The IGU Study Group on the Cultural Approach in Geography, transformed into an IGU Commission during the Durban Congress, remains faithful to its fundamental aims :

1- to have all the informations concerning the cultural approach in geography and the different forms it takes in different countries circulated as quickly as possible among as many geographers and countries as possible ;

2- to provide, thanks to the annual editorials, reviews which may help colleagues to decipher the rapid evolution of the field, offer them useful mental categories or incite them, as a reaction, to forge new ones ;

3- to organize conferences in various countries in order to develop more direct relations with the colleagues living in the different continents.

Two conferences have been organized in 2002 :

1- In Durban, on 6-7 August 2002, during the Regional IGU Congress. The general theme we had chosen was "Cultures and post-colonial situations". Shirley Brooks was en charge of the local organization, which was absolutely remarkable. We had three sessions : 1- "Culture, nature, identity in South Africa after apartheid", on the 6th. 2- "North-South relations in a postcolonial World", equally on the 6th. 3- "Cultural policies of postcolonial places", on the 7th.

Practically all the registered colleagues attended the conference (17 out of 18).

2- In Dublin, on 12-14 December 2002, on the theme : "Perspectives on landscape, memory, inheritance and landscape". Yvonne Whelan and Brian Graham, in charge of the organization, did a perfect job.

The Study Group – then Commission – was created in 1996. We organize conferences in order to : 1- confront the existing approaches and analyze the role of culture in the understanding of the urban scene (Paris, 1997) ; 2 – study the significance given to sea – "maritimity" - in different countries (Tomar, Portugal, 1998) ; 3 – review the orientations of religious geography (Santa Fe, Argentina, 1999) ; 4- analyze the relations between culture and development (Maashad, Iran, 2000) ; 5- measure the impact of modernization on landscapes (Seoul, Korea, 2000) ; 5- study the preservation of ancient capital cities, and more generally, of historical cities (Xi’an, China, 2001).

Two conferences are organized in 2003. The first one, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June, will cover the relations between culture, space and time. The second one, in Gorizia, Italia, in September, will offer the opportunity to review the cultural turn in geography. There will be two meetings in 2004, one in Spring, in Cologne, Germany, the other in August, in Glasgow, at the time of the IGU Conference.

The role of the cultural approach in geography appears more clearly today than a few years ago. It takes place at two levels, two different times : 1- upstream, it reminds that the imprint of man on the Earth’s surface always come within the scope of cultures ; those who study it come also within the scope of particular cultures ; it leads to a critical perspective, develops an interest in ethnogeographies and vernacular geographies as much as in the "scientific" one and shows that the categories used to describe the social, economic and political aspects of the life of human groups exist only in specific cultures ; 2- downstream, and parallel to the studies devouted to economic, political, social, urban, geographies, it is useful to develop a field covering more strictly "cultural features" - codes and systems of signs, communication, the building of identities and society, the construction of beyonds which give a normative direction to human action, landscapes, inheritance, etc. According to authors and countries, the definition of culture differs, so that the scope and content of cultural geography vary largely.

We think that we have to incorporate two problems into our agenda for the next future :

1- Why is the cultural approach so different according to countries ? Is it only a question of time lag ? Do not the observed differences reflect the fundamental options of the societies in which geographers are working ?

2- Geography evolves and is increasingly open to the problems of a world experiencing rapid globalization : the preservation of environment, sustainable growth, the coexistence of cultures. The time has come to evaluate the logical bases of these approaches and their ideological foundations in order to elaborate a really dispassionate knowledge

Dear colleagues,

We ask to those who have registered, or are willing to register, to the Conference "The Cultural Turn in Geography" which will be held in Gorizia on the 18-19-20 September 2003 to complete and send us the joined registration form before the 10th of June, 2003. The third Newsletter , with the final program of the Conference, will be sent to all the registered persons before the 30th of July, 2003

You will find here the form with the modalities of registration and the list of hotels where you can make reservations through the Agenzia Contras, at the address which is given.

Registration to the Conference

In order to register to the Conference, you need to complete a form of registration (see below), answering to all the questions, and send it, preferably through fax, to the Organizing Committee at the address given on the form itself. The form has to be sent with the eventual abstract of the paper (maximum : 30 lines). The form has to include all the information on the way the payment of registration fee has been made. It has to reach the Organizing Committee before the 10th of June, 2003.

Registration fee

The registration fee will be : Euros 30s for the doctors, and Euros 20 for the doctoral students (and eventually, other students).

The payment of the registration fee, net of any evental banking commission, has to be exclusively made through a banking check on the account c/c n. 17333B of Scaini Maurizio, “Tournement Culturel”, at la Banca Antoniana Popolare Veneta, Agenzia di Gorizia, swift address ANTBIT2P, IBAN – BBAN: IT74 Z 05040 12400 00000017333B.

The information concerning this payment has to be given on the registration form. We will not be able to accept payments at the Conference itself.

The registration fee include :

- the participation to the Conference,

- the coffee breacks of September 18, 19 and 20.

Cancellation

The participants who will communicate the cancellation of their participation to the Conference before the 31st of July, 2003, will received a repayment of 50% of the registration fee. There will be no repayment later. The information has to reach the Organizing Committee exclusively through fax, n° 0039.040.577867.

Hotel reservation

In order to benefit from the service of hotel reservation, you have to complete the reservation form below and send it to CONTRAS – Congress & Travel Services di Trieste al n. 0039.040.833.30.33 before 10.06.2003

Because of the limited hotel capacitiy in Gorizia, a sufficient number or rooms has been reserved in the turistic-sea ressort of Grado. A daily shuttle service will be organized between the hotels of Grado and Gorizia and the venue of the Congress.

The prices of the hotels will be the following ones :

Comitato Organizzativo

Sezione di Geografia – Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche

Università degli Studi di Trieste

Piazzale Europa, 1

34127 TRIESTE (ITALIA)

Tel. 040.558.35.09 Fax 040.57.78.67

before the 10.06.2003

Name First Name

Sex M F

Title :

Position/Qualification :

University/Entreprise :

Departiment/Faculty :

Indirizzo

City : ZIP : Country :

Telephone :

Fax :

E-mail Address :

Accompanying persons

1- First Name Name

2- First Name Name

I wish to make the following reservation :

n single room;

n double room used by one person;

n double room.

(it is asked to send a form for each participating person)

in a : four stars three stars two stars hotel

preferably in Gorizia

Grado (GO)

Time of arrival :

Time of departure

Number of nights

I wish to share my room with the following person :

Accompanying person : name first name

Participant : name first name

Data on the credit card :

Bankamerikard Eurocard American Express Other

Number of the card

Expiration time,

If I do not advise the hotel, in case of an eventual cancellation of this reservation, or if I do not advise it before the 12th of September, 2003, I authorize the hotel to debit on my credit card the price of one night, as an hotel penalty.

Time

Signature

(We signal that it will not be possible for us to take into consideration the forms without data relative to the credit card of the participant, or without signature)

Send the form to the following address :

CONTRAS – Congress & Travel Services

Via del Ponticello, 25/6

34146 TRIESTE

Tel. 040.833.33.33

Fax 040.833.30.33

Before the 10.06.2003

Introduction

Although Germany has a long tradition of research in the classical field of Cultural Geography, German contributions to the New Cultural Geography have not been particularly visible internationally. There are, however, numerous contributions from similar perspectives during the last couple of years, though rarely presented under the label of Cultural Geography. This is about to change, as is emphasized by special issues of two renowned German geographical journals to be published shortly, (Berichte zur Deutschen Landeskunde and Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen) both wholly dedicated to the cultural approach.

In this way, the meeting will contribute to addressing the comparative aspect of how the cultural approach is enriched by the existing variety of national geographical communities and their specific world views.

Against this backdrop, it seems both timely and important to invite the IGU Commission L’approche culturelle en géographie/The Cultural Approach in Geography to Germany. Two related aspects seem crucial: (i) to more thoroughly expose the domestic geographical community to recent international work done in the field, and (ii) to give particularly young German scholars the opportunity to meet with colleagues from all over the world and to present their own ideas. At the same time, the urban context, so far only marginally a topic of the IGU commission, will be addressed more systematically.

Furthermore, discussions in a German context – and a symposium anchored in Cologne – are relevant because of two specific aspects: First, Human Geography approaches here have never disregarded, or even excluded, the materiality of space and landscapes to the same degree as has happened in the English-speaking world. To address this crucial aspect of practising Geography now seems particularly rewarding as the dematerialized thrust of influential strands in anglophone Geography is increasingly contested from within. Second, the city of Cologne is one of Germany’s most vibrant and cosmopolitan urban settings, thus presenting a particularly interesting stage where most topics and issues of the New Cultural Geography are constantly played out. This latter aspect will be presented during the conference’s field trips, made even more interesting for cultural geographers’ critical scrutiny by what in Cologne is called the ‘fifth season’, i.e. carnival and its maddest days.

Paper sessions and topical foci

The organizing committee proposes the following foci of the symposium. Papers addressing these topics are welcome, but other contributions are conceivable as long as they fit into the main theme of the symposium.

Ethnic urban spaces and places

Multiethnic impacts on European cities seem to be less important than in North America, but they are far from insignificant. Ethnic restaurants represent one of the most visible sectors, but industrial workplaces - such as coal mines or motor car factories – or entertainment sites – such as ethnic discos – are no less important. A comparative approach addressing both traditional immigration societies and more recent developments, seems rewarding.

Gender and urban identities

It is not only the cultural elements of religion and ethnicity that shape the urban cultural landscape. Increasingly, aspects of gender are gaining importance for the emergence of specific urban places and their interpretation as symbols of urban cultures.

Urban subcultures

Although mainstream culture still exists it is losing ground to a great variety of subcultures which increasingly tend to leave their marks on the cityscape. It is especially, but not exclusively, pop(ular) cultures or subcultures of young people symbolically appropriating urban places. Competition and conflict over the dominance of such subcultures in urban neighborhoods has become a field of growing interest among cultural geographers.

Social movements and resistances

Urban settings are incubators, nodes and sites of resistance for social movements addressing real and perceived problem areas of current societies. The same is true for communitarian approaches sustaining and strengthening urban subsistence in a period of continuing job losses in traditional labor markets. Existing structures and processes have inadequately been addressed from a cultural geography perspective.

Evaluating and pre

NEWSLETTER N° 8, 2003

Editorial

COMMISSION CONFERENCES

Gorizia, Italy

Second Newsletter

Registration to the Conference

Registration fee

Cancellation

Hotel reservation

Social events

Registration Form

Comitato Organizzativo

before the 10.06.2003

Hotel reservation

CONTRAS – Congress & Travel Services

Before the 10.06.2003

Urban Cultures and Identities

First Circular and Call for Papers