Regional Socio-Economic Processes in Central and Eastern Europe - 20 Years in Transition and 2 Years in Global Economic Crisis April 3, 2011

For the past twenty years states of the Central and East European region (CEE) as post-socialist countries have taken distinct courses of development in many respects. When following national trends of their own, internal regional processes also differed from each other. Responses given to challenges of the global economic crisis also varied partly, with regional issues, structural problems and ethnic conflicts repeatedly brought to the surface. Human geographers are divided in the assessment of the changes taken place during the past twenty years and the exchange of experience is considered to be vital for finding adequate answers to the new challenges. General processes within the region having been sharpened during the transition period and global crisis alike. One part of the sections are dedicated to specific issues of the urban and rural spaces respectively, whereas others are to focus on the new trends of human geography in the region and on the novel challenges to the discipline.

An important target of the meeting is to induce the revival of former contacts between the institutes of geography of Visegrad Countries and their Western and Eastern neighbours. These connections have lately often remained unexploited but in a globalising world the eastern neighbour areas of the European Union have been being upgraded. In addition, Visegrad Counties might form a kind of a bridge between East and West. This goal is to be reinforced by the workshop, the main objective of which is to get a deeper insight in socio-economic processes taking place in the CEE countries and in the wider surroundings and their interpretation from geographical aspects. The conference should provide a forum for the exchange of ideas between specialists of the region representing various disciplines of human geography.

Draft programme

4th April 2011

Plenary presentations about main geographic institutions in Visegrad and neighbouring countries (in English and in Russian). In the afternoon 2 (English and Russian language) scientific sections. In the late afternoon guided sightseeing guided by Prof. Zoltán Kovács.

5th April 2011

4 scientific sections (English language).

Conference information provided by konferenciakalauz.hu

Official Website: http://www.mtafki.hu/ReSEP_CEE.html