Protagonisti socialne geografije: slovenska pomlad
Authors: Gosar Anton 
Published: March 2022

Socialna geografija, ki pri obravnavi kulturne pokrajine v ospredje postavlja človeka in interes skupnosti, je bila deležna obilo internih kritik in priznanj. Kresala so se strokovna mnenja, ki so zadevala teorijo in metodologijo socialne geografije, v kateri pa pripadniki zadnjih dveh generacij geografov niso sodelovali. Izpostaviti velja, da so bili sodelavci nekdanjega Inštituta za geografijo Univerze v Ljubljani z uporabo socialnogeografskih metod, za svoje delo deležni priznanj domače in tuje javnosti. Iz zabeležk v strokovnih periodikah je mogoče razbrati, da je omenjeni inštitut med letoma 1970 in 2000 (so)organiziral 13 posvetov z mednarodno udeležbo in, da je 16 sodelavcev inštituta dalj časa predavalo/raziskovalo na tujih univerzah. Iz virov povzemamo tudi, da so v tem obdobju slovenski geografi poročali na kar 104 konferencah v tujini in objavili 324 člankov v uglednih mednarodnih strokovnih revijah oziroma monografijah. Registriranih je bilo 44 gostovanj predavateljev iz tujine in spremljanje 25 ekskurzij študentov iz tujih univerzitetnih središč pri nas; vzpostavljeni so bili tesni stiki s kolegi iz nemških, avstrijskih, italijanskih in ameriških univerz. V tem in soslednem obdobju 21. stoletja je slovenska geografija ponotranjila socialnogeografsko teorijo, izkazala pa se je tudi pri uveljavljanju slovenske znanosti in prepoznavanju Slovenije kot suverene države. S prepletom socialne, etnične in političnogeografske raziskovalne vneme, ki je dajala prednost raziskavam v obmejnih in marginalnih območjih, je slovenska socialna geografija v mednarodni skupnosti beležila poseben status (in naziv). Navkljub ukinitvi inštituta leta 2002 socialnogeografska misel še živi v številnih vsebinsko pestrih raziskavah, ki vključujejo tudi sodobne metodološke pristope.
Social geography, which puts people and group interest at the forefront when dealing with the cultural landscape, has received a lot of internal criticism, but within the former Institute of Geography of the University of Ljubljana, led by Vladimir Klemenčič, it researched and recorded successes. Between 1970 and 2000, 13 conferences with international participation were organised in Slovenia, Slovene geographers reported at 93 conferences abroad, 16 associates lectured/researched at foreign universities for a longer period of time, 25 student excursions and 44 guest lectures were registered. At the same time, during this period, geographers published 324 articles in foreign professional journals and monographs and established close contacts with 50 colleagues, mainly from Germany, Austria, Italy, France, United Kingdom and North America (United States and Canada). Social geography has proved itself in the promotion of Slovene science internationally as Slovenia became a sovereign nation-state in 1991. With a mix of social-, ethnic- and political-geographical research that favoured research in border and marginal areas, it has achieved a special status in the international professional community. Often, in particular in East/Central Europe, it has been called “The Slovenian School of Social Geography”. Despite of the closing of the Institute of Geography of the University of Ljubljana in 2002 the leading institution of socio-geographical research, socio-geographical thought still lives on in many partial research projects, which, in addition, include contemporary methodological approaches.