Ameriška geografija: zborovanja Ameriškega združenja geografov in slovenska udeležba

Abstract

V letu 2024 praznuje Ameriško združenje geografov (American Geographic Society – AAG) 120. obletnico ustanovitve. Združenje vsako leto prireja zborovanje, ki je priljubljeno med ameriškimi, vedno bolj pa tudi med tujimi, tudi slovenskimi geografi. Namen sestavka je ugotoviti razloge za naraščajočo popularnost ter v 35. letih slovenske prisotnosti opredeliti spremenjena vsebinska težišča zborovanj. Osrednji vir so programi zborovanj oziroma povzetki ter ključne besede predstavitev. Avtorje in vsebine slovenskih prispevkov dokumentirajo zabeležke v COBISS-u. Zborovanja AAG so prvotno potekala v univerzitetnih središčih na vzhodu severnoameriške celine, v tem stoletju jih gostijo predvsem severnoameriške metropole, ki imajo ustrezne konferenčne zmogljivosti. Na zadnjih dveh zborovanjih je bilo predstavljenih več kot pet tisoč vsebin; v primerjavi z letom 1992 se je število referatov povečalo za trikrat. V zadnjih treh desetletjih se je težišče geografskega preučevanja v določeni meri spremenilo. Zmanjšala se je prisotnost naravno- in regionalnogeografskih vsebin, pridobile pa so družbenogeografske vsebine, z urbano geografijo na čelu, ki ji sledijo metode spremljanja geografske zaznave, predvsem GIS. V obravnavanem obdobju so slovenski geografi predstavili 47 vsebin, ki so zajemala politično- in socialnogeografska vprašanja, ruralno-urbana razmerja ter problematiko geografskega izobraževanja. Udeležba slovenskih geografov na zborovanjih AAG je pripomogla k prepoznavnosti slovenske geografije in posledično k skupnim raziskavam, štipendijam in gostovanjem ