European Geographer 6 - Diversity

Magazine from the European Geography Association for students and young geographers

the European Geographer

Sixth issue September 2010

Diversity

Colophon

03 Inge Wiekenkamp: Editorial Scientific Articles

The EGEA Magazine is a publication from the European Geography Association for Geography students and young Geographers. The EGEA Magazine is published twice a year. The magazine is produced for the EGEA community, EGEA partners and all others interested in EGEA, Geography and Europe.

04 Maren Gleisberg: 2010 – The United Nations Year of Biological Diversity 08 Elisabeth Gruber & Markus Speringer: Education Matters – Projecting De-

mographic Behaviour by Educational Attainment

14 Stefania Russo: Divided cities in Europe – Historical factors, comparisons and cross-border cooperation

Postal address: EGEA Faculty of Geosciences – Utrecht University P.O.Box 80.115 NL-3508 TC Utrecht Telephone: +31-30-2539708 E-mail: egea@egea.eu E-mail EGEA magazine: egea.magazine@egea.eu Website: www.egea.eu

18 Claudia Nowak: Diversity and Regional Growth 20 Sandra Sosnowski: Construction of Sex through Clothes – The Example of Transsexuals

24

Nataliia Maiboroda & Santiago Rodriguez Ruiz: The many faces of Iceland

EGEA Articles

28 Kristina Bobyr: Crimea – Peninsula of Diversity 31 Dirk Lindemann: What do you really know about EGEA Dinosaurs & Alumni?

32 Sebastian Buciak: “Would Anyone Like a Gherkin?“ – A Report on the “Germany Weekend 2010”, Lübben/Spreewald

35 Aafke Mertens: The Western Regional Congress: An overview 38 Satu Onnela: Share the Knowledge – Participation in the 21st Century 40 Dirk Lindemann: Cooperation between EGEA, EGEA Dinosaurs & Alumni

and EUROGEO

Editors of the sixth issue: Inge Wiekenkamp, Maike Metzkow, Ayeshe Hercules, Lisa Sommerlad, Annika Palomäki, Ajith Kaliyath, Jan Smutek, Vera Bornemann, Elisabeth Wimmer Graphic Design: GeoMedia Contributing authors: Inge Wiekenkamp, Maren Gleisberg, Elisabeth Gruber, Markus Speringer, Stefania Russo, Claudia Nowak, Sandra Sosnowski, Kristina Bobyr, Dirk Lindemann, Sebastian Buciak, Aafke Mertens, Satu Onnela, Nataliia Maiboroda, Santiago Rodriguez Ruiz Photos: Inge Wiekenkamp, Maren Gleisberg, Dirk Lindemann, Rolf Palmberg, Daniel Bocai, Malyshev Aleksey, Stroganov Aleksey, Sebastian Buciak, Aafke Mertens, Florian Simetsreiter, Judith Bernet, Nathalie Giloy, Karl Donert, Nataliia Maiboroda, Santiago Rodriguez Ruiz Coverphoto: Jutta Wuerth Authors are completely responsible for the content of their articles and references made by them.

The editors would like to thank: Gérard van Betlehem – GeoMedia Margot Stoete – GeoMedia Peter Adelaar – Faculty of Geosciences Utrecht University Jelle Gulmans All authors EGEA is supported by: ESRI - HERODOT Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University

The European Geographer - 6 - September 2010

Editorial – This is your Chief Editor speaking Lately I started dreaming about cycling or walking around in Amsterdam – my city – and it makes me feel extremely happy. After two and a half months walking around in this small town of Caterina, Nicaragua, sometimes I start longing for this big city. Not because I miss the fancy flat-screens or the big building. Rather because I tend to feel home in this place where it’s normal to see such a big diversity of people.

Living in such a small town makes you, however, also realize about the diversity in lifestyle within our world. Coming from a city where there’s always (red) light, it is impossible to imagine nights without electricity.

Walking around in a small town in Nicaragua makes you feel different: all eyes are just focused on you, you are the foreigner and they are calling you “Chelita, chelita” (white girl, white girl). Then I noticed why this is actually very special to live in a city where you can find people from all over the world and where that is more than normal. Not to forget about going to an EGEA congress and meeting over 180 people from different

places, having their own language, their own ideas and their own lifestyle.

After working almost for one year for the European Geographer, I figured out that this is especially the nice part of EGEA and for the European Geographer – our Europe-wide magazine: reading articles from different people, with different cultures and always with different backgrounds. While some like to read about biological diversity others may be fascinated by the construction of sex through different clothes.

Making this magazine with so many different authors and editors from different countries is, however, not that easy. Because of the diversity of people helping to create such a magazine, a bit of structure could not harm. This caused big changes during our life meeting in March 2010 in Mainz: not only new members joined the board, the structure of our board also changed a lot.

Since that moment Maike Metzkow (Berlin) and me, Inge Wiekenkamp (Amsterdam), are the coordinators of the Editorial Board: we check if all articles will come in time, have contact with the

BoE, with the layout organization and inform you, when you can send in your article or cover picture for the newest issue. But of course we cannot make such a nice magazine without the help of all our editors. Ayeshe, Lisa, Janek, Annika and Ajith are our helping hand when it comes to making track changes and checking important information in our articles. And of course there are our predecessors, Vera and Elli, who always gave us advice when we needed it.

With a brand new spirit and a brand new group of editors we made this brand new issue about Diversity. Making such a nice issue with a variety of articles is however never possible without authors Therefore, I would like to thank the authors of this issue and ask all of you EGEAns to think about writing some nice article about your research in an upcoming issue!

I am looking forward to reading from you!

Inge Wiekenkamp Chief Editor Editorial Board of the European Geographer

Figure 1: The Editorial Board 2010 during their life meeting in Mainz - Source: Inge Wiekenkamp

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2010 – The United Nations Year of Biological Diversity Biodiversity Research and Protection: a Global Challenge with Special Focus on Status and Future Perspectives of Biodiversity Research in Europe

By Maren Gleisberg, Diplom Landscape Ecologist, EGEA Alumni, University of Potsdam, Dept. Biodiversity Research/ Botany, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology Contact: maren.gleisberg@gmx.de

nature protection, research or politics.

Keywords: biological diversity, biodiversity, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), functional research, Biodiversity Exploratories During the Earth Summit of Rio 1992, where 150 states signed the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the term ‘biodiversity’ gained political meaning. Eighteen years have

Figure 1: Biodiversity on a Mountaintop, Lazovski Zapovednik, Russian Far East Source: Maren Gleisberg, 2003.

Abstract: Every day our planet loses 150 species of plants and animals. Overexploitation of resources, climate change, settlement and environmental pollution are the main reasons for the loss of their natural habitats and therefore endanger the richness of our nature in a tremendous speed. Due to these reasons the United Nations declared 2010 as „The International Year of Biodiversity – IYB”. The intention is to increase the world-wide awareness of the topic itself by events, press work and media echo in preparation for the 2010 Conference on Biological Diversity. The international year of biodiversity is as well an incentive as a confirmation for all who are involved in preserving the biodiversity either in

passed since the RIO-conference and there are currently 193 Parties to the Convention (192 countries and the European Union). (cf. Secretariat of the CBD 2010:4) Nevertheless, biodiversity is still severely endangered on all levels worldwide. (cf. www.biodiv.de 2010) Biodiversity – More than Variety of Species!

The word ‘biodiversity’, a contraction of the synonymous expression ‘biological diversity’, is “defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as ‘the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity

within species, between species and of ecosystems.” (Secretariat of the CBD 2010:4) But the term ‘biodiversity’ is not always used uniformly. In a sense, it represents the variety of all living organisms (plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria).

The earth’s biosphere consists of a functional structure of diverse ecosystems, composed by complex partnerships.

Each organism from this partnership has individual genetic information. So, biodiversity covers the diversity of life on all these levels, the diversity within species (genetic level), between species (species diversity level) and the variability of habitats (ecosystems level) as well as the relationships between the levels (functional diversity). In nature conservation and in a broader public, biodiversity is often reduced simply to the ’diversity of species’. Thus, the CBD is often designated as the ‘Species Protection Convention’. This simplification of the complex term ‘biodiversity’ is not correct, since it considers only the level of species diversity. (cf. www.biodiv.de 2010) Moreover, the term biodiversity comprises even more than the natural scientific elements. In a political context it also deals with the questions of access and benefit sharing of biodiversity. For a few years there has been a trend in observing the role of biodiversity for the functioning of ecosystem services (such as productivity of green land, water holding capacity, and many more). This identification and focus on the ecosystem services shows that human development is depending a lot on ecosystem functioning. (cf. www. biodiversity.de 2010)

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(cf. http://www.unep.org/iyb/2010). Here a new declaration has to be developed as almost all countries have failed in achieving the 2010 biodiversity-targets. (cf. Leadley et al. 2010) Environmental Research in Europe and the Role of Biological Diversity The main goals of biodiversity research have been formulated within the science plan of the DIVERSITAS programme. In order to support this network research has to be funded.

The European Union is funding several projects of biodiversity basic and applied research and most of the countries also have an own budget. (cf. http:// www.diversitas-international.org 2010, http://ec.europa.eu/research/environment/2010)

Figure 2: Biodiversity – more than the variety of species - Source: Maren Gleisberg, 2003, 2005, 2009 & Dirk Lindemann, 2007.

From Rio in Brasil to Nagoya in Japan – The CDB as an International Political Process Biological diversity is severely endangered on all levels world-wide. Numerous factors such as changes of land use and habitat destruction threaten many species and even whole ecosystems (e.g. coral reefs) severely. In order to work against this trend, it was decided at the Conference of the United Nations for Environment and Sustainable Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 to have the Convention on Biological Diversity. This convention is one of the three ‘Rio Conventions’ emerging from the Earth Summit in Rio and entered into force in December 1993 with the following objectives: (1) the conservation of biological diversity, (2) the sustainable use of components of biological diversity and (3) the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources by ensuring appropriate access to genetic resources and appropriate transfer of relevant technologies taking into account all rights over those resources and technologies, and by guaranteeing adequate funding. (cf. http://www.cbd.

int/convention/about.shtml 2010, www. biodiv.de 2010) In April 2002, the Parties to the Convention committed themselves to achieve a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at global, regional and national level by 2010 as a contribution to poverty alleviation and for the benefit of all life on earth.

This target was subsequently endorsed by the World Summit on Sustainable Development (the ‘Rio + 10’ summit) in Johannesburg, 2002, and by the United Nations General Assembly. It was also incorporated as a new target under one of the Millennium Development Goals – Ensure Environmental Sustainability.

The 2010 biodiversity target is therefore a commitment from all governments including those not party to the CBD. (cf.

Secretariat of the CBD 2010:4) This year 2010 is the official United Nations Year of Biodiversity. Within the year, there are many activities by governments, organizations and NGOs all over the world pointing at the biodiversity (cf. www.bfn.de 2010) and on this year’s 10th CBD-Conference of the Parties (CBD-COP10), which takes place from 27th – 29th of October in Nagoya, Japan

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Basic Research: Biodiversity Exploratories for Large-scale and Long-term Functional Biodiversity Research The Biodiversity Exploratories serve as a best practice example in Europe. This long term research project is running in Germany since 2006 and is funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG Priority Programme 1374). The project established three large-scale and long-term research sites for functional biodiversity research and deals with the effects of land use on biodiversity and ecosystem functionality. The three exploratories serve as open research platforms for or all biodiversity and ecosystem research groups of Germany; currently, there are over 300 scientists from 40 different institutions with own projects involved. (cf. Fischer et al.

2007:64f., Fischer et al. in press, www. biodiversity-exploratories.de 2010) The main objective of the exploratories is to study (1) interrelationships between biodiversity at different organismic levels (from soil microbes to plants, insects, birds and mammals) and scales (genes, species, interactions, habitats), (2) the role of land use and management for biodiversity, and (3) the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. (cf. Pfeiffer et al. 2008:184) The Biodiversity Exploratories for functional biodiversity research are unique in Europe. “The three exploratories are distributed across Germany to cover a wide range of climatic and landscape

ing to the same three exploratories and to a common statistical design, all these projects will allow us to directly compare the data collected by different groups of scientists and thus integrating biodiversity, ecosystem, environmental and socio-economical research into a general, interdisciplinary framework.”

(Fischer et al.2007:65f.)

Figure 3: Complex experiments in the forest: Continuous sampling of flying insects by a Flight-interception trap in the canopy - Source: Maren Gleisberg, 2009. settings in which the relationships between climate change, land use intensity, biodiversity change, and ecosystem functioning in forests and grasslands are being investigated.” (cf. Fischer et al.

2007:64) In this integrative approach with standardized methodology the exploratories combine biodiversity and ecosystem research, environmental science and socio-economic approaches in a common hierarchical design in a long term and on large scale. Each exploratory comprises a large number of study plots differing in their intensity of investigation.

All 40 projects are gathered under one roof studying a land use gradient from near-natural forests and extensively used grassland to intensively managed sites in real landscapes while the land is in use. The need to permanently involve a close cooperation with stakeholder such as land owners and land users (no land will be rented/leased for the study) is essential and was already considered while implementing the research plots. (cf. Fischer et al. 2007:64. Pfeiffer et al.

2008:185f.)

With these standardized methods all 40 projects gather a broad amount of data which is collected in one central database. Designed for long term data storage and intense exchange of information this dynamic database allows all

300 scientists to analyze the data under standardized conditions. It enables to easily search for synergy effects with other project groups. The first results are already very promising. Statistical analysis and the synergy potential are currently researched and will be verified soon. (cf. Fischer et al. 2007:64f.)

Future Perspective Biodiversity research and preservation is one of the big challenges in basic and in applied ecology, in nature protection and also in politics. (cf. Sah 2009, TEEB 2009) Functional biodiversity research requires long term observation with standardized methods and stable research conditions on all continents to combine groups of species and processes. This can serve to understand complex ecosystem processes. Because only when scientists are able to understand these processes in total they can give advice to economists and politicians to take the right action on stopping the loss of biodiversity on our planet and defining clear steps and rules how to use genetic resources in fair ways. In the Global Biodiversity Outlook # 3 from May 2010 this is emphasized as follows:

Figure 4: Monitoring Units – collecting data on 300 plots in the Exploratories Source: Maren Gleisberg, 2010.

