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Galway Geography Conferences - May 2019

13/5/2019

This year Geography at NUI Galway will be hosting the 7th EUGEO Congress in conjunction with the 51st Conference of Irish Geographers, in Galway City in the west of Ireland. The conference will take place over four days (May 15th – 18th 2019) and the theme for the 2019 conference is Re-Imagining Europe's Future Society and Landscapes. The theme focuses on the centrality of the concepts of society and landscape within the Discipline of Geography and the importance of the relationship that exists between the physical and cultural landscape.

There will be over 500 delegates attending the conference representing an astonishing 37 countries. This conference will offer participants the opportunity to reflect on and re-imagine futures within the geographical boundary of Europe. The overarching theme is reflected throughout the conference programme and themed fieldtrips (programme available here). The aim of this broad and inclusive theme was to attract a wide variety of geographers with a range of physical, social, cultural, political and environmental research interests. The conference promises to be a very enjoyable event in a vibrant city and includes an exciting programme of social events (available here).

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Transition Galway - #yearofgeography

13/5/2019

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By Mary Greene

Transition Galway is a community-based organisation focused on engaging the community around environmental change. It is a local-based initiative that forms part of a larger international network, The Transition Town Network. Founded in 2011 by a group of local residents, Transition Galway has been involved in a range of efforts to engage the community around issues of environment, risk, resilience and sustainability. These have included efforts around engaging a wider public through processes of ‘mainstreaming’ involving organising series of public talks, film nights, community gardening, radio series, fieldtrips, outdoor activities and social media activities to name a few.

The group is divided into a series of sub groups that work on various thematic dimensions of community engagement around issues of food, energy, education, outreach and psychological. Community visioning is another engagement tool that is central to the transition approach to community engagement. Transition Galway organised a series of public visioning engagement activities that involved creating a space for members of the local community to articulate their vision for a more sustainable and resilient Galway in 2030. The results of this process were published in a publicly accessible handbook ‘A vision for Galway 2030’ and accompanying short summary videos available online at galwaytransition.wordpress.com. Material and projects from this process was included in the successful Galway 2020 cultural capital bid application and Galway City Council Development Plan.

Since its inception, TG has worked to actively participate as a key player in the environmental governance landscape in Galway and Ireland more broadly. To this end, forging relations with a range of governance actors, including Galway City Council, Galway Chamber, the arts community, schools and other environmental and community development groups in Galway and beyond. Barriers to community engagement experienced by the group have included limited access to funding, maintaining ongoing momentum of voluntary people resources, group dynamics and accessing public space.

Website: https://transitiongalway.wordpress.com/

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Galway Geography Conferences - May 2019

Transition Galway - #yearofgeography

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