65 years old when he died, Steve accomplished much in his life in academics, his profession and in relationships with others in his life. He graduated from Kansas State University in Manhattan earning degrees in Geography and Business Administration. He then obtained Masters and PHD degrees from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. When he retired from Oregon Department of Transportation in 2005 he was the agency's primary freight planning person.

NEWS FROM THE IGU SECRETARY

The International Social Science Council (ISSC) and the International Council for Science

(ICSU), in collaboration with the International Network of Next Generation Ecologists (INNGE) and Institute for New Economic Thinkingʼs Young Scholars Initiative (INET YSI), are planning to assemble a group of early career researchers with diverse backgrounds and research perspectives to reflect on ecosystems and human wellbeing in the transition towards green economies and debate relevant issues as part of a series of conferences on Integrated Science that are funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

The Networking Conference is open to post-doctoral researchers interested in the collaboration between the social and the natural sciences. The conference will bring together senior and leading scientists and researchers with a diversity of perspectives to identify top priority questions for future research on the topic.

Closing date for applications: 7 January 2014. For more information and eligibility requirements please download the call for applications. The World Social Science Report 2013: Changing Global Environments was launched at

the UNESCO General Conference in Paris. You might find the press release release interesting: www.unesco.org/new/en/media-

services/single-view/news/global_warming_is_more_about_people_than_carbon_emissions_argues_2013_world_social_science_report/#.UoOOtflg_XU - please feel free to use it in any way you find useful.

You can read the report online www.oecd-ilibrary.org/content/book/9789264203419-en - please share this link widely and embed it in your websites if you would like to (via the 'read' buttons).

The travel grant application process for attendance at the next IGU Regional Conference

in Krakow, Poland 18th to 22nd August 2014 is open. Details, together with an application form, are in the following document.

Qin Dahe, who is one of our IGU Executive Committee members, is the 2013 Laureat of

the Volvo Environment Prize! See: http://www.environment-prize.com/content/view/87/142/ Dear colleagues, I am pleased to inform you that the Springer is starting a series on

Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences with me as Series Editor. Please refer if you see probability of any appropriate volume coming from IGU Commission Meetings or any other conferences dealing with above themes. However, each volume will have only original contributions of 20 to 25 chapters/papers. With best regards, R.B. Singh, Vice President: International Geographical Union (IGU).

The San Francisco Declaration: the IGU Executive Committee was mandated to sign this declaration on behalf the IGU community as a whole. Nevertheless, there seems every reason for other IGU bodies, or even individuals for that matter, to sign the declaration themselves. Please feel free to circulate this to your community and to encourage people to sign this online. The opportunity is available at: http://am.ascb.org/dora/index.php/sign-the-declaration The guidelines for what will become a new IGU Commission (including Task Force) Excellence Award have been prepared. The Executive Committee expects to instigate this award in 2013 based on the evidence in the Commission Annual Report.


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ADMINISTRATION

1. Call for information feedback

I would like to continue our tradition of inviting the submission of details of relevant conferences, workshops and publications from Commission members as well as conference reports, lecture courses, seminars etc on the topic of marginality and marginal regions. I think this does serve as a very useful form of knowledge exchange. Please furnish details to me directly or to our secretary.

2. IGU Web Page

Commission members are encouraged to visit the web pages of the IGU (http://www.igu-online.org/site) to learn more about the activities of the IGU, including details of conferences, procedures and publications. A further source of information is the homepage of the Home of Geography in Rome (www.homeofgeography.org).

3. Commission Web Page

Please consult also our own website (http://www.igu-marginality.info/) for any information needed. You are also encouraged to furnish any relevant information to the webmaster (Prof. Stanko Pelc).

The commission objectives, focal interest and research themes, 2013-2016 The following details have been extracted from our renewal proposal, which was approved

by the IGU General Assembly in 2012:

Focal questions

• What are the consequences of globalization on people and places with special regard on areas and people outside the mainstream and how can we critically evaluate them (we are interested both in urban and rural marginalized people and areas – including physically marginalized areas such as mountain environments)?

