Geography experts to analyse the countryside in Universitat de València

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Piece about the countryside and its inner connections.
Piece about the countryside and its inner connections.
Over seventy geography experts from different countries analyse events like depopulation and resilience of the countryside in the Universitat de València. From 23 and 25 October the 22nd Countryside Geography National Colloquium and the 5th Countryside Geography International Colloquium will take place.

With the catchphrase "Geography attributions to the long term perspective of the countryside". Debates will lie on four bases: countryside reinforcement, countryside connections, countryside territorial resilience and diversification and multifunction for countryside prosperity.

The inauguration conference will be run by an academic reference in entrepreneurship and rural development, full university professor of Business Endeavour, Innovation and Strategy and head of the EPIC Investigation Centre of the University of Northumbria (England), Gary Bosworth. Bosworth’s presentation "Spatial circumstance analysis for rural entrepreneurship" will compile the main changes in politics for United Kingdom’s rural development since the Brexit, and will also share some parts of his team’s work for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Closing conference will be run by Universitat de València’s full university professor of Regional Geographical Analysis Javier Esparcia, focusing on one of the current central topics of countryside geography: rural proofing (unreasonable expectatives), a common reference in the last years after the decrease in depopulation and the problems that come with it.

There will be a country walk on Thursday 24 in three municipalities from Alto Palancia: Bejís, Viver and Navajas. Retired full university professor of Physical Geography Adolfo Calvo will analyse the impact of an August 2022 wildfire on the natural patrimony in Bejís. Attendats will visit Viver’s co-operative as an example of economy diversification and local society. Last but not least, touristic models for Valencian rural spaces will be analysed in Navajas.

The symposium has been organised in collaboration with the work group, the Inter-university Institute for Local Development (IIDL), the Department of Geography of the Universitat de València, the Tourism Geography Group of the Spanish Geography Association (AGE) and the Office of the Vice-Principal for Culture and Society. Co-funded by the Valencian Department of Education, University and Employment.

AGE is a professional group of geography aiming to promote and develop geography science and its uses in Spain, as well as divulgation about geography to society.

The work group of Rural Geography of the AGE is one of the largest most stable and oldest in Spanish geography. This group’s goal is learn about the scenery, spaces and societies in the countryside. Their origins, their evolution, their views, their structures and dynamics, their subjects and agents, their workings and problems and the policies and actions that transform them. The changes in these spaces from the second half of 20 century and early 21 century were so significant that linking traditional and current aspects and investigations is really difficult. The Rural Geography work group aims to catch up with these changes, understand them, explain them and observe them through their activities. These colloquia are a perfect example of those efforts.

All the information is available here.