September 2006 NEWSLETTER

CONTENTS

1. Chair’s report

2. Conference timetable – 2007-2010

3. New members of the Steering Committee

4. Internet site

1. CHAIR’S REPORT: Michael Sofer (CHAIR)

a. On behalf of the Commission, the first thing I would like to do in this newsletter is to thank the Brisbane Organising Committee for their efforts in providing us with a wonderful symposium venue and a stimulating programme. I would like to thank Tony Sorensen, our man from down under, for organising a marvellous event – the tri-commission meeting in Cairns, following the Brisbane conference.  I hope life has returned more or less to normal for Tony. For those of you who were unfortunately unable to join us, the meeting and the discussions were great, as were the field trips and the food, as well. The companionship was magnificent and the quality of the presentations all very exciting and informative.

Both meetings, but particularly the conference in Cairns, gave us the opportunity to exchange views with our colleagues in other branches of geography. In Brisbane, we had a business meeting of the Commission and in Cairns, the three participating members of the Commission Steering Committee met to discuss future directions.

b. The Brisbane conference included four sessions of our commission:

IGU 2006: Local Development Sessions

A. Brownfields, the urban landscape and local development

Chair: Michael Sofer

1. Cortez A

University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Local development and the restoration of the landscape in brownfields: the sanitary landfills in Brazil

2. Ortigoza S

University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Brownfields in medium-size cities in the countryside of Sao Paulo State, Brazil: the possibilities of local development by means of (re) development of urban areas.

3. Lombardo M and Vasques A

University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

The process of brownfield formation and redevelopment in Sao Paulo, Brazil

4. Pitton S

University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Local development: valuation of the health services in Rio Claro/Sao Paulo/Brazil

B. The nature of local development in peripheral areas

Chair: Paweł Churski

1. Sofer M

Bar-Ilan University, Israel

Local development and the Fijian periphery: the case of Kadavu Island

2. Baסski J

Polish Geographical Society, Poland

Relations between core and peripheries in the Polish conceptions of development

3. Campolina Diniz C

Universidade Federal De Minas Gerais, Brazil

The regional policy for the Brazilian northeast region and recent local development experiences

4. Young Martin

Charles Darwin University, Australia

Reconceptualising tourism destination development in peripheral areas

C. Local responses to local and global challenges

Chair: Young Martin

1. Peters Kristine

Flinders University, Australia

Don't know, don't do: local business associations and their influence on the environmental performance of small business

2. Ab. Ghaffar Fauza

University of Malaya, Malaysia

Globalisation and regional transformation: rethinking regional policy in Malaysia

3. Carroll Michael

Bowling Green State University, USA

Social capital and cluster-based economic development

D. On development plans and local development

Chair: Campolina Diniz

1. Makki M,

Saudi Geographical Society, Saudi Arabia

Towards a balanced development in Medina region, Saudi Arabia

2. Churski P

Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan, Poland

Structural foundations of the European Union in Poland – experiences of the first period of membership

3. Teresa C, Zbyszko C, Chojnicki Z and Czyz T

Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan, Poland

Human capital in a knowledge-based economy in Poland

c. The meeting in Cairns was a joint event of three commissions:

* The Sustainability of Rural Systems;

* Land Use Cover Change; and

* Local Development

Because of its nature and orientation, there was a mixture of sessions and papers and most of the local development papers were presented in the sessions entitled: Development of Rural Regions and Changes in the Rural Urban Fringe.

d. The Commission endorsed the IGU initiative on Cultures and Civilizations for Human Development. Professor Adalberto Vallega (President, IGU) leads the project. See www.homeofgeography.org for details.

2. CONFERENCE TIMETABLE - 2007 – 2010

a. We propose to hold our coming annual meeting before the next meeting of the Commission in Tunis in 2008. Campolina Diniz has offered to host a meeting in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in August 2007. The theme will be 'The nature of local development in developing regions' – a title that allows us to look not only at the experience of developing countries, but also at local development processes in eastern Europe and in peripheral areas of developed economies.

Year	Month	Place	Comments	Theme
2007	August	Belo-Horizonte, Brazil		The nature of local development in developing regions
2008	August	Tunis	IGU International Congress; Possibly - a pre-congress meeting in Tunis	To be decided
2009	July / September	Europe	To be decided in Brisbane 2006	The role of talents and creative industries in local development / Poverty reduction through local development
2010	July / August	Tel Aviv	IGU regional conference	To be decided

b. A most important item on the agenda is the 'shape' of the following full meeting of the Commission in Tunis in 2008. The Tunisian delegates made a presentation and distributed programme details. The Commission will receive the name of a counterpart in Tunis with whom we will work. If we can not find a local organiser by August 2007, we may suggest a meeting within the format of the IGU and promote some other activities during the Congress year.

3. NEW MEMBERS OF THE STEERING COMMITTEE

We have a new member on the steering committee to replace members who retired. The new member is Assoc. Prof. Jerzy Banski. His contact details are:

Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization

Polish Academy of Sciences

Warsaw, Poland

 (+48 22) 69-78-922, (+48) 602-39-14-53

jbanski@twarda.pan.pl or jbanski@wp.pl

Web page: http://www.banski.pl

One of our targets for 2006-2010 is to recruit new members for the Steering Committee. We are still looking for new members from Africa, including Tunis. Suggestions are welcomed.

4. INTERNET SITE

The commission has an internet site:

 http://www.biu.ac.il/soc/ge/igucomld/

For updates on IGU activities, also check the Home of Geography website:

http://www.homeofgeography.org/

We look forward to receiving news from members.

A letter to steering committee - April 2006

Dear Members of the Steering Committee of the Commission on Local Development, On behalf of the Steering Committee I would like to extend the thanks of the Commission to all those people who have contributed to our work last year and on the first quarter of the current year. Particularly I would like to thank all those that led the sessions during the November 2005 Web Conference, Ayda Eraydin and Clélio Campolina Diniz, to Tony Sorensen who put a lot of effort in organising the coming post-conference meeting in Cairns Australia, and again Clélio Campolina Diniz for his productive effort and assistance all along the way.

I take this opportunity to update you about the coming activities of the Commission on Local Development.

1. The major coming event is the IGU Congress in Brisbane on 3-7 July under the title: Regional Responses to Global Changes:
   A view from the Antipodes. Four sessions were allocated to the Commission and we have a diverse range of papers. The sessions will take place on Tuesday 4th and Wednesday 5th. They were composed according the submitted papers and carrying the following titles:
   1. On development plans and local development
   2. The nature of local development in peripheral areas
   3. Local development and the urban environment
   4. Brownfield, the urban landscape and local development
2. During the congress we’ll have our business meeting and issues raised during the meeting will be circulated among the members of the Steering Committee for further consultation.
3. The congress site address is: www.igu2006.org. Looking into the site I realised that the program hasn’t been updated since January, though I have recently received an updated draft.
4. 4. The Brisbane Congress will be followed by a field excursion and moving conference (9-14 July) of which the venue is Cairns in north Queensland. It is a joint venture of the commissions on:
   • The Sustainability of Rural Systems
   • Use Cover Change, and
   • Local Development
   This event is organised by our active member Tony Sorensen, and there are about 50 participants in this event.

Thinking about our future activities there are three matters that spring to mind:

1. I am concerned that we do not yet have a sound financial base, and this is very much affected by the over-all finances of the IGU itself. This matter should be discussed as a policy issue on our business meeting in Brisbane. We would welcome any suggestions.
2. We need to be thinking about future meetings (and publications). There are some tentative offers from Brazil in 2007, and the IGU Congress will be in Tunisia in 2008. We should even look forward towards 2009. The 2010 meeting will be part of the Regional Congress that will take place in Tel-Aviv. The table below shows a crude draft of the 2005-2008 plan of the Commission’s activities. Any idea and suggestion is welcomed.
3. We are looking for a couple of fresh members on the steering committee. I made some effort to recruit African members but didn’t have much success. Also, in the 2008 IGU Congress in Tunis we need a local organizer, do you know somebody there that could be an anchorman? Waiting for any information and suggestion.

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The Commission on Local Development 2005-2010 working plan

Year	Month	Place	Comments	Theme
2005	November	On the web	Done	The meaning of local development
2006	July	Brisbane, Australia	Includes a meeting on the field excursion	Diversified issues
2007	25-28 June	Beijing	Second Global Conference On Economic Geography	The dynamics of local and regional development
2008	August	Tunis	IGU International Congress Possibly - a pre-congress meeting in Tunis	To be decided
2009	July / September	Warsaw	Commission annual meeting	Poverty-reduction through local development
2010	July	Tel Aviv	IGU regional conference	To be decided

I would like to thank all members of the steering committee on past advice and suggestions. In order to succeed in the job, I'll need your further support. I am open to any advice and any assistance.

Best wishes,
Michael Sofer (CHAIR)