• What are the local economic, social and developmental responses to marginalised situation of people or areas catalysed by globalization?

• What are the characteristics of the relations between environmental stress and change on one side and peopleʼs actions on the other in a globalized world-system, in terms of food production, livelihoods and social well-being?

• What are direct and indirect links between marginality and globality relating to people and places?

• How, in an increasingly interlinked world, regional and local (marginal) cultures can survive and serve as models for the survival of humanity?

Within this context, four fields are of particular relevance:

• Social change and response, associated with globalization and political processes,

• Economic change and response, associated with globalization and political processes,

• Environmental justice, and

• Resource conservation and exploitation. Both of which contain an important ethical component.

Research objectives

a. To further the understanding of marginality and the processes of marginalization in our globalized world, through the study and analysis of the forces responsible for the dynamics


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and structures of spatial marginality at various scales. They will include, among others, issues of technology, gender, social structure and the environment.

b. To analyse marginality as the result of human perceptions and decisions, leading to the understanding of the role of the various agents in those processes, and their response to prevailing conditions.

c. To develop comparative approaches in order to identify various types of marginality and to put them into perspective and assess their role in an increasingly globalized world. Emphasis in particular needs to be placed on the experience of the South.

d. To study policy/institutional/community responses to economic and societal problems in marginal regions at various scales in relation to local, regional and societal development, and to study human responses to global change, including their implications for marginalization.

Steering Committee 2012-2016

Chair:

Assoc. prof. Stanko Pelc University of Primorska Faculty of Humanities Geography Department Titov trg 5, SI-6000 Koper Slovenia Phone: ++386 41 695 392 E-mail: [email protected]

Steering committee members:

Dr. Jamalunlaili Abdullah Universiti Teknologi MARA Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying Departement of Town and Regional Planning 40450 Shah Alam Malaysia E-mail: [email protected]

Prof. Raghuvir Chand Kumaun University Department of Geography Nainital-263002 Uttarakhand India E-mail: [email protected]

Assoc. prof. Steve Déry Université Laval Département de géographie 2405, rue de la Terrasse, Québec, QUÉBEC Canada, G1V 0A6 E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 1-418-656-2131 poste 5107

Prof. Roddy Fox Rhodes University Geography Department P O Box 94, GRAHAMSTOWN, 6140 South Africa E-mail: [email protected]


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Dr. Tomáš Havlíček Charles University in Prague Faculty of Science Department of Social Geography and Regional Development Albertov 6, CZ-128 43 PRAHA 2 Czechia Phone:+420 221 995 512 Fax:+420 221 995 514 E-mail: [email protected]

Prof. Alison McCleery, Associate Dean (Research Development & RAE), Napier University School of Health & Social Sciences Craighouse Campus, Edinburgh, EH10 5LG United Kingdom Phone: 00 44 (0)131 455 6002 E-mail: [email protected]

Prof. Etienne Nel University of Otago Department of Geography PO Box 56 Dunedin, 9054 New Zealand Phone: ++64 3 4798548 Fax ++64-3-4799037 E-mail: [email protected]

Prof. Margarita Schmidt Universidad Nacional de Cuyo Facultad de Filosofía y Letras Departamento de Geografía Centro Universitario, 5500-Mendoza Argentina E-mail: [email protected]

Prof. Markku Tykkyläinen University of Eastern Finland Department of Geographical and Historical Studies P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 JOENSUU Finland Mobile: +358-50-3011570 Switchboard: +358-294 45 1111 Fax:+358-13-2512 050 E-mail: [email protected]

Commission Secretary: Prof. Emeritus Walter Leimgruber Université de Fribourg Département de Géosciences, Unité de Géographie Perolles, CH-1700 Fribourg, Suisse Phone: ++41 26 300 90 10 Fax: ++41 26 300 96 47 E-mail: [email protected]

YOUR ADDRESS UPDATE:

Please help us to keep the address list updated by communicating your new

address, phone and fax number and e-mail address to me. In particular I invite those members who receive the Newsletter by surface mail to communicate their e-mail addresses. This not only helps to save money, it also enables you to be rapidly informed.

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