“Socio-economic evaluation and modeling of management strategies will integrate decisions made by land users and by society. In addition, by adher-

“We have called on a wide range of scientists to participate in this synthesis, with the objective to provide decision makers with messages that reflect the

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consensus of the scientific community and that will aid in the development of policy and management strategies that are ambitious, forward looking and proactive. Land use change, modification of river flow, freshwater pollution, and exploitation of marine resources are currently the most important drivers of biodiversity change and are projected to remain so over the coming century.”

(Leadley, P. et al. 2010:7) Jasmin Joshi, Professor of Botany at the University of Potsdam: „We pass up the chance to discover the function and abilities of some organisms. Without even knowing the role and effect of these plants and animals on the ecosystems it is far more than careless to just accept their extinction.” (cf. Horn-Conrad 2010:31) Furthermore, the statement from Leadley et al. (2010:9) can be considered as the motto for the upcoming COP in Japan: “Strong action at international, national and local levels to mitigate drivers of biodiversity change and to develop adaptive management strategies could significantly reduce or reverse undesirable and dangerous biodiversity transformations if urgently, comprehensively and appropriately applied.”

Biodiversity in its complexity is difficult to define and explore because of its holistic approach and because it covers quasi all life on earth. Statistical approved results require a long term observation and interdisciplinary work of experts – whereas human life and impact and as one consequence the extinction continue. Here is the discipline’s main problem: Biodiversity is a too wide research field? – A lot of solutions are to be found, so let’s make the next steps.

and long-term functional biodiversity research. – CBD Technical Series No. 29, Abstracts of Poster Presentations at the 12th Meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2-6 July in Paris: 64-66.

References: Book: Fischer M., Kalko E.K.V., Linsenmair K.E., Pfeiffer S., Prati D., Schulze E.-D. & Weisser W.W. (In press)Exploratories for large-scale and long-term functional biodiversity research. In: Long-term ecological research – between theory and application. Springer.

Institute for Biodiversity, Science & Business Experts Network, http://www. biodiv.de (2010-05-17)

Journal: Fischer M., Kalko E.K.V., Linsenmair K.E., Schulze E.D., Pfeiffer S., Prati D., Weisser W.W. (2007) Exploratories for large-scale

Horn-Conrad, A. (2010): Signalrot im Wiesengrün. Forschung gegen den drohenden Verlust der Artenvielfalt. In: Portal. Das Potsdamer Universitätsmagazin 1/2010: 31.

Pfeiffer S., Bernert P., Grossmann M., Henne E., Kalko E.K.V., Linsenmair K.E., Prati D., Schulze E.D., Weisser W.W., Fischer M. (2008) Exploratorien für funktionelle Biodiversitätsforschung.

– In: Naturschutz und Ökologie – Ausgewählte Beiträge zur GfÖ-Jahrestagung 2007 in Marburg. (Eds) V. Wolters & A. Krüß, in der Reihe Naturschutz und Biologische Vielfalt 60: 183-188.

Electronic sources: Biodiversity Exploratories http://www. biodiversity-exploratories.de (2010-0514) Bundesamt für Naturschutz, http:// www.bfn.de, (2010-05-12) Convention on Biological Diversity: http://www.cbd.int (2010-05-16) DIVERSITAS Programme, http://www. diversitas-international.org (2010-05-15) European Commission, Research Environment, http://ec.europa.eu/research/ environment/newsanddoc/article_3761_ en.htm (2010-05-15)

Leadley, P., Pereira, H.M., Alkemade, R., Fernandez-Manjarres, J.F., Proenca, V., Scharlemann, J.P.W., Walpole, M.J. (2010) Biodiversity Scenarios: Projections of 21st century change in biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal. Technical Series no.

50, 132 pages. http://gbo3.cbd.int/media/2721/gbo_en_web.pdf (2010-05-15)

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NeFo, netzwerk-forum zur Biodiversitätsforschung Deutschland, http:// www.biodiversity.de (2010-05-17) Sah, Anup (2009) The loss of Biodiversity and Extinctions, last update December 01, 2009 http://www.globalissues.org/ article/171/loss-of-biodiversity-andextinctions (2010-05-14) Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2010) Global Biodiversity Outlook 3 – Executive Summary.

Montréal, 12 pages. http://www.cbd.int/ gbo/gbo3/doc/GBO3-Summary-final-en. pdf (2010-05-17) TEEB – The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for National and International Policy Makers. Summary: Responding to the Value of Nature 2009. http://www.teebweb.org/(2010-05-12) United Nations Environment Programme, Year of Biodiversity 2010 http:// www.unep.org/iyb/(2010-05-16)

Education Matters – Projecting Demographic Behaviour by Educational Attainment

by Elisabeth GRUBER, University of Vienna, Dep. of Geography and Regional Research, EGEA Wien & Markus SPERINGER, University of Vienna, Dep. of Geography and Regional Research, EGEA Wien Contact: lisi.gruber@univie.ac.at, markus.speringer@univie.ac.at A population can be seen as a group of people with a distinct demographic behavior, e.g. according to fertility or mortality. When looking on a population more closely though it might be obvious that within this population there are subgroups with different behaviors.

These subgroups can be different ethnic or national groups, groups with a different marital status (e.g. singles or couples) or in our case people with different education. Higher education is assumed to have a significant beneficial impact on health, economic situation, and individual independence, especially for women. Therefore education is conceived as a driving force for economic, institutional and social development on individual and societal level.

By projecting populations with different subgroups that show different patterns in mortality, fertility and migration we will have a different development of the population according to size and structure: a lower educated population might grow longer than a population with a higher share on secondary and primary education, as well as a very high educated population grows, especially in the older birth-cohorts, than a lower educated ones, because persons with tertiary education show usually the highest life expectancy.

But education is not only a significant determinant for vital variables like fertility and mortality, but also in development. Therefore, better education means most of the time better individual living conditions, “… notably a healthier and better nourished population and greater autonomy among women.”

(Jejeeboy 1995:1) Educational effects on women are widely discussed in literature, precisely concerning delaying age of first marriage/birth, enrollment in labor market, decreasing infant/maternal mortality, and so forth. (Lutz & Goujon 2001; Jejeebhoy 1995; KC et.al. 2008)

Demographic projections by education follow different approaches and projection models, which can show the effects of education on the labor market, economic performance and human capital, what in turn implies consequences for policy makers.

How to Project Diversity?

On national or global level it is common to use the so-called cohort-component method, as the UN, Eurostat and the most national statistical bureaus do.

This model is a deterministic method, which refers to several (plausible or relevant) scenarios without claiming for certainty. The scenarios are determined by the vital components of the analyzed birth cohorts, whereby the following input variables for the initial year 2005 as well as for a reference year (2000) for calculating a trend scenario are needed: population, fertility1, mortality, migration and transitions by age, sex and state.

The original sense of “states” was as geographic units, whereby transitions between the states were conceived as migration flows, but “… a ‘state’ can also reflect any other clearly defined subgroup of the population, for example groups with different educational attainments, with the movements then becoming educational transition rates.” (Lutz & Goujon 2001:324) These educational transition rates are based on the educational population structure by age in the initial year. The transitions are conceived as one-way shift between the educational subgroups no education, primary education, secondary education and tertiary education, according to the ISCED2 classification (UNESCO 2006).

Figure 1: Multi-state population projection model by educational level - Source: Lutz & Goujon 2001: 325.

1 The fertility rates are delimited to the female population.

2 ISCED 1997 – International Standard Classification of Education (UNESCO 2006)

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or more of the demographic variables.”

(Skirbekk et.al. 2007:8) Diversity Matters – Scenarios for the EU-15 and Turkey “Multistate population projections by education require assumptions not only on the future course of fertility and mortality, but also on the future transitions between educational states. The question is, How would fertility and mortality evolve in the future given current and future changes in educational attainment?” (Yousif & Goujon, Lutz 1996:47)

Figure 2: Scheme of calculating educational transition rates - Source: Goujon 2010 (rev. Speringer).

Figure 3: Scheme of Increase in life expectancy by education - Source: Goujon 2010 (rev. Speringer).

The education transitions are mainly concentrated in the age groups below 25 years and are based on the educational composition of the population. The educational transitions can be conceived as age-specific probabilities of young men and women to move from a lower education category to a higher one. Another dynamic variable is fertility by education, which would even trigger changes in the fertility rates of the total population, if the status-specific fertility is constant while the size of the educational subgroups changes. (Lutz & Goujon, Doblhammer-Reiter 1998)3

3 The educational fertility level in the initial year was calculated in this paper by the agespecific fertility rates (ASFR) based on data from Eurostat, which got combined with the fertility differentials by education in the Fertility and Family Surveys (FFS 2006) for Europe and in the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS 2003) for Turkey revised by Vegard Skirbekk (KC et.al 2008).

Mortality and migration4 are more volatile variables, because of a lack of adequate data sources and empirical information. Assuming educational mortality is reliable to surveys of several national case studies, i.e. Sweden and China, by IPUMS. These surveys showed a coherency between mortality and education, which results in the following estimates on life expectancy differentials, whereby it was emphasised a smaller gap between the lowest educational categories.

“Cohort-component models are essentially what-if predictions of the future, where population trends are determined by a set of assumptions. These assumptions could reflect a continuation of past trends or an investigation into what would happen if there is a (constant) change in one 4 Migration won’t be accounted in our example scenarios, because of the missing knowledge about future national migration policies.

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Based on our assumptions on fertility, mortality and migration, the population structure of EU-15 and Turkey concerning education were projected in three scenarios until the year 2055. The 3 scenarios chosen were a 1) constant scenario (assuming that there is no change at all in demographic behavior over time), a 2) target-trend scenario (showing that EU-15 and Turkey would further develop as they have done between the years 2000 and 2005) and a 3) scenario that should show how Turkey might develop if the demographic and the educational behavior of the population will converge with the development projected for the EU-15 countries (EU15convergence scenario).

European Union 15 (EU-15) The modeled age structure of the population of EU-155 (2005) regarding education shows with 387.6 million people, not only a different population size than Turkey, but also a divergent shape of the age structure. The EU-15 has its population peak in the age groups 30 to 39 years (see fig.4), while Turkey has a broader pyramid basis, where each age group makes up to 10% of the total population. (Eurostat; K.C. et.al. 2008; IPUMS; Docquier et.al 2007) The main educational subgroup is the group with secondary education. In the younger age groups (15 to 29 years) it is followed by tertiary education, in the age groups over 50 years the share of people with primary education is still high, while in 5 The countries in EU-15 are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Luxembourg, Sweden, Spain and the United Kingdom.

higher educational levels, compared to the CNM – Scenario. Indeed, the educational attainment would develop in both scenarios quite similar, but with the difference that the enrollment rates for tertiary education it would rise in account of an ebbing of no and primary education.

Republic of Turkey (TK) The age structure of Turkey in 2005 still has the shape of a pyramid: a small share of population in the older ages and a relatively broad basis of younger cohorts, although also in Turkey the TFR has been shrinking in the last 10 years (see fig.4). The total population in 2005 was around 73.0 million, mainly primary educated. The share of uneducated people is still high, especially for females, whereas there is an obvious gender gap in the higher educational levels. The younger age cohorts though show that there has been a lot of development according education taking place in the last decades: the gender gap for younger age groups is getting smaller and the tertiary enrollment rates are rising.

Figure 4: Base-year population 2005 of EU-15 and Turkey (abs.) concerning education - Source: Eurostat (rev. Gruber & Speringer). younger age groups the groups without any education are mainly limited to pupils in schooling (0 to 14 years).

With constant rates (CNM – Scenario) the EU-15 would have around 311.2 million inhabitants in 2055, without migration. The constant scenario shows that even if there were no changes in demographic behavior and in the educational transition rates over time, there would still be an improvement of the education status of the population: In 2055, there would be no more people without education left and a rather small share

of people with primary education. The secondary educated would have by far the highest proportion, while the enrollment rates for tertiary education are not improving anymore for the younger cohorts.

For the target-trend scenario (TNM – Scenario) the size of the population in 2055 would be 349.2 millions, meaning still a declining population, but not as much as in the CNM – Scenario. This can be mainly explained by a stronger increasing life expectancy in the TNMScenario through the shift of people to

This improvement of the enrollment rates are as educational momentum an investment in the future generations: the gender gap in 2005 would be almost diminished untill 2055, even if there were no more investments made and the population developed constantly (CNM – Scenario). With constant rates the population will rise up to 107.9 million, caused by the high fertility rates of the people with no or primary education, what is also the reason for the broadening basis of the age pyramid (see fig.6).

Even in the TNM – Scenario the population would grow to 99.4 million instead of 107.9 million in the CNM – Scenario, caused by the higher transition rates to the less fertile group with secondary education. The not or primary educated people above 15 years will start to disappear, because the enrolment to secondary and tertiary education will rise. Although there have been several improvements in the quality and the extent of the Turkish schooling system, which is reflected in the TNM – Scenario, this scenario seems unrealistic.

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education (TFR = 1.65).

In the EU-15 the transition rates are still high in 2005 and will cause, even in the constant scenario, a significant decrease of no and primary educated people. This shift to higher education will trigger a population decrease from 387.6 million (2005) to 349.2 million (TNM 2055) or 311.2 million inhabitants (CNM 2055), without migration.

Beside the population size, mainly the age structure is affected by the educational composition of the citizens.

Monitoring a decrease of population size in the age groups 20 to 34 years till 2030, before its composition starts to stagnate, while the age group 50 to 64 years in EU-15 peaks in 2025 what would herald the shrinking of the European population, without immigration. In Turkey, this peak will appear ten years later in 2035, before the age groups 50 to 64 years would stagnate in its proportion.

This stagnation is caused by moving up stronger birth cohorts, which will initialize the ageing process in Turkey.

As shown different educational attainments and rising transition rates can have significant effects on variables like fertility, mortality and migration, what can cause rather diverse population sizes and age structures, but also on the future human capital, what should be considered by politicians while elaborating structural programs.

Figure 5: Age pyramid of EU-15 by education for CNM and TNM – Scenario - Source: Eurostat (rev. Speringer).

The highest population increase for all scenarios, with 110.1 million, can be monitored in the EU-15- Convergence Scenario (ENM – Scenario), due to a relatively high TFR (compared to TNM) and a rising life expectancy. Although the shift from no or primary education to higher education lacks behind in the ENM, the enrollment rates of tertiary education are higher.

The importance of a diverse perspective Compared to EU-15, Turkey will experience a population increase in all

considered scenarios, whereby in this scenario the effects of education will be mainly delimited on tertiary education.

Meanwhile the Turkish TNM – scenario notes the highest increase in secondary education, what would cause the “smallest” population increase up to 99.4 million inhabitants. The educational groups with the highest fertility, the group with no (TFR = 3.5) or primary education (TFR = 2.3), will shrink from 73.4% (2005) to 29.5% (2055), because of higher transitions from no/primary to secondary education. This would cause an increase of the child-poor group with secondary

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“What counts is the educational composition of the total population, and there is a long time lag between increasing enrollment among children and seeing the total composition change. (…) Especially in times of structural adjustment programs that often tend to curtail educational investments because they show no payoff in the short run, the demonstration of the longer-term benefits, or costs in the case of declining enrollment, should get high political priority.” (Lutz & Goujon, Doblhammer-Reiter 1998:56)

Figure 6: Age pyramid of EU-15 by education for CNM and TNM – Scenario - Source: Eurostat (rev. Gruber & Speringer).

References Docquier, F. & A. Marfouk, B.L. Lowell (2007), A gendered assessment of the brain drain. – New York (http://perso. uclouvain.be/frederic.docquier/oxlight. htm).

Eurostat – http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa. eu/portal/page/portal/statistics/themes Goujon, A. (2010), Lecture – Multi-State Population Projections. – Vienna.

Jejeebhoy, S. (1995), Women’s Education, Autonomy and Reproductive Behaviour: Experience from Developing Countries.

– Oxford.

KC, S. et.al. (2008), Projection of populations by level of educational attainment, age, and sex for 120 countries for 20052050. – Vienna.

Lutz, W. & A. Goujon, K. DoblhammerReiter (1998), Demographic Dimensions in Forecasting: Adding Education to Age and Sex. – Vienna (In: Population and Development Review, Vol.24, pp.42-58).

Lutz, W. & A. Goujon (2001), The World’s Changing Human Capital Stock: MultiState Population Projections by Educational Attainment. – Vienna (In: Population and Development Review, Vol.27, No.2, pp.323-339).

Skirbekk, V. & I. Prommer, S. KC, E. Terama, C. Wilson (2007), Report on methods for demographic projections at multiple levels of aggregation. – Laxenburg, Vienna.

UNESCO – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, ed.

(2006), International Standard Classification of Education 1997. – Paris.

Figure 7: Age pyramid of Turkey by education for TNM and ENM – Scenario - Source: Eurostat (rev. Gruber & Speringer).

Yousif, H.M. & A. Goujon, W. Lutz (1996), Future Population and Education Trends in the Countries of North Africa. – Laxenburg.

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Figure 8: Population size of EU-15 and Turkey by education for all scenarios. Source: Eurostat (rev. Gruber & Speringer).

Figure 9: Proportion of Working Population of EU-15 and Turkey by age for all scenarios - Source: Eurostat (rev. Gruber & Speringer).

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Divided cities in Europe – Historical factors, comparisons and cross-border cooperation

By Stefania Russo, EGEA Bologna This article is based on my Bachelor’s thesis.

Introduction Divided border cities are cities that were in the past a united urban nucleus, divided by the border of two states because of political events. Very often these decisions are made by the international community to satisfy in a simple way the nationalistic issues in conflict, solving the matter momentarily and trying in the following years to elaborate programs for the development of a process of cross-border cooperation in order to forget the divisions of the past (cf. Apuzzo 2005: 16, 17).

It is a phenomenon that has marked European urban history of last centuries; in particular of the last one as a consequence of events such as World Wars and the Balkan issues, which came to the fore in a dramatic way in the last decade of the 20th century.

Hereafter, the historical factors at the origin of the division of these cities, a very important step to understand deep reasons and signs that characterize the division and whose knowledge is a requirement for the development of forms of cooperation among the cities.

Historical factors Division of many cities in Europe originate as consequence of the First World War, with the creation of national states and the divisions of countries after the stipulation of peace treaties.

To officially ratify the end of the World War I various treaties were stipulated in Paris between 1919 and 1920 (Paris Peace Conference), in which European geopolitical structure was redefined stating the nationality principle and self-determination of peoples (following the principles of the American president Wilson) with the division of the states that was made considering ethnical principles in order to assure equilibrium.

In 1945 at the end of the Second World

War many cities were divided after the Potsdam Conference. The conference determined the German-Polish border on the Oder-Neisse line which divided Western Europe from Eastern Europe.

This is a peculiar case compared to the majority of border areas in Europe, in which the process of division is characterized by a slow historical growth (cf.

Stokłosa, 2005: 2).

Another origin of division were the Balkan wars in the 90s. “Balkans with their dramas have been a laboratory of incubation of our conflicts during the 20th century” (Russo, 2005: 11).

Various reasons generated the conflicts, among which an increasing nationalism of the members of the confederation between the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s, and strong economic and personal motivations of the political power.

After the dissolution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the creation of independent states, a lot of cities were separated by new state borders and these divisions were felt as a sort of continuation of the war in obstacles and daily discrimination (Trogu, 2005: 98). Other common motivations at the origin of divided cities are for example independence wars.

Cases of divided cities Hereafter six different and significant cases of divided cities in Europe: Gornja Radgona (Slovenia) and Bad Radkersburg (Austria). They were divided after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire by the peace treaties of World War I. The Austro-Hungarian town was divided along the Mur River, that traces still today the border between the two countries for about 70 km.

At the end of 1800 a situation of conflict emerged, in particular concerning the focal issues of languages in schools and administration (among the inhabitants it was spoken German whereas Slovene was the language of the servants and

the rural population of surroundings communities) and the conflict had a quick intensification culminating during the First World War. So this area has always been ethnically mixed, and the multilingualism that for centuries had been felt as natural became an element of division. During World War II the nationality matter came out again and after the conclusion of the war there was the expulsion of the German speaking population from the part at the south of the Mur (Yugoslavian part).

The Yugoslavian part was already grappling with an unfavourable economic situation and after the war it was deprived of the industrial part of Radkersburg becoming more peripheral, and the number of migration and outliers increased.

In the years after the end of the war there was a gradual approach between Austria and the Socialistic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, resulting in building together a new bridge, which became the symbol of the efforts to forget past divisions and develop relations.

The borders of the two divided cities are again open since 2004 (agreement of Slovenia to the European Union) and 2007 (to Schengen Agreement).

Between 2004 and 2007 it was still necessary to show an identity document at border checkpoints while after 2007 crossing became possible without checking documents and checkpoints were removed. It is an important opportunity for the reconciliation between the communities.

Guben (Germany) and Gubin (Poland). The city of Guben formed a united urban space since 13th century.

In 1945 the Oder-Neisse line divided the city between the German Guben and the Polish Gubin, the historical centre of the city becoming Gubin and the western zones remaining under Guben.

The German inhabitants that lived in the Polish side were forced to leave their homes, and they were not let to come back.

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The German part was economically unfavoured compared to the Polish one, but in spite of this situation there began a quick development in particular with the building of new residential areas.

In the first months after the Potsdam Conference it was still possible to cross the border, but already in 1946 it became impossible for people, but also for things and information, in Guben as in the entire Iron Curtain zone that divided Eastern and Western Europe (cf.

Stokłosa, 2005: 2).

The German-Polish border was characterized by a strong closeness since the beginning. With the Treaty of GĂśrlitz in 1950 the two states were officially recognized, as well as their border, and at that moment the re-approaching started. But in any case border-crossings were controlled by the authorities and for the common citizen the border was still closed.

In 1972 there was again the possibility of major contacts and border-crossing relations (for both people and commerce) after the decision to reopen the border. In fact during 70s there were a lot of contacts, migration for work increased and cultural and linguistic interchanges were possible. The border was closed again in 1980 with big repercussions on the good contacts established in the previous years, although the crossing was permitted with visas or special certificates. In the 90s there were big changes in Eastern Europe, with the reunification of Germany, the end of Warsaw Pact and the dissolution of USSR. The western border of Poland became the new eastern border of European Union until 2004 and the approval of Poland to the EU. So there was a deep change in the social system and liberalization from the economic point of view, thanks to which German and Polish border citizens could again establish relations.

Gorizia (Italy) and Nova Gorica (Slovenia). During centuries merchants from all over Europe moved to this city to start their trades. Thus it became very multiethnic, especially in the 19th century: Italian, Venetian and German were spoken in particular in the centre of the city, whereas Slovene and Friulian in the periphery. There were some tensions

Figure 1: Gorizia and Nova Gorica state border - Source: Rolf Palmberg, 2006 between the Italian-Friulian population and the Slovene one, but in spite of this the city continued the peaceful life until World War I, during which a conflict between the parts broke out as it was in the middle of the interests of Friulian conservatives, Slovene nationalistic parties and Italian irredentists. So at the end of the war it became a contested city, until the annexation to the Kingdom of Italy.

The city went through many vicissitudes during World War II, ending up under the administration of the Allies in 1945

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and becoming a part of Italy again two years later. In that year there was also a decision of the new border of the city, dividing it considering the ethnic issues.

In the areas near the city some villages were cut in two parts, besides a lot of families were separated. The original city lost an important part of its territory (about four fifths).

The new territory assigned to the Yugoslavian administration was devoid of any administrative unit that was before represented by Gorizia. So the following year a new city of about 20000 inhabit-

gen Zone the division ended.

Figure 2: Border between Baarle-Hertog and Baarle-Nassau marked on the ground Source: Daniel Bocai, 2001

Figure 3: Baarle-Hertog and Baarle Nassau parcelization - Source: Svenskan, 2008 ants was founded on the Yugoslavian side of the border near the old one, separated from the Italian one by a wall that remained closed, with a brief exception in 1950.

In the 90s signs of permeability started to come out, and who lived in a distance

of 10 km from the border could receive special permissions for the crossing.

The division sign was the Transalpina Square, a square half in Slovenia and half in Italy, with the movement of pedestrians strictly limited to the square.

With Slovenia joining the EU and Schen-

East Mostar and West Mostar (BosniaHerzegovina). Mostar is a case of a divided city inside one country. “Here a war broke out in another war” (Mantarro 2010); the first war was in 1992 with the Croatians and Muslims Bosniaks against the Serbian enemy, but the alliance didn’t last long and it soon turned into a conflict between the two ethnic groups.

The Stari Most, a bridge built by the Ottomans and the symbol of the city, was destroyed, as to symbolically eliminate every possible connection. At the end of the war in 1994 the Bosnians had to choose between the east and the west side, in particular people who had origins in both ethnic groups, and the Neretva river was fixed as the sign of the border.

With Dayton Agreement it was decided upon a period of European administration in order to re-establish a situation of normality. They tried to guarantee the absence of any possible occasion for conflict by organizing every sector of the society in double way. It means that there were for example to separate municipal system or the common city services, increasing in this way the division aspect, and only in 1996 it was permitted to pass from one side of the city to the another. They also tried to make the ones who were forced to leave their lands come back.

Paddy Ashdown, international governor of Bosnia-Herzegovina, tried to eliminate the situation of division of the city by deciding in 2004 to dissolve the municipalities divided by ethnic conflicts and to set a new statute that defined Mostar as a united city (cf. Traynor 2004).

In 2004 the city was proclaimed by UNESCO as a heritage of humanity after a long work of reconstruction of the historical part.

Baarle-Hertog (Belgium) and BaarleNassau (Netherlands). The geographic configuration of Baarle-Hertog and Baarle-Nassau is a complicated case of enclave at the border between Belgium and Netherlands. The fragment of Belgian territory of Baarle-Hertog is situated in the Dutch area, and it in turn contains fragments that belong to the Dutch territory (Baarle-Nassau).

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This particular configuration derives from the Medieval feudal system with lands owned by different possessors and so forming a mosaic of allotments belonging to land owners, dukes and earls. In Baarle region there was the same system: in particular it was divided between the possessions of Dukes (Hertog) of Brabant and of the House of Nassau.

This configuration remained until the independence of Belgium in 1831. In order to establish the borders between the two states just divided, three commissions were announced. The first commission succeeded to solve the problem of the borders between the two states. it assigned a nationality to each fragment but the measurements of the exact borders were not accurate A batch of following agreements didn’t solve the dispute and in 1974 the second commission was established to determine again the borders with more precision. But neither this time was a resolution possible, and some years later the third commission was announced. It took 15 years to finish all the measurements as during the operation some problems came out because of the uncertain attribution of some parts, and since then it has not been tried anymore to determine the borders with precision.

Nikosia (Republic of Cyprus) and Lefkoşa (Northern Cyprus). Already during the Ottoman rule a sort of division came out between the north with Ottoman majority and the south with strong Greek presence. In 1878 administration of Cyprus was ceded to the British, who took advantage of conflicts between the ethnics groups present in the area. Between 1955 and 1959 the city was hit by new conflicts that resulted in the independence from the British Empire. In 1956 there was a first division of the city and two years later a more radical one with the Turkish part starting to organize autonomous city councils. In 1960 it became the capital of the newborn Republic of Cyprus, and the definitive separation took place in 1974 after the attack of the Turkish army, division marked by the so called “green line”. After the invasion forced population exchanges were decided upon, in

order to create ethnic homogeneity in both sides.

A division between two independent states, or at most a federation, was the Turkish vision. The Cypriots of the Greek side were inclined to reconciliation in the form for example of a federal state but inside a unified Cyprus (cf. Papadakis 2006: 1-3).

What about the future?

Historical factors and local conditions are fundamental aspects to be considered in order to develop cooperation between divided cities.

Nowadays state borders are less hermetic than in the past, and contacts and relations are becoming more frequent.

Of course developing co-operation between the parts of divided cities, in particular if nationalistic issues remain on the background or if a part of the population was forced to leave their homes, could be very difficult. Allways past features in common could also be a very useful basis for the approach.

Cooperation could be implemented in the urban plans developed in order to improve connections and circulation between the two neighbouring cities, the full integration of minorities present in both sides, or involving the communities in the matters of the other side (cf.

Buursink 2001: 7-19). “Physical infrastructure (new bridges and roads) will reconnect both settlements. Social interaction may follow when people of both sides have social contacts with people and amenities in the partner city” (Buursink 2001: 9).

References: APUZZO, GIAN MATTEO (2005): Città divise e simboli urbani: appartenenza, comunità e spazio pubblico. In: APUZZO, GIAN MATTEO [eds.]: Le città divise.

I Balcani e la cittadinanza tra nazionalismo e cosmopolitismo. Roma: Pages 16-17 BUURSINK, JAN (2001): The binational reality of border-crossing cities. GeoJournal 54 (3): pages 7-19.

MANTARRO, TINO (2010): Nova Gorica, Mostar e Mitrovica: divisi dalla storia.

Internet: http://www.touringclub.it/

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quitouring/articolo/735/Nova-GoricaMostar-e-Mitrovica-divisi-dalla-storia (2010).

PAPADAKIS, YIANNIS (2006): Nicosia after 1960: A river, a bridge and a dead zone. Internet: http://globalmedia.emu. edu.tr/spring2006 (2010).

RUSSO, FRANCESCO (2005): Introduzione. In: APUZZO, GIAN MATTEO [eds.]: Le città divise. I Balcani e la cittadinanza tra nazionalismo e cosmopolitismo.

Roma: page 11 STOKłOSA, KATARZYNA (2005): Developing of neighbourhood in the PolishGerman border region. The border in consciousness of the inhabitants of the divided city Guben/Gubin. Internet: http://tires.euv-frankfurt-o.de/data/pdfdoc (2010).

TRAYNOR, IAN (2004): Bridge opens but Mostar remains a divided city. Internet: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/ jul/23/iantraynor (2010).

TROGU, SILVIA (2005): Bosnia ed Erzegovina:città divise in un Paese diviso. In: APUZZO, GIAN MATTEO [eds.]: Le città divise. I Balcani e la cittadinanza tra nazionalismo e cosmopolitismo.

Roma: page 98.

Diversity and Regional Growth

By Claudia Nowak, EGEA Hannover Introduction Diversity in terms of a diverse structure of firms, sectors and people has long been considered as an important factor for economic growth in the literature.

The idea behind this is that a heterogeneous economic structure of people and firms fosters interdisciplinary knowledge spillovers, combination and transmission of ideas and therefore leads to innovation and growth. This form of positive externality can also be seen as an agglomeration effect, and is also known as Jacobs-externality (cf.

Wedmeier 2009). Although the diversity of sectors has been the most dominant field of interest in the economic literature, the diversity of people in terms of a diverse composition of socio-demographic factors like nationality, ethnicity, age, gender, religion, level of education, sexual orientation etc. has come into focus in the course of the discussions about the knowledge-based economy and the increased spotlight on the individual’s contribution to it. Florida (2002) has taken all these ideas into his concept of the “Creative Class”, which deals with a group of highly creative and educated professionals like researchers, engineers, architects, designers, IT specialists and artists of various types etc., who – for their knowledge, talent, skills and ideas – are a driving force for the innovative activity and growth in a region (cf. Florida 2002: 249). He argues that especially cities are a place for accumulated human capital or creative capital respectively since the creative people are attracted by energetic and vibrant places with certain cultural and entertainment amenities such as outdoor dining, active outdoor recreation, a thriving music and art scene, nightlife and bustling street life (cf. Florida 2002b: 749). Big cities also provide the necessary geographic proximity through population density and neighbourhoods, that allow the exchange of ideas and knowledge among people and local networks as well as networks with other cities (cf. Törnqvist 2004: 230).

Different authors have studied the impact of diversity on the regional economy with the most well-known regional example being the Silicon Valley with its high share of immigrant entrepreneurs of Indian, Chinese or Taiwanese descent.

These young, foreign-born specialists in information technology or the semiconductor industry made the valley one of the most innovative and economically vibrant places of high-technology in the world, due to being open for all kinds of people, ethnicities and ideas. Saxenian (2006: 28) found that the Valley can be characterised through an extreme openness towards outsiders and ethnic minorities due to a deep respect towards individual achievements.

Talent is represented by the Creative Class Index which shows a region’s share of the two creative sub-groups: (1) super-creative core and (2) creative professionals. This is the actual “creative class” and distinguishes itself from the “working class” and the “service class”.

(1) The “super-creative core” agents are occupied in the fields of architecture, education, design, mathematics and others, and their work consists of being visionary and developing new ideas and approaches. (2) The “creative professionals” work in the fields of business and financial operations, management, sales, law, health care and others, and their task is to use their skills and knowledge to solve particular problems.

Measuring Diversity Florida’s contributions to measuring diversity are his indices. In his concept, he emphasizes that the three crucial factors for economic development towards a knowledge-based economy are talent, technology and tolerance – the so called “3Ts”. He develops indices for each of his so called “3Ts” (cp. Table 1) and applies these to the US Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) with census data from the US Bureau of the Census.

Tolerance is measured with the Gay Index which accounts for the concentration of homosexual couples in a region related to the national average.

Homosexuals themselves are not a determining factor, but since they have long been a victim of discrimination and social exclusion, a high concentration of homosexual couples within a region indicates that the population of that region is tolerant towards other ways of life. Tolerance is here a crucial factor which allows diversity of people to occur and “forms possibilities for interaction” (cf. Wedmeier 2009: 8).

Technology is measured by the (1) HighTech Index as well as the (2) Innovation Index. (1) The High-Tech Index consists of a region’s high-tech industrial output in relation to the total US high-tech industrial output and the percentage of a region’s own total economic output from high-tech industries related to the nationwide percentage. (2) The Innovation Index measures the share of patented innovations per capita.

As a result, there are rankings on how each metropolitan area scores for creativity as well as for each single index. Florida states that regions with a high score in the creativity index have low barriers of entry for all kinds of people. If they are able to integrate themselves faster in local societies or networks, there is a more dynamic flow

Table 1: Composition of Florida’s Creativity Index - Source: Florida (2002: 334).

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of knowledge and ideas (cf. Florida 2002: 250). If all agents were homogenous, a certain consensus would rule and there would be less of a reason for new ideas and start-ups (cf. Wedmeier 2009: 8). The regional economic growth is explained by the talented economic agents which are attracted by open and tolerant cities or regions where they can act liberally to apply their full potential.

As already mentioned, Florida used census data from the US Bureau of the Census which also covers the share of gay households in a region. Obviously this data to measure diversity might not be available when the indices are applied to other countries and regions.

Other studies, which adopted Florida’s concept to measure diversity and creativity for different regions in the world, had to implement different indices.

Rutten and Gelissen 2008, for instance, collected own data for measuring tolerance in European NUTS-2 regions by asking interviewees if they would not like to have some of the following people as their neighbours: people with a criminal record, people with a different race, left-wing extremists, heavy drinkers, right-wing extremists, people with large families, emotionally unstable people, Muslims, immigrants/foreign workers, people who have AIDS, drug addicts, homosexuals, Jews, or Gypsies (cf. Rutten and Gelissen 2008: 990).

ning initiatives like “Creative TampaBay” or “Cincinnati Tomorrow”, which try to apply Florida’s ideas on their cities, have evolved since then. All over the place policy makers and civic leaders try to replicate the next San Francisco or Boston by converting old buildings into lofts, upmarket bars or art galleries; they propose public art installations, new city squares, bicycle paths, river walks, pedestrian friendly city centres, and other street level amenities. The tool kit that Florida suggests seems easy to implement, and most of the measures which focus on the “soft infrastructure” are not as costly to realise as some brick and mortar methods (cf. Peck 2005: 752 f.). According to Florida, especially those soft factors are crucial for attracting talented people in the knowledge economy whose work and leisure hours cannot be easily separated. Those creatives need coffee shops, art and live music spaces and other “typical features of gentrifying, mixed-use, inner-urban neighbourhoods” (cf. Peck 2005: 745) to spend time and fit these into their demanding work schedules.

One can imagine that the way creativity, diversity and tolerance are measured in all kinds of studies varies due to data limitations and that this point of applying Florida’s concept and ideas is the one that’s been criticised most by other scholars. The above mentioned study by Rutten and Gelissen (2008) is named here to underline the different approaches for empirical measurement, but there are many more in the literature.

Despite all the praise and acknowledgements there has also been a lot of criticism about the concept. Generally the conservative right wing as well as anti-immigrant and homophobic groups see the concept as an assault on family values by praising the lifestyle preferences of yuppies (cf. Peck 2005: 741). The left wing commonly doesn’t like the image of a “class”; neither does it appreciate the neoliberal approach and the idea that everybody can be a creative entrepreneur if the setting is just the right one. Other generic criticism points to the neglect of intra-urban disparities and of course to the question of causality: diversity and creativity might as well just be a consequence of economic growth rather than the cause of it (cf. Peck 2005: 755).

Impact and Review Florida’s concept of the creative class has had a huge impact on the scientific research as well as on regional politics, and his book became an international bestseller. Reasons for its success lie certainly in its simplicity and in being easy to understand. A lot of local plan-

Nonetheless Florida’s ideas have caused great effects on urban policy “which has hardly been cluttered with new and innovative ideas lately” (cf. Peck 2005: 740).

He was creative by constructing the indices and using non-economic factors like diversity to explain economic growth.

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References: FLORIDA, RICHARD (2002a): The Rise of the Creative Class and how it’s transforming work, leisure, community, and everyday life. Basic Books, New York.

FLORIDA, RICHARD (2002b): The Economic Geography of Talent. In: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 92 (4): p. 743 – 755.

PECK, JAMIE (2005): Struggling with the Creative Class. In: International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 29 (4): p. 740 – 770.

RUTTEN, ROEL; GELISSEN, JOHN (2008): Technology, Talent, Diversity and the Wealth of European Regions. In: European Planning Studies, 16 (7): p. 985 – 1006.

SAXENIAN, ANNALEE (2006): The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: Harvard University Press.

TöRNQVIST, GUNNAR (2004): Creativity in Time and Space. In: Geografiska Annaler, B 86 (4): p. 227 – 243.

WEDMEIER, JAN (2009): Creative Cities and the Concept of Diversity. HWWI Research. Paper 1-20. Hamburg.

Construction of Sex through Clothes The Example of Transsexuals

By Sandra Sosnowski, EGEA Mainz In our pluralistic society of today, we often think that everyone is free to choose a lifestyle, a way of acting and most other aspects of life. The lifestyle one chooses also includes clothing.

But if everyone is as free as we believe, why do we not see men in skirts on the streets? Is it that they just do not match their taste of fashion, or is there, embedded in the lack of appearance, a bigger meaning?

This paper bases on this concept. Certain things in our society are told to be typical attributes of women or men. One aspect of this constructed system of female and male attributes is clothing.

We believe that wearing a skirt is something totally normal for women but are confused when we see a man breaking this rule. We identify the other person’s sex by their outer attributes. Seeing a woman or a man in clothing that does not conform to his or her sex makes it difficult for other people to identify this person’s sex. In times of constructivism, it is important to put our binary dichotomist system of sex into question.

The common view in today’s gender studies is that sex is not something that we naturally have but something that we reproduce every day. We do so by constant interaction and performative acts. (Both concepts will be explained further down) This paper will discuss the role of clothing within our binary sexual system. With the illustration of how transsexuals use clothes to change their sex, (may it be conscious or unconscious) the author will try to underline how sex is constructed and reproduced in daily life.

As mentioned above this paper outlines a constructivist argumentation. For that reason it is important to introduce some poststructuralist approaches of gender studies. For this paper, it wouldbe too much to introduce all of them with

their specificities but they all share the point of few that sexual identity is not something prior to discourse. This thought is opponent to the idea of sex we have in every day life. These ideas do not question the binary system of sex. “In day to day life, we live in a world of two- and only two- sexes” (West,C 1987: 133). We state it as a natural fact that a person can only be assigned as either male or female. This happens through its genitals and once assigned to a sex there is no way to change this category (Hagemann-White, 1995:185).

The second aspect of this imagination of sex as a material fact prior to discourse is the idea that every person acts in accordance to his or her biological sex.

In everyday conception of sex, the biological sex dictates the sexual identity.

This all seems as if it were a naturally given thing, a fact that has always been this way and will continue to be so (Wetterer,A,2004: 122).

Now, constructivist gender approaches question this theory in such a way as they state sexual identity not to be a given thing. The argument is that the dichotomist binary system of sex is the result of historical processes and that we, within our continuous social practices, (re)produce sex on a daily basis (Lindermann,G, 1995: 126). In many theories the body is seen as something that is culturally formed. This idea becomes clearer when we think about the fact that even medical science is constantly under the influence of current cultural interpretation concerned with the body (Wetterer,A 2004: 126).

Two theories need an explicit introduction here since they had a strong influence on gender studies during recent decades and are also part of the argument in this paper. One is the “doing gender” concept by Candance West and Don H. Zimmerman and the other “gender performatives” theory by Judith Butler.

When discussing “doing gender”, it is im-

portant to note that this theory makes a distinction between the categories of sex and gender. Gender basically is the sexual identity and sex is the biological body, classified by primary sex characteristics we socially agree on. The idea of “doing gender” has it’s origins within the interaction theory. It says that “gender is not something we have, but something we do”. (West,C,1987: 138) writes that “it is clear that any (sic.) interactional situation sets the stage for depictions of “essential (sic.)” sexual natures. In sum, these situations do not so much allow for the expression of natural difference as for the production of that difference itself. Every time we interact with other people, this process of doing gender is taking place. But even a social element like sex can only be generated through interaction. Sex needs affirmation by others to be defined. In other words: we obtain sex through the acknowledgment of others. Since interaction is taking place whenever people are present sex and gender is constantly produced (Gildmeister,R,2004: 132).

In her book “Gender Trouble” Butler even goes a little further saying that there is no essential sex prior to discourse.

She states that “sex is something that gets constituted by performative acts.

The body is a stage on which cultural norms of sex and gender are preformed” (Butler,J, 1990: 139). “Consider gender, for instance, as a corporal style (sic.), an “act”, as it were, which is both intentional and performative, where “performative” suggests a dramatic and contingent construction of meaning” (Butler, J, 1990: 139).”

“As in other ritual social dramas, the action of gender requires a performance that is repeated (sic.)” (Butler, J, 1990: 140). The constant repetition is crucial to the stabilisation and naturalisation of the dichotomist system of sex. The other important aspect is the punitive character of this stylized system of corporal acts.”(…) we regularly punish those who

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fail to do their gender right” (Butler, J, 1990:140).

All this strongly supports the idea that the division of the bodies into two sex and their “(…) binary relation to one another” (Butler.J,1990: 140) would be a natural configuration. But in the end, this binary system is not expressed by our action but gets produced through them. “That gender reality is created through sustained social performances means that the very notions of an essential sex and a true abiding masculinity or femininity are also constituted as part of the strategy that conceals gender’s performative character” (Butler,J,1990: 141).

In continuation of this paper, I will use the expression sex. This is because I believe it is the genitals that we want to produce through vesture. We want to communicate and make believe that we possess certain primary sex characteristics. It is this part of the body that an external person cannot actually see but presumes it to be there.

As clothing is always visible it has an important role when it comes to the construction of sex. In western societies basically nobody would leave the house undressed and so clothing is always one of the first things we notice when seeing people. With vesture, we communicate our sex. As Craik (2005: 288) says that the body, instead of being something natural, is produced by clothing image. Yet, beginning in our childhood, we learn rituals and rules of vesture. This also includes a performance of sex. Boys and girls are taught specific dress styles that are said to be conform to their sex.

We internalise these rules and rituals by imitation and education. Punishment and exclusion follow when breaking these rules. As rituals of vesture are repeated on a daily basis they become naturalised and one does not realise them as something learnt (Craik, J, 2005:288).

The Encyclopaedia of Brockhaus defines communication as the transmission of information through signs of all kind. Viewing clothing in this way is a medium of communication. Vesture is a highly complex coded nonverbal

communication system. Through this system, we inform people about our sex.

Since communication is interpersonal it is interaction. During this process of nonverbal interaction, we are not only “doing gender” but we also perform our sex like it is described in the theories of Judith Butler.

Another important facet of clothing when talking about the construction of sex is its material character. The body is shaped by colour, design and materials.

The material parts of clothing reproduce and stabilise socio-cultural images. The material, its colour, cut, etc. are infused with norms and cultural ideas. By wearing clothes, these images and norms are projected onto real bodies (Gaugele, E,2005: 306). This shows that sex is something that is produced by vesture (Gaugele, E,2002: 11).1 Clothing not only has a high potential to construct sex but also to deconstruct it. Norms of vesture are not completely fixed. They are rather something that can change and are a medium for individual configuration. So it often plays an important role when breaking through sexual boundaries and questioning the binary sex system. To explain how this goes on we must take a look at interesting topic of transsexuals.

Before entering the discussion of the use of clothing by transsexuals, it is important to give a definition of transsexuality. Firstly, we have to note that transsexuality is not to be mistaken for a sexual orientation. It has nothing to do with that.2 (medical-dicionary.com: 22.05.2009).Gender identity disorder means that a person identifies him or

1 An example would be the corset of 19th century. Wearing it, women were conditioned for limited movement. Their bodies were weaker because they could not breathe properly. This fits well with their role in society during that time, the image of women as the weaker sex staying at home with the kids. This socio-cultural idea was reflected in the corset; as it modeled the women’s bodies’ to conform to these ideas.)

2 After a sex change transsexuals keep their sexual orientation. If, for example, a trans man (formerly a woman) was a lesbian before the sex change, he will still feel interest in women after the sex change which means that he would be considered heterosexual after the change.

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herself with the opposite sex and this disorder is considered a psychiatric one.

People affected by this disorder suffer “considerable distress because of their actual sex” (medical-dicionary.com: 22.05.2009). But not all persons with gender identity disorder are transsexual.

Transsexuals are “those who are determined to undergo sex change procedures or have done so, and, therefore, are classified as transsexual. They often attempt to pass socially as the opposite sex. Transsexuals alter their physical appearance cosmetically and hormonally, and may eventually undergo a sexchange operation” (medical-dictionary. com: 22.05.2010).

Transsexuals oppose the idea that a person is born with a biological sex and that this fact would determine his or hers sexual identity. Transsexuals put this (see above) everyday life conception into question.

As mentioned in the definition, transsexuals try to “pass socially as the opposite sex” (medical-ditcionary.com: 22.05.2010). To do so they make use of attire. As mentioned before, vesture is a highly coded non verbal communication system through which we communicate our sex.

To understand the theme better, a mixture of methods was applied. Through the analysis of existing literature it was possible to get to know the different aspects of gender studies and transsexuality discourses. In a second step contact was made to a self-help group of transsexuals. All persons in this group were men whom were women earlier.

The decision to get in contact with trans men was made because most of the existing literature was dealing with trans women (women who were men earlier).

With two of the participants, interviews were made. These conversations were recorded to avoid mistakes during the evaluation. For the others a questionnaire was designed. A total of seven out of 10 forms were filled out.

This paper makes no claim to be complete. In the context, of this paper it would not have been possible to in-

terview more people. This paper is only showing some tendencies and giving some general ideas.

We already learnt that sex can only be obtained through interaction and affirmation by other people. That is why transsexuals want others to approve their desired sex. To achieve this, they adapt to socio-cultural ideas of sex (Epstein,J, 1995: 35). Butler’s argument that “cultural significations are constituted on the body’s surface” (Butler,J,1990: 139) makes vesture one of the most important aspects when it comes to the construction of sex. For that reason, transsexuals try to conform to the norms of attire (Böth,G, 1999: 402). One transsexual said that one must adapt clothes, make-up and hair style to force approval by others.

To what extent norms of vesture are naturalised in our societies shows the fact that even transsexuals consider it to be natural for men and women to wear only certain clothes. Many said and wrote that it felt natural to them to wear the “other’s clothes”.

Although vesture always plays an important part when transsexuals change their sex we have to note that there is a difference among transsexuals (men and women). For trans men there exists a variety of unisex attire. It is long since a woman in pants provoked any form of scandal, yet a man in a skirt is not an accepted sight.

During childhood and adolescence wearing clothes ascribed to the other sex usually is done in secret. Many use the clothes they can find in their family. When the family members are not at home, many take clothes from the wardrobe of brothers, fathers, sisters or mothers (Böth,G,1999: 401). Some trans men wrote that during adolescence they would wear boxer shorts under their clothes.

The pressure to wear appropriate attire is often higher during special occasions like family celebrations. That is when it is strongly desired by parents that their daughter wear a skirt and the son a suit (questionnaire).

Before the sex change trans men just like trans women try to dress as sexually neutral as possible. They try to hide sexual attributes through clothing and yet be assimilated to society. They do so not to shock anybody (family, friends, colleagues, etc.) and not to suffer from punishment like exclusion and expulsion. This shows clearly how deeply caught up we are in the idea of a natural binary system of sexes. Persons breaking through this system have to be afraid of punishments. But even transsexuals are involved in this system. They do not consider that they may be something different from a male or female. To them it is clear if they are not men they have to be female or vice versa.

When it comes to the sex change many try to be as male or female as possible.

They try to imitate everything that is considered to be feminine or manly. This often leads into an overdoing of their performance. This is more frequent with trans women as they have no experience with “female” vesture in daily life.3.

Instead of being referred to as women they provoke suspicion. This process is easier for trans men. As mentioned above, they have more possibilities to get in touch with male-connoted attire when still being a woman.

The interview participants told me just as written in many questionnaires that it was a truly liberation for them being able to shop freely in the male or female section after surgical intervention. They could now change completely from androgynous to male or female-connoted clothes.

By analysing the answers to the first question of the questionnaire, it became clear that clothing is a crucial aspect when it comes to the production of sex.

The question was: Spontaneously, what do you associate with vesture? Except for one, every interviewee mentioned sex within the first associations.

The results reveal that sex is not something we have but something we 3 They may wear extremely short skirts in combination with high heels and bright make- up when going to a supermarket.

produce. Through interaction just as through performative acts this process of production is happening on a daily basis. Through clothes we communicate our sex and form our body so that vesture can be considered a “… a corporal style (sic.), an “act (sic.)”, (…), which is both intentional and performative (…)”

(Butler, J,1990: 139). The constant repetition of this act leads to a naturalisation of it. We just expect that a person’s dress conform to what we consider his or her biological sex. Certain attire is considered to be naturally masculine or feminine.

To what extent sex is a social product becomes clear when dealing with transsexuals. The biological sex of a transsexual person does not coincide with his or her sexual identity (gender). They see themselves as belonging to the opposite sex. That is why they consciously try to produce this desired sex. This shows us that the coincidence between sex and gender is not a naturally given thing but a socio-cultural idea. So, on one hand transsexuals put this idea into question but at the same time contribute to the reproduction and stabilisation of it. They stabilise it in a way that they think if they do not belong to one sex it has to be the opposite one.

When it actually comes to a sex change transsexuals have to adapt to the sociocultural norms concerned with sex.

These norms include clothes because they are one of the first things that get noticed when one comes in contact with other people. Only if others affirm the new sex, the sex change can be fulfilled. This is why the right choice of clothes is so important. The wrong choice can easily lead to exclusion and punishment of various types. This fact shows to what extent the norms of clothing have become naturalised.

This is the reason why we still do not see men in skirts on the streets today. It should be clear by now that even in our pluralistic society no one is really free in the choice of attire. There still exist many clothes that are connoted male or female.

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References: Brockhaus Enzyklopädien in vierundzwanzig Bänden (1990 Neunzehnte überarbeitete Auflage. Zwölfter Band KIR-LAG und zweiter Nachtrag.

Mannheim.

Böth, Gitta (1999): Kleiderwechsel. Transsexuelle und ihre Kleidung. In: Scharfe, Martin, Rolf Wilhelm Brednich [eds]: Männlich. Weiblich. Zur Bedeutung der Kategorie des Geschlecht. Berlin.

Butler, Judith (1990): Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of identity. New York.

Craik, Jennifer (2005): Mode als Körpertechnik. Körperarbeit, Modearbeit.

In: MENTGES, GABRIELE [eds.]: Textil – Körper – Mode. Dortmunder Reihe zu kulturanthropologischen Studien des Textilen. Sonderband. Kulturanthropologie des Textilen. Ebersbach.

Gestalt: Der Körper als konventionelles Zeichen der Geschlechterdifferenz. In: Pasero, Ursula; Frederika Braun [eds.]: Konstruktion von Geschlecht. Pfaffenweiler.

Medical-dictionary (2009): medical dictionary. http://medical-dictionary.com (22.05.2010) West, Candace; Don H. Zimmerman (1987): Doing Gender. Internet: http:// blog.lib.umn.edu/clar0514/academic/ west%20and%20zimmerman.pdf (19.05.2010).

Wetterer, Angelika (2004): Konstruktion von Geschlecht: Reproduktionsweisen der Zweigeschlechtlichkeit. In: Becker, Ruth; Beate Kortendieck [eds.]: Handbuch der Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung. Theorie, Methoden, Empirie.

Wiesbaden.

Epstein, Julia (1995): Kleidung im Leben transsexueller Menschen: die Bedeutung von Kleidung für den Wechsel der sozialen Geschlechtsrolle. Münster.

Gaugele, Elke (2005): Drags, Garcones und Samtgranaten. Mode als Medium der Gender(de)konstruktion. In: Mentges, Gabriele [eds.]: Textil – Körper – Mode. Dortmunder Reihe zu kulturanthropologischen Studien des Textilen.

Sonderband. Kulturanthropologie des Textilen. Ebersbach.

Gaugele, Elke (2002): Schurz und Schürze. Kleidung als Medium der Geschlechterkonstruktion. Köln.

Gildmeister, Regine (2004): Doing Gender: Soziale Praktiken der Geschlechterunterscheidung. In: Becker, Ruth; Beate Kortendieck [eds.]: Handbuch der Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung.

Theorie, Methoden, Empirie. Wiesbaden.

Hagemann-White, Carol (1995): Die Konstrukteure von Geschlecht auf frischer Tat ertappen? Methodische Konsequenzen aus einer Theoretischen Einsicht.

In: Pasero, Ursula; Frederika Braun [eds.]: Konstruktion von Geschlecht. Pfaffenweiler.

Lindemann, Gesa (1995): Geschlecht und

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The many faces of Iceland part of this young island, geologically speaking, which is located on the west and it is called Westfjords. They say that this is the real Iceland, as Icelandic people view their own country – isolated, wild, cold and incredibly beautiful. Here is where you can find cliffs of heights up to 500 meters, that shelter millions of birds and their nests. The Cape of Látrabjarg is not only one of the largest bird colonies in the world, but also it is the westernmost point of Europe. There is only one building here that spoils the ideal image of a bird kingdom – a pizzeria with a banner offering “The westest pizza in Europe”, with typos in English language included. But walking a bit southwards on the cliff’s edge will make anyone forget that humans ever came to this place, and concentrate on the many species of birds and the picturesque look of puffins and their clumsy flying abilities.

Figure 1. Canyon of River Jökulsá Á Fjöllum in Northern Iceland - Source: Santiago Rodríguez, 2009 Nataliia Maiboroda (EGEA KIEV) and Santiago Rodriguez Ruiz (EGEA VALENCIA) I was asking myself, where can I find the most diverse and surprising landscapes in Europe? Just in three seconds I could answer without any hesitation. Of course, it has to be Iceland!

The Surprising Variety of an Arctic Destination Iceland is a place, where in just five minutes weather conditions change from an extremely bright sunshine to a dark storm with wild winds. It is the country, where sheep can eat brand new green grass, facing white glaciers on the background; where under tones of ice there are hundreds of volcanoes waiting for their awakening hour.

Lately, people all over Europe are starting to hate this Nordic country, which paralysed the air traffic in Europe. That is why I would like to take the role of Iceland’s advocate and I will try to project that Iceland is the most amazing country, with which most visitors fall helplessly in love.

Speaking about Iceland, I would use the word “most”without a doubt, because this island with the size of Hungary (103 125 km²) has a lot of world records. First of all, the city of Reykjavik is the northernmost capital in the world. Secondly, the oldest parliament as we know them today was created precisely in Iceland.

Thirdly, it is the country considered to be the holder of the world’s largest glacier (if not taking into account the polar ice caps). Also Iceland babbles the most powerful waterfall in Europe, which is called Dettifoss. To conclude this list, I recently learned that the authoritative British edition of Lonely Planet was rating the most attractive countries for travelling in 2010. And which country do you think was in the top spot? Of course Iceland!

I got a chance to visit this country last year, just after the global economic crisis, when the prices were high but not astronomically unreachable, like they were on previous years. Three weeks were enough to discover a great natural diversity, as I could not get in one full year before.

I prefer to start my story from the oldest

Icelandic cuisine, the art of survival Talking about food, Icelandic cuisine it’s quite an interesting topic in itself to discuss. One may better know about it before actually trying it. Historically, the Vikings (first settlers) ate everything which was edible as harsh climate and the constant cold were the main enemies in the struggle for survival. So it came to the tradition to eat fish in any form – raw, cooked or rotten. A wellknown dish is ‘hákarl’, which is shark from Greenland fermented and hung to dry during 5 months, with a particular ammonia-rich smell and taste. So you can imagine the power of that smell.

Another traditional dish called «svith».

Svith is the head of a lamb half boiled, supplied entirely (with the eyes, tongue, brains, etc.).

But for less bizarre meals, to me it was just enough to try real whale meat.

Hunting whales was strictly prohibited throughout the world since 1986. However, Iceland, Japan and Norway were never too keen on following this international law. While it is possible to buy meat in markets, it is certainly a bit more difficult to find someone who can actu-

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Figure 2. Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula Artica) in Látrabjarg cliffs, a mecca for nature lovers and birdwatchers - Source: Nataliia Maiboroda, 2009

Figure 3. Climbing a cliff with a view to Hekla, the gateway to hell - Source: Santiago Rodriguez, 2009. ally cook it, or find a restaurant having it in the menu. I tried the whale meat in two forms, raw with spices and grilled, and in both cases the texture reminds of beef but with a distinctive fishy taste.

The reason for hunting whales, as locals say, is not only to eat them. Actually the meat market for whales is not very productive, but every part of their body is used in some way, and together with the «hunting for scientific purposes» of keeping track of populations and studying their biology, it is an important input in some Icelandic industries. Nevertheless, commercial whaling is not even as profitable as letting the whales roving around the bays and charging tourists

for a tour around in boats seeking 10 minutes of glorious whale watching.

It is possible to spot real whales and other cetaceans in many places of the Icelandic coast, but nowhere better than outside the north western town of Husavik. The adjacent Skjálfandi Bay keeps the status of «the whale capital» of Iceland due to its natural conditions with a deep basin and a good water circulation that allows for oxygenation in different levels, which attracts twelve species of whales.

The Land of Fire, the Many Icelandic Volcanoes It is scary to think that such a small

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island can influence Europe by its “sign of passion”. I mean, warm and irresistible volcanic hugs. In the 1960's the entire world press followed the large-scale eruption on the southern shores of the country that created the island of Surtsey, which is now a fragile UNESCO World Heritage Site not expected to last more than one century. Another famous eruption, started in 1996, destroyed a part of the national road and its two largest bridges. The volcano Grímsvötn started its activity under the thick glacier and melted 3000 billion cubic litres of water. Just imagine pieces of icebergs of three-storey height floating down the river of lava and ash – a unique catastrophic phenomenon! Now traces of volcanic ash, of lava and moraines (products of the geomorphological activity of glaciers) can be seen along the route from the national park Skaftafell towards the town of Vik. Some locals say that in cases of extreme wind, which are not too rare for Iceland, your car could be left without paint as a result of the polishing by volcanic sand.

Another well-known Icelandic volcano is Laki, which erupted in 1783 and was playing its tricks for 5 years, releasing a large amount of volcanic ash. The ash cloud reached Europe and diminished the amount of sunshine in the continent, which paid the price by a colder climate and a decreased productivity in agriculture during those years which in fact led to the French Revolution. Knowing these precedents, one can't avoid being curious of the outcome of the aggressive eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, it will be interesting to see how the situation develops.

But in Iceland there is no volcano that has caught more attention than Hekla, which was called “the gateway to hell”in the Middle Ages, being active 1104 times. It became active in 2000 for the last time. Knowing the cycle of Hekla, which is of 8 years, the busy Icelandic geologists are still checking its movements every day. Actually it should have erupted in 2008, but still has not shown up and that is a bit of concern for the inhabitants of Iceland.

tons. Under this great glacier there are the highest and lowest points of the country: 2119 m (Hvanndalshnukur) and the basin of the lake Jökulsárlón is -146 m. The glacier is so powerful that it normally influences the weather in Europe by disturbing the Icelandic low in the middle of the northern Atlantic.

A great example of the global warming is visible in the new lake Jökulsárlón, which was created due to melting and retreat of the glacier. It is probably one of the most famous travel destinations in Iceland, and its stunning landscape with evolving configurations of icebergs in different forms attracts not only tourists. This lake was used as a film setting for James Bond (2002) and Lara Croft (2001) movies.

Figure 4. Boiling mud pots of Hverir area, in the vicinity of Mývatn lake - Source: Nataliia Maiboroda, 2009

as hot water in the homes of Icelanders, the same as the water of the large number of swimming pools all over the country and the greenhouses. So don’t be surprised if you get bananas easily in Iceland – as they are really being grown there.

Iceland in a nutshell, The Golden Circle The south of Iceland is the most inhabited part, for obvious climatic conditions, and it is also the most visited by tourists, since there is the well-known “Golden Circle”: Valley of the Geysers, Waterfalls Gullfoss (literally – the Golden Falls) and the National Park Thingvellir.

The oldest known Geyser in the world is here, as well as the famous Strokkur.

The English word for referring to this kind of phenomenon comes from the old Geysir, and it is said to be the only Icelandic word to have entered the English language vocabulary. Every 5-10 minutes tourists have a show of hot stream water eruption, rising up to 20-30 meters. This is truly a unique and exciting phenomenon. Because of the earth movements affect the activity of geysers, nowadays only Strokkur is making a show, while eruptions of the old Geysir are rare. Very lucky visitors can enjoy such, but just don’t wait for long hoping to get a glimpse at what the old Geysir used to be.

The Land of Ice, Vatnajökull National Park The east of Iceland is extremely versatile, from the fjords and cosy sea coves, to Europe's largest glacier, waterfalls and lakes with icebergs. The Europe’s largest glacier called Vatnajökull with an area of 8300 km², occupies 8% of the country and weighs up to 3000 billion

There is only one place that can beat the Geyser Valley by its importance in the Golden Circle. This is a National Park called Thingvellir – the national pride of Icelanders and an extremely unique place in historical and geological sense.

Just imagine that the first Parliament of the world was established here. And this event happened in 930, when Vikings

Figure 5. Jökulsárlón iceberg lake, result of the retreat of Vatnajökull glacier in the last decades - Source: Nataliia Maiboroda, 2009 They say that in Iceland you can find almost all types of volcanoes that are found on earth. The evidence of recent volcanism can be found in the region of Myvatn, where you can see the heated steam coming from the soil, where there are also the popular boiling mud pots of Hverir, which smell like rotten egg and let out a large amount of heat but are less dangerous to walk around and smaller in size than regular lava volcanoes. It is interesting to note that the power of the earth is well used in Iceland, since they inject water to the underground and as a result of the recent volcanic activity it comes back up really warm. These outputs are used

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no roads, no bridges on the wide rivers, hardly any vegetation; it’s just the dominion of four wheel drive cars and some adventurous souls ready to see this country with a different perspective.

Figure 6. Tourist enjoying a view to one of the main attractions of the Golden Circle, Gullfoss waterfall with a rainbow - Source: Santiago Rodriguez, 2009 gathered an Althing (the gathering of Authority) on the rock Lögberg (literally “the law rock”). The most important events of Iceland were always held here – such as the adoption of Christianity in 1000 and the proclamation of the independence from Denmark in 1944.

Also this national park is well-known due to the fact that Thingvellir lies on lithospheres plate junction. Accordingly North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are moving away from each other by 2 mm every year. It is a strange feeling, to realize that in a matter of 10 minutes you can drive from America to Europe.

Neverending Summer Afternoons, Partying In The Sunshine Reykjavik, or the “bay of smoke”, as the first Vikings who arrived here called it seeing the traces of the geological activity so evidently in the wind, makes the one and only city of Iceland, by any European standards. And it doesn’t even feel like a city, especially in the city centre. By its colourful wooden houses that are at most two storeys high, no one would notice the difference between this and any Norwegian small town, if it wasn’t because there are many small houses together. But it’s not a unique thing that it looks like a small town. Everyone spots celebrities and locals know where they live, people greet each other on the streets like in any small town and

despite all this, it is a town which is very well known for its nightlife. A night that during the summer months feels like a very long early evening, since the sun doesn’t really set. Nightlife of pubs and cafes, where dancing is free of charge at pubs and the most dangerous foe you will find is the price of the alcoholic drinks.

The Value of the Heritage Also the local people do a lot to preserve a halo of mysticism and the millenary traditions of the Vikings. Icelanders are the only Nordic people still able to understand sagas, the history and stories written in Old Norse, with the sole knowledge of their own language.

These are paragraphs of descriptions of trips, fights, vendettas, discoveries and even superstitions. Most of the inhabitants of Iceland will not acknowledge, but Iceland is a country also populated by spirits, gods, trolls, elves and hidden people, mostly in their minds. It is easy to spot trolls, wherever there is a pile of stones by a road that would be in fact a troll hit by the morning sunshine, and thus petrified forever. The presence of the rest of supernatural forces requires the help of some kinds of shamanic rituals, a bit of belief, or perhaps they are better left alone. Humans should not disturb hidden people as in a country like Iceland there is space for everyone to live in peace and enjoy it. And friend-

Figure 7. Strokkur geyser erupts every 6 minutes, expelling water up to 20 metres Source: Nataliia Maiboroda, 2009 Iceland keeps the atmosphere of an undiscovered land, a mysterious treasure which by its isolation and its conditions is not readily available to everyone.

Most of the visitors never venture in the wild centre of the island where there are no human settlements whatsoever,

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ly Icelanders and hot springs dispel the stereotype that the country has to be cold, as suggested by its name.

Crimea – Peninsula of Diversity Ethnogeography of Crimean Autonomic Republic of Ukraine

By Bobyr Kristina, EGEA Kyiv, Ukraine The Autonomic Republic of Crimea is administratively divided from the Ukraine according to the constitution of Ukraine from 1996. Physically it’s a peninsula which is lying at the southern part of Ukraine, bordered by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov in the NorthEast.

Natural diversity Crimea is a peninsula. The bulk of the territory are plains in the northern part of it, which are lying in Step natural zone. Crimea is divided into four sections/zones. One of them is very special zone – Kerchenskyi gorbisty step., Figure 1 shows its special characteristic; mud volcanism.

The second part of Crimean’s physical geography are the Crimean Mountains, which are stretching 150 km from the East to the West, along the southern coast of the peninsula. This zone has its own landscape structure. The mountains are separating the southern coast, thus a special district with subtropical climate. Orographically the mountains

have three ranges: the Main, the Inner and the Outer. The highest mountain, a part of the Main range called RomanKosh measures 1545 meters.

Between the towns Gurzuf and Sudak, the volcanic region Karadag is located, having been active at middle Jura period. Popular processes are landslides and carst (mediterranean/classical), which is represented by numerous ditches and caves such as the Red cave and the Murmur cave. The hydrographic system includes the rivers Salgyr, Chorna, Belbek, Kacha, Alma and numerous rivers of Crimean Mountains, which sometimes are formatting waterfalls. Figure 2 shows the three nature reserves: Crimean, Yalta mountainous-forest, Karadag.

EthnoGeo – or something from everything The main reasons for the diversity of the national structure of Crimean population are: • Geographical – Crimea is a peninsula, so the formation of population and economy of region was separately from another territory of Ukraine; • Historical – during centuries it was

Figure 1: Crimean Step - Source: Malyshev Aleksey, 2007.

Figure 2: Region Karadag - Source: Stroganov Aleksey, 2009. influenced by powerful empires; • Economical – this place during centuries have been a trading center, between the South and the North, the East and the West.

Historical aspects of formation of Crimean population Along the centuries, the Crimean peninsula was a poly-ethnic territory. From the ending of XVIII until the beginning of XIX centuries, due to historical events, numerous ethnic groups, who have played important role in economical, social, political and cultural life, have settled there.

The first man’s step on the territory of the Crimean peninsula was made 250 thousand years ago. During 1500 years B.C. Crimeans were living on the territory of the eastern-southern part of Crimea and at mountain region, ethnic group of Tavrs, who did agriculture and animal husbandry, have settled there.

Until the XIII century, the peninsula was called Tavrika (as a name of tribes of Tavrs). At VII BC, Iranian phonic tribes settled, bringing jewelry craft and pottery. They founded the Skifian kingdom, with its capital Napoli Skifian (III century BC-III AD). The III AD was a century when Goths came and conquered the Skifian Kingdom. From VI BC onwards, Crimea was colonised by the Greeks, who established the Bosporian state and the Khersonessian Republic.

Romanic people appeared in I c. BC at the peninsula, followed by the Turks inIV c. AD. At VIII-IX at Step belt of Crimea

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of the historical events admitted before.

Today the population of Crimea counts 125 nationalities and other small ethnic groups. The three main nationalities are Russian, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatars. This structure is the result of the numerous difficult ethnical metamorphoses during centuries. It should be mentioned that about 12 % of population are Muslims. So at some places it’s usual when a church is standing next to mosque (compare Figure 3).

Figure 3: Mosque Dan-Djani - Source: Malyshev Aleksey, 2009. settled proto-Bulgarian tribes. Christianity (orthodox) appears at III century to the territory of peninsula. From the beginning of XIII century Russian people started to settle in towns.

At XII c., the Crimean peninsula was captured by Gold Orda. This was when Tavrika became Kirim. It took some years to establish Crimean khanate. In the following years it was under the rule of Osman Empire. After all this settlings and mixings, the formation of Crimean tataric ethnos was definitive. After the

Russian-Turkish war, Tavrik oblast was founded, as gubernia (district) of the Russian empire. In 19th February 1954 became oblast (district) of Ukrainian Social Republic. Today Crimea is a poly-ethnic modern touristic region of Ukraine.

Structure changing of population of Crimea The dynamic of the national structure of the Crimean population is represented in Table 1. All the changes are the result

Table 1: Population structure of Crimea during XVIII-XX! Century

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Locations of cultural heritage of ethnic groups All the formation periods of ethnic structure of Crimea took place in different regions of peninsula due to natural, economical or political reasons. The prevailing/current locations of some of ethnic groups are represented in this passage. Most of ethnic groups still are keeping their traditions.

Armenian – towns Staryi Krym(Solkhat), Feodosia; Belorussian – v. Shyrokoe Simferopol district, v.Maryanovka Krasnogvardeyskoe district; Bulgarian – v. Kurskoe Belogorsk district, v. Zgeliabovsk Nizgegorsk district, town Koktebel; Caraits – about 10 cultural objects

around peninsula – town Evpatoria; Crimean gipsy (Chinghin) – v.

Oktabrskoe.v. Sovetskoe; Crimean tartaric – about 50 cultural objects around peninsula – districts of Bakhchisarai, Simferopol, Belogorsk, Alushta, Sudak and town Staryi Krym Czech – v. Lobanovo Djankoy district, v.Aleksandrovka Krasnogvardeyskoe district; Estonian – v. Beregovoe Bakhchisaray district, v. Novoestonia, v. Krasnodarka Krasnogvardeyskoe district German – about 20 cultural objects around peninsula – v. Aromatnoe, v.

Kurortnoye, v. Krasnogorye Belogorsk district, v. Aleksandrovka, v. Leninskoe Krasnogvardeyskoe district, v. Zolotoe Pole Kirov district, v. Koltchughino Simferopol district; Greek – about 13 cultural objects around peninsula – v. Chernopole, v.Alekseevka Belogorsk district, v. Vysokoye, v.

Bogatoye, v. Uschelye, v. Bashtanovka Bakhchisarai district;

rich and interesting center for tourists.

Today about 30 national-cultural unities are located in the Autonomic Republic of Crimea. More than 70 nationalities still have their own culture which through centuries saved its individuality and influenced the Crimean culture with all its architecture, religion, traditional culture and music.

References: Маринич О.М., Шищенко П.Г.(2005): Фізична географія України. Київ.: Знання Лаптев Ю.Н., Савинова О.В.(2000): Этнографический туризм в Крыму: состояние и перспективы развития. Симферополь: Таврия. В.Наулко:. Народна творчiсть i етнографiя. (1970/5): С. 38-42. О. М. Полухiна:. Українськiй iсторiчний журнал (1988/9);. C. 27-35. www.info.crimea-portal.gov.ua P.S. Did you find your nationality throughout the ethnic groups of Crimea? So, come and see a piece of your culture in crazy Crimean mix

Italian – towns Feodosia, Kerch; Jewish – towns Kerch, Feodosia, Simferopol, Sevastopol, Evpatoria; Krymchaks – towns Belogorsk, Simferopol; Russian – about 54 cultural objects around peninsula – towns Alupka, Livadia, Yalta, Sevastopol, Simferopol, v. Zuja Belogorsk district, v. Grushevka Sudak district, Prokhladnoe Bakhchisarai district, v. Mazanka, v. Kurtsy, v. Kamenka Simferopol district, v. Kurortnoe(was called Mama Russkaya) Lenino district; Ukranian – v. Partizanskoe, v. Nikolaevka, v. Pozgarnoe, v. Vodnoe Simferopol district, v. Novonikolaevka Lenino district.

Conclusion All the ethnos and ethnic groups have made a great contribution to the cultural heritage of Crimea, forming a various,

The European Geographer - 6 - September 2010

What do you really know about EGEA Dinosaurs & Alumni?

By Dirk Lindemann, EGEA Dinosaurs & Alumni

Alumni…it sounds a bit like a graveyard.

Doesn’t it? Is it a kind of a near death experience for discarded EGEAns? Is it an assisted living community in which elderly geographers can sit together in their wheel chairs or cuddle up under their electric blankets and talk about the good old times in far away countries close by the sea?

Far wrong!

Generations of enthusiastic EGEA members have already been active in this organisation, but isn’t it a pity to lose them somehow? Who of you has ever met a former EGEAn who is already above 40? I would be astonished if the answer is “yes”.

However, the idea to add an Alumni section to the EGEA Association is already 6-7 years old and was pushed forward

by EGEA members, who were still active for a couple of years at that date.

By what kind of motivations were they driven while they were collecting ideas and making up their minds about how EGEA Alumni could look like?

The main aim was clear soon: To create a win-win situation – for experienced or former EGEA members and the lively EGEA student association as well. Unfortunately, the upcoming discussions of the following years went a bit in circles.

The internal debates inside the Alumni group and also in communication with GBM or BoE were more focused on

structural debates than on content and cooperation. Where should EGEA Alumni find its place? Can it achieve an entity status without being connected to any university? Well, I am happy to say that these discussions – which chilled active EGEAns as well as potential Alumni – finally came to an end last year and led to the compromise to “outsource” EGEA Alumni into an independent network with strong relationship towards EGEA. For me this administrative construction offers some charming possibilities. An experienced or even graduated EGEAn, who still wants to stay active in her or his entity, is free to join the Dinosaurs & Alumni network or Alumni events without leaving the entity.

So what is EGEA Dinosaurs & Alumni about?

EGEA Alumni was founded in 2005 as independent network and was renamed into EGEA Dinosaurs & Alumni in 2009, in order to include also still active and quite experienced EGEA members (= EGEA Dinosaurs) who are on the edge of student and working life.

What are our aims?

EGEA Dinosaurs & Alumni stands for the interface between the professional and the student world within the EGEA network. Our main objectives are: •D istribution of job offers and internships to EGEA students and Alumni (job database) • S cientific and practical guidance for EGEA students (expert database) •P romotion of the EGEA Association, cooperation with partner organisations like EUROGEO •P roviding organisational or scientific knowledge for EGEA events (e.g. as workshop leaders) •A nd beyond this, EGEA Dinosaurs & Alumni offers a possibility of staying in contact with each other and organises internal events like annual weekends, seminars or leisure activities.

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These are ambitious aims, and it will still take a while until everything is in the shape as we would like to have it! For the next time being our main task will be the re-establishment of our webpage http://egea-alumni.eu, which still has an interim charm and functionalities that can be improved. They have to be set up in a new way and the technical link to the www.egea.eu webpage has to be improved. All EGEA members should have access to the services that we can provide. Currently we are working on it!

All of this will take time, especially when you have to face the responsibilities of the post-student life – so any helping hand will be welcome! EGEA Dinosaurs & Alumni was not established for the people who already joined the network – it was made for all of you. Even if it is not attracting young students today, it may in the future!

The Dinosaurs aren’t dead! The story has just begun.

‘Would Anyone Like a Gherkin?’

A Report on the ‘Germany Weekend 2010’, Lübben/Spreewal

By Sebastian Buciak, EGEA Berlin, University of Heidelberg, Germany

From May 28th to 30th, 2010, the European Geography Association (EGEA) invited 45 international students to the “Germany Weekend” into the Spree Forest near Berlin – an annual event organized by young geographers in order to explore a particular German region.

“Oh yes, gladly!”, received Lina Polom as an answer to the question whether anyone would like a gherkin while preparing the last details of the event and before the participants would arrive at the youth hostel in Lübben. The whole weekend was led by the slogan “Germany Weekend 2010 – The Gherkin Weekend”, and indeed, many participants would love or hate the gherkin at the end of the event.

The entities of EGEA Berlin and EGEA Hannover organized an interesting programme for these three days. The programme consisted of workshops, field trips and special opportunities to get to know each other. Cindy Bruhn, an organizer-participant from France, said that “for a geographer it’s not only interesting to see beautiful villages and landscapes, but they also want to learn something, want to know which problems exist and what kind of solutions are provided for them.”

Figure 1: EGEAns and choir members at the bonfire - Source: Sebastian Buciak, 2010

Since 1991, the Spree Forest (German: Spreewald) is under protection of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB). 475 square kilometers of the region form an integral nature reserve as representative as the Serengeti National Park (Tanzania), the Danube delta (Romania/Ukraine), the Niagara Escarpment (Canada/USA) or the famous Yellowstone Park in the United States.

The flora and fauna is highly protected in this region which is inhabited by 150 species named on the red list. At large, more than 18 000 plant and animal species are to be found in the biosphere reserve of Spree Forest.

The whole EGEA programme can be combined in three headlines: Urban Friday, Active Saturday and Traditional

Sunday: In Cottbus, for example, the students were informed about the history of a former GDR town and its transformation during the German reunification. “During that time, Cottbus had run through a complex transformation process of de-industrialization, high unemployment and emigration”, explained Raik Berger, the guide of the field trip.

In the evening, the students from about five European countries gathered around a bon fire, shared their experiences, told stories and toasted to the coming days of the Germany Weekend. Chorus members that shared the same youth hostel soon accompanied the young geographers and famous German songs were sung together throughout the next hours.

The organizers put emphasis on the

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Figure 4: “Gherkin hunt” - Source: Sebastian Buciak, 2010

Figure 2: Tobias Kuttler gives information about the route of the canoe tour - Source: Sebastian Buciak, 2010

Figure 3: Participants during the canoe excursion - Source: Sebastian Buciak, 2010 active and sportive part of the weekend.

For this purpose, the next excursion to the Lower Spree Forest was undertaken by canoe and led by Tobias Kuttler, who informed the young geographers about the morphogenesis of the Spree landscape, its vegetation and hydrological characteristics. The origin of the Spree Forest can be traced back to the

extremely small slope of the river Spree, which was primarily formed during the Weichsel glacial period. When the melting process of the glaciers started, the melt water could run towards the north and formed the region nowadays known as the Lower Spree Forest.

The return trip was carried out by bike

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and conducted by Edelbert Jakubik, an employee of the Environmental Department of the federal state of Brandenburg. He explained the specific features of the natural habitat Spree Forest and especially its numerous small streams and channels. Markus Belz from EGEA Berlin commented it with enthusiasm: “A perfect combination of knowledge and humor enabled him to convey many interesting facts on water management and environmental protection in the Spree Forest area. He understands that a map means the same to a geographer as a bible means to a priest.”

For the evening, a scavanger hunt had been organized. Perhaps, one could have called it “gherkin hunt” as at every stop the culinary treat consisted of gherkins – lots of gherkins!

On Sunday, the last field trip had its focus on the historic housing development and the cultural aspects of the Spree Forest area. A traditional punt tour allowed the geographers to experience the typical and landmarked village of Lehde. Until the mid-twentieth century the only way to get to Lehde The “Germany Weekend 2010“ was financed by the consulting agency ESRI, by syngenta, a research company, and by the publishers Spektrum and Schweizerbart-Borntraeger. More information can be found here: http://www. egea.eu/congresses/gw10

was by a barge and even nowadays the postal delivery is made by boats – this is unique in entire Germany. During a short stay in Lehde, some students made use of the opportunity to visit an open-air museum. It kept record of the different building techniques of rural architecture and the life of the Sorbs, an indigenous people in the Spree Forest.

When departure became inevitable, Lina asked once again whether anyone would like a gherkin – most people refused thankfully.

Figure 5: Participants during the punt tour to Lehde - Source: Sebastian Buciak, 2010

Figure 6: Lina Polom & Maike Metzkow

European Geographer: Why did you choose the region of Spree Forest? Maike: The Spreewald is a fascinating region and the perfect location for a geographic seminar.

It does not only have a remarkable natural landscape, but there many other interesting things to discover regarding the settlement history, the economic development, the local culture and the impact of humans on the landscape.

European Geographer: Why did you like best? Lina: The whole weekend was just a perfect combination of information, active outdoor events and being together with friends. I loved it.

European Geographer: Did you meet any challenges in organizing “Germany Weekend 2010”? Maike: The funding of the project was a challenge. It was not easy to find sponsorship, but with several partners we made it in the end!

Maike Metzkow and Lina Polom were the supervisors of the “Germany Weekend 2010”.

The European Geographer - 6 - September 2010

The Western Regional Congress: An overview Can there be a better way to address diversity than by taking a look at an EGEA Congress?

By Aafke Mertens, EGEA Amsterdam This year’s WRC took place in Steinach am Brenner, Austria organized by EGEA Vienna, where the chosen theme was: “Living in the Alps: challenges and solutions for a vulnerable world”. A theme inspired by the variety in geographical characteristics of this area, and problems arising from them. The main goal of this small article is to provide a broad overview of the event, since a deeper insight on the scientific themes can be found within the Congress Report.

The first day presented itself with the arrival of EGEA members and the welcoming activity of the WRC. This consisted of a night-walk, so everyone got a candle to light up their way uphill. After a few informative stops on the way, the group came across a very pleasant surprise: a stunning fire show and a thermos jug full of warm “Glühwein”. Of course the night could not end without the “meet and greet” party.

Source: Aafke Mertens, 2010.

The next morning proved to be a challenge for those who had extended the “meet and greet” towards late hours, but never the less, workshops and soft skills trainings started at nine sharp. As a participant, I took part in the communication training, in which basic elements of communication were discussed, and with the help of interactive activities we

were able to appreciate the importance and difficulty of transmitting a clear message.

There were eight workshops covering all kinds of geographical subjects, from physical to social, all inspired by our immediate surroundings. I will refer mostly to the workshop I followed, “4 countries – 1 problem: Trans alpine cargo transport in the 21st century”, in this article.

This workshop was about the construction of the almost 60km long Brenner Base tunnel, throughout the Alps from Innsbruck to Verona in Italy, with the pursue to decrease traffic in the Alpine highways.

The evening of this second day was the country presentation, which served to demonstrate the diversity of the EGEA community. As always, all tables were decorated with flags, food, drinks and any other objects that helped to give a taste of the culture – (even if that meant a showing up with a huge chocolate bunny).

Source: Aafke Mertens, 2010.

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In my workshop we made an excursion to Innsbruck to get a taste of different actors in the Brenner Base tunnel project: first, the project managers, and

then the political party against it. But since this article would become too long with all the workshop details, I will try and capture the day in a simple quote: „The BBT is the least shitty option“, which, in my opinion, tends to be the attitude in many large-scale projects now-a-days.

Source: Florian Simetsreiter, 2010.

Source: Nathalie Giloy, 2010.

The regional evening became my personal favourite. At the start of the evening I had seen various people from the Austrian entities with their typical garments, but I had not foreseen what was going to happen next. Folkloric music filled the party room from a corner, where a live trio was playing. We were told to make space in the middle, and in no time the music started a new tune, and couple after couple entered the room dancing and twirling in a true Austrian way! They were cheered on by the bystanders, who were soon pulled into the dance floor as well. The night went on with different entertainments, such as an Austrian quiz, a strength test and”Schnapps” guessing. Finally, to close the evening, two shows were performed: the ski choreography and the men with long coats and ringing pans (from which I think pictures will say more than words in this case).

Friday was the day of excursions, and I found myself in a group of mainly Dutch people (since apparently we had been too late or lazy to subscribe for other excursions) ready to visit Innsbruck.

We went to the city hall and had a small tour given by the previous mayor (ending up in a photo session for local news paper). After that we listened to an interesting lecture about the use of digital mapping in the Alps, and then walked towards a cable car station. The cable car took us up hill, to a scenic view of Innsbruck, and then we walked down the valley back to the city. It was here that the excitement of the excursion peaked as I sprained my ankle in the most painful manner, and had to be carried down the steep slope, becoming the second person of the WRC to end in the ER that week.

During the Western Regional Meeting, while contact persons came together,

Source: Aafke Mertens, 2010.

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And last but not least the informal closure of the congress: the Farewell Party and the DC. The excitement had been boiling up throughout the week as teams were made and strategies planned out. It was finally time, and team after team did their best to get closer to the final stages as the public became more fanatic. But as in any race, there can only be one winner: Korsakoff team, made up of Dutch, Belgian and Polish entities!

All in all, I would like to thank the WRC team again and congratulate them for the great job they did. And finally, invite those who have not yet had the chance to take part in a congress, to join this experience!

Source: Judith Bernet, 2010.

Source: Florian Simetsreiter, 2010. sports and relaxing activities were available throughout the hostel. The sauna became quite popular that night, and slowly most of the participants ended up sleeping early for the first time that week. The other group moved in quite the opposite direction: a local bar, and started, as always, a great party.

The final phase of the congress consisted of creating posters describing the results of our workshops. From all the posters you could choose the three most interesting ones to visit later on the open tables. Here, moderators briefly explained and incited discussions from the other participants to create statements. Yet again, these statements were set up for voting, and the highest scores would be used for the next

exercise.

To wrap up the congress, the “Fish Bowl� dynamic was used. The Fish Bowl consists in creating an inner circle of chairs where discussions take place. Anyone not seating in these chairs has to keep quiet. A moderator keeps the flow of the discussion, and anyone can join the inner circle or take someone’s place, in an orderly fashion. The themes discussed were the statements chosen form the open tables. It was a tricky exercise due to the large number of students, but it most certainly created animated debates. As a side note, the organization team must be applauded by applying these dynamics which are used within the professional world.

The European Geographer - 6 - September 2010

Share the Knowledge – Participation in the 21st Century

By Satu Onnela, EGEA Alumni Helsinki, Workshop leader of Social Diversity in Planning in North & Baltic Regional Congress Tuusula, Finland 2010 This year it was EGEA Helsinki who organised the North and Baltic Regional Congress. It took place in Southern Finland, Tuusula and followed the theme Diversity – the Northern Dimensions, discussing a range of issues from physical geography to challenges of the urban planning.

One of the five workshops in the congress was Social Diversity in Planning.

Our goals for the workshop were to collect the whole range of the theme as well as to discover ideals and principles of participatory planning. We also wanted to learn more about the challenge of user orientation and about the new practices of citizen involvement – a phenomenon of the 21st century.

Although we mainly focused on land use planning we also tried to understand other services where participation could be increased. User orientation and co-production have a huge potential to be extended also to health and social care, commercial services and actually organising all kinds of activities of our day-to-day life.

The workshop started in Helsinki by deliberating upon the current studies and also the theoretical background related to the theme. Sirkku Wallin from the Centre for Urban and regional studies (YTK) presented on community development, learning and the practices as well as the needs of everyday life.

The Interaction designer of the city of Helsinki, Tiina Antila-Lehtonen, told us about the ideals and practices of citizen involvement in land use planning of the city. Elina Manninen presented her Master’s Thesis about a stronger role of the architects as intermediary for supporting open source practices and the gathering of ideas from the inhabitants.

Figure 1: Motivation to get involved in planning activities varies greatly between different people - Source: Maslow, A.H. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50, 370-396.1943. (modified) In addition, we visited Demos Helsinki, a think tank. There we realised the wideness of our theme, as land use planning is also strongly related to our lifestyles and values. We also heard about the newly rising co-citizenship and co-creation in society. This gave an overview to the participants on the range of issues that will be discussed in the workshop for the rest of the week.

As we already had some sort of idea about the place of participation in the rather complex planning process, and had heard about the challenges related to the interaction as well as of the practical methods for it, we were ready to apply our experiences to Tuusula.

Helsinki as a capital, having over 200 people working in the administration of city planning with three interaction designers and the city planning info center Laituri in the core of the city, was in a pretty different situation from the municipality of Tuusula some 30 kilometers away. Though, they were preparing a master plan and wanted to find methods for having more people involved in the planning process.

As Sanna Andersson from Tuusula

presented us the local context with its challenges and strengths, we presented our case studies from our own cities. At the end of the brainstorming sessions we could arrive at least on three suggestions on how participation in planning could be brought into practice. The need to strengthen the local identity for motivating people to participate was one of our main findings during the week. So, one group prepared a frame for the marketing of Tuusula to its own inhabitants. Another suggested business breakfasts and dollar game as methods for negotiation.

We had realised that people only participate in processes to which they have some personal motivation and connection. Also daily routes – the so-called time geography – and even the physical and social ability to join the different groups of people such as children, young and old people vary greatly. As the society does not only consists of the working age people and all groups use the prepared land use pattern in their engagements, planning needs to have the perspectives of all the social groups.

Our workshop program ranged quite widely between ideals and the reality

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in planning. Although a week was too short to understand the full national planning process and all the customs, we managed to apply some of our knowledge for understanding an interesting issue. It was also realised that there is lot of potential to strengthen our personal involvement into planning back home and on finding more and more targets for applying the principles of interactive co-production and citizen involvement.

As the purpose of EGEA Congresses in general is to share ideas and to get to acquaint oneself with the local culture, we succeeded at least on learning that Finns strongly trust on authorities and demand their own space.The latter has led to a scattered community structure and a lack of common space for discussing about the local community development.

According to the experience and examples from our fellow European egeans, we realised that in Finland we should be more involved in applying new ways to involve people to participate in planning. The more practical level it is

brought, the easier it gets!

It was found that EGEA workshop is a useful and rewarding tool in finding solutions to real life challenges. In addition, a workshop is a great way to get to know each other and a wide theme.

As known, EGEA is a great platform to share experiences from the different countries and cultures. Learning face to face from each other is a better method than reading a book after another.

Egeans have lots of ideas and motivation to learn, even very good social skills for working together which have not yet been fully utilised.

Since the latest – very delightfully interactive – Egea Annual Congress in Heeg I have been thinking on how we could use more the inputs from the congress and our members in the future. As a result, I would widen the current goal of increasing the scientifical level of the congresses and other Egea activities towards applying our geographical skills also more on the working life. The number of alumni is increasing all the time which means that the connection

Figure 2 & 3: The workshop participants were activated to react by giving small tasks during the week - Source: Satu Onnela, 2010

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of EGEA to working life is more and more easy to reach.

Cooperation between EGEA, EGEA Dinosaurs & Alumni and EUROGEO Dirk Lindemann, Contact person of EGEA Dinosaurs & Alumni network Have you ever heard about EUROGEO? The majority of you may not – but you should! Although this organisation itself already exists since 1979 it was inactive for quite a long time, but was “re-activated” in 2008 by a highly motivated group of academic Geographers. Most of them took part in the EU funded HERODOT program, which was a network for geography in higher education. One of the aims of HERODOT was to establish an association that could continue its work.

It was decided to use EUROGEO for this, which was having a sleeping existence in the latest years.

In 1989 EUROGEO was granted an official consultative status by the Council of Europe. This was upgraded in 2004 as having a full participatory status. EUROGEO is the only geographical scientific body to have achieved such a status.

Today EUROGEO is still a small organisation but with a high potential to grow.

EUROGEO is the only European organisation for professional Geographers, as EGEA is the only European organisation for students and young geographers. A smaller group of EGEA students already took part in HERODOT and EUROGEO events since a couple of years. Links between both associations are easy to find.

EUROGEO can add more science to EGEA (e.g. joined seminars/congresses); Experienced EGEA members have the chance to join a professional Geographer’s organisation which acts on European level and in which EGEA is already know as a partner on eye height; And of course EUROGEO may grow in therms of membership and expertise as well.

Although EGEA already has its own Alumni network, this offset will not develop into a scientific and lobby organisation for graduated European geographers in general. It will always have strongest connection and relation with the EGEA association itself. Nevertheless, EGEA Dinosaurs & Alumni could act as a long-term cooperation partner with EUROGEO, beside the scientific committee and the board of EGEA.

First joined event between EUROGEO and EGEA on May 8, 2010 in Prague During the previous years the cooperation between HERODOT/EUROGEO and EGEA was only filled with life by a smaller group of people. HERODOT or EUROGEO representatives showed up at some EGEA Annual congresses in order to let the students know about their existence and willingness for cooperation.

On the other hand some EGEAns took them at their words and participated at the expert’s events as well. But in 2010 the first serious attempt was made to or-

The advantages for both organisations are obvious:

Figure 1: Group photo of the EUROGEO seminar in Prague (view from the castle) - Source: Karl Donert, 2010.

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ganize a scientific event which was open and advertised for EUROGEO members and EGEA students/Alumni as well. The result was the very successful EUROGEO seminar in Prague, held at Charles University, Prague, on 8th of May. Members from both organisations were asked to hand in papers for presenting their scientific work which should have been related to the main title of the seminar, “Sustainable Geographies”. We are happy to say that about the half of all participants and speakers had their routs in the EGEA association. Many of them took the change to present their (interim) results of master or PhD researches in front of a scientific audience and to publicise them in a rather small but serious magazine European wide magazine.

For further information on the seminar please have look at http://www.eurogeography.eu/conference/prague/prague. html. Next to the programme, conference abstracts and seminar presentations you will also find various photos of this event!

universities is under permanent stress of being distinguished or combined with other disciplines.

First year’s membership for EGEA members is reduced. Ordinary members pay 40 €, students still 25 €. EGEA subscribers will have to pay for their first year only 10 €, irrespective if they are still students or already graduated.

Individual membership forms can be found at http://www.eurogeography. eu/membership.htm and subscribers should mark clearly on the form that they are EGEAns. Of course, networking works most efficiently when you have possibilities in getting to know each other and feel personally involved. The next EUROGEO conference will be held in Athens in 2011. EGEA Dinosaurs & Alumni and the Board of EGEA will keep you informed about further details.

And last but not least: A big compliment to all EGEA organisers, namely to Gert (main orga and copperation with EUROGEO) and Roman & Honza (EGEA Prague). You did a brilliant job.

For both partners this seminar was a success! From the EGEA point of view it was more than “just” a scientific seminar.

More than 20 EGEAs spent a great weekend together from Friday to Sunday. The seminar on Saturday was of course the core event, but beside that it was also a typical EGEA activity with lots of fun and an impressive and well organized side program by members of EGEA Prague.

Furthermore, the EUROGEO board made it clear that this kind of “one-day-seminar”, integrated in a whole weekend’s program, can be a story of success and should be carried on in the upcoming years. For joining such an event it is not necessary to be or become an EUROGEO member, but there are a few reasons which could make a membership attractive: As in EGEA, EUROGEO has a quite low hierarchy. Especially those among you who might be interested in pushing themselves forward may get infected.

EUROGEO lobbies for Geography on European level. It is not a secret that Geography as a subject in school or at

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The The European Geographer European Geographer - 6 - -September 5 - January 2010 2010

The European Geographer - 6 - September 2010

The European Geographer - 6 - September 2010