IGU Executive Committee Special Sessions
EC-0

Chairs’ Meeting

August 7

10:00-11:30

Room 555A

EC-1

IYGU

August 6

08:00-09:30

Room 662

EC-2

IGU Publications

August 6

10:00-11:30

Room 662

EC-3‘OurSus’ ProjectAugust 7

08:00-09:30

Room 662

EC-4

Academic Teaching

August 8

17:30-19:00

Room 662

EC-0

Session for IGU Commission Chairs (Mike Meadows)

The core work of the IGU is conducted through its 41 Commissions which, together
with the Olympiad Task Force, ensures that research, teaching and outreach in thediscipline of Geography is relevant, state -of-the-art and truly global in its scope. This
special session offers the chairs of commissions (and/or members of their steeringcommittees) the opportunity to discuss current issues in relation to their work with
the Executive Committee.
EC-1

Session for IYGU ( Benno Werlen)

Promoting Geography’s Competences through an International UN -YearThinking globally and acting appropriately locally presupposes global understanding.
A global understanding of socio -cultural and natural realities is an essential humancondition in the 21st century: People need to understand how their everyday actions
are embedded in global processes, and what the global impacts of these actions are inorder to achieve more sustainable ways of living.
To reach these goals and to promote geography’s visibility in the field, theInternational

GeographicalUnion( IGU)

haslaunched

aninitiativefor

anInternational UN-Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) in 2016. This is a unique
opportunity to gain worldwide public attention for geography’s competences inmastering major challenges of our time.
This initiative aims to bridge the awareness gap between local acts and globaleffects by stimulating trans -disciplinary research initiatives through education andinformation, which will yield actionable insights into the ways people can live together
more sustainably.
For the implementation the IYGU organization will include regional action centers,
as well as national working groups. T his initiative is gathering the best -known experts
from all scientific fields. The IYGU initiative has the full support by the International
Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC), theInternational

Councilfor

Philosophy

andHumanisticStudies(CIPSH),

theInternational Human Dimensions Programme for Global Environmental Change(IHDP), and is expected to become part of the Future Earth initiative, co -sponsored by1

ICSU, ISSC, UNESCO, UNEP, UNU and the Belmont Forum. The IYGU has strong
partners in economy, media, and politics. Nobel Prize laureates and leading
representatives of sustainability policies act as goodwill ambassadors.
This Session is chaired by Benno Werlen, Executive Director IYGU, Germany, andinvited speakers include: Vladimir Klossov, President IGU, Russia; Ron Abler,Past-President IGU, USA; Yukio Himiyama, Vice-President IGU, Japan; Shangyi Zhou,China; Margaret Robertson , Australia
We invite all geographers to support this vital initiative on the national, continental,
and global level. If you are interested in this initiative, please contact the secretariat
IYUN_IGU@uni-jena.de. For further information, see www.global-understanding.info
EC-2

Session for IGU Publications (Mike Meadows)

The IGU publishes regular e -newsletters, an annual report and an annual or biennial
volume of the IGU Bulletin. Historically, IGU has also published other items such asproceedings of its conferences, congresses and other meetings as well as edited books
and monographs. There has, however, never been a specific IGU academic scholarly‘journal’. There are significant trends in academic publishing, including a rapid rise in
the online platform, and the Executive Committee has been engaged in discussions
with several prominent Geographers about the advantages and disadvantages,
challenges and opportunities of publishing its own journal, in online format, printformat, or both. We invite input to this discussion from anyone interested in academic
publishing in our discipline. All are welcome to participate this session, but thosedelegates who have experience of managing the academic publishing process (forexample members of editorial boards etc.) are especially encouraged to attend.
EC-3

Session for ‘OurSus’ Project (Ton Dietz)

In 2012 at the IGU Congress in Cologne, Germany, the OurSus team presented theourSus website and the results so far. OurSus stands for ‘Our Sustainability’ and has
been designed to support global innovations for sustainable cities. It uses a holistic,‘rainbow’ approach to all aspects of urban environmental sustainability and is ver ygeographical in its outlook. It is meant to be the world geographers’ contribution tourban-based ‘green thinking’. The ourSus team has developed a pilot approach inChina, based on the work of an energetic team based in Changsha (at HunanUniversity). Its work is one of the general projects of the Board of the International
Geographical Union. In 2012/2013 the team has develop ed a variety of examples
on both its Chinese and English websites (see www.oursus.org). In Kyoto the ourSus
team will report about its recent activities and will try to encourage geographers inother cities (in Japan, in other parts of Asia and in the world as a whole) to follow their
example and to make use of the same approach.
2EC-4

Session for Academic Teaching in Geography (Joos Droogleever Fortuijn)

Stimulating young academic geographers to engage in IGU activities is a priority ofthe IGU Executive Committee in 2012 -2016. Many young academic geographers are
employed mainly or exclusively i n teaching geography and educating new generationsof bachelor, master and PhD students in geography.
The aim of this session is to discuss the role of IGU in academic teaching of geography .
New initiatives might be:
During IGU conferences:
Key note lectures and sessions during IGU congresses and conferences withpresentations, discussions and exchange of good practices;
Workshops on early career development
In between IGU conferences :- Coaching young academic geographers’ especially in countries th at develop
geography courses and help each other with curriculum development & joint courses;- Organizing site-visits to graduate schools/colleges with programmes in geography
and forming groups of experts who advise academic institutions with developing new
geography programmes or renewing existing ones;- facilitating twinnings between individual academic geographers teaching in thesame field or specialisation or between departments of geography.
Specials:- initiating MA or Ph.D. research projects on academic teachers or teaching ingeography;- establishing a ‘teaching award’ for innovative teaching.
In this meeting we will discuss potential initiatives, generate new ideas, setpriorities and see how to get started.

3