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Summary of the 1st meeting of EARCAG in Kyungju S. Korea
By Byung-Doo Choi (organizer of the Kyungju meeting of the EARCAG) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The EARCAG( East Asian Regional Conference in Alternative Geography) was proposed and planned by some East Asian participants of the IICCG in Vancouver 1997, especially by Professor Mizuoka and me with a strong support of critical geographers・groups in Japan and S. Korea respectively. The aim of this conference was to set up an international network among alternative geographers in East Asian countries and to explore further critical perspective to understand and make better our national, regional and global world. In organizing this conference, critical-alternative geographers from Thailand and Hong-Kong joined, and some geographers from Singapore have shown their interests in the conference, even though they could not attend.
The first meeting of EARCAG was held between 24th to 26th January 1999, Kyungju and Taegu, S. Korea, and its general theme was 全ocio-Spatial Issues for East Asian Countries in the 21C・ It was supported financially in part by the Korean Research Foundation and Taegu University. 20 scholars (except those who gave welcome address and congratulatory address) in geography and other related fields came to present their papers: Neil Smith from the United State, Chatchai Pongprayoon from Thailand, Robert Hassink from Netherlands, and Wing-Shing Tang and George Lin from Hongkong, 5 scholars from Japan and 10 from S. Korea. The conference consisted of keynote speech, 6 general sessions, a special session, a workshop with panel discussion. A brief program of the conference with the title of each participant痴 paper is shown at the end of this message.
On the first day of the conference at the Kyungju TEMF hotel, Neil Smith in his keynote speech talked about the need for an international critical geography in the context of global economic crisis. It was followed by four sessions which were concerned with research methods and perspectives for East Asian geography, some important problems of the region, meanings of urban planning and spatial form especially in 19c, and urban and regional policy and development ideology. All participants were very sincere and active to present their paper and discuss their interesting points. After the sessions, the participants were divided into two groups for informal dinner and free discussion.
On the second day of the conference held at the Computer and Communication Center (CCC) of Taegu University, Fujio Mizuoka in the special session canvassed the current situation of the Japan Association of Economic Geographers (JAEG) which seems to be on the verge of undemocratic turn. Then two following sessions discussed on development process of Taegu city in the global context and on statism, nationalism, regionalism and politics of place. The final workshop was a panel discussion on the future of the EARCAG and the ICCG. In particular, we talked about how to do for critical geographers in Japan and adopted a motion for them. We also constituted the steering committee of the EARCAG, considering candidate countries for the next meeting, and examined briefly the statement of purpose of the ICCG.
At the end of the second day, we had a banquet at a traditional Korean restaurant in Kyungju, and enjoyed ourselves, promoting friendly relations. On the third day, we had a half-day excursion to see a famous temple and Buddhist statue. By the noon of the day, we said good-bye with an appointment to see again at the second meeting of the ICG in the next year, (perhaps Taegu) S. Korea. I think there might be no participant who was discontented with conditions for the conference. The hotel was not so bad in its facilities for accommodation and in price, Taegu University was well equipped with computer facilities for conference, and others such as Korean restaurants were not so inconvenient.
In short, it can be said that 1) We had a very sincere presentation of papers and energetic discussion of our topics, with an explicit agreement that we, critical and alternative scholars in East Asian countries, need to explore socio-spatial issues, encouraging our own perspectives. 2) we have made a close friendly relationship among participants, which would help us to set up a regional network for exchanging our information in general, and which would enable us to continue our meeting of EARCAG in particular. 3) We confirmed that we need a firm international organization of critical-alternative geography in the context of global economic crisis and political neo-liberalism, even though we must be thoughtful in taking up practical strategies to do so.
的 hope you feel as happy about the outcome of the EARCAG conference as I do.・/P> (Neil Smith) 典he conference was a big success. It was one of the best I ever attended・/P> (Wing-Shing Tang)
Brief Program of International Conference on Socio-Spatial Issues for East Asian Countries in the 21C
Sunday, 24 January: Kyongju TEMF Hotel
Monday 25 January : CCC Taegu University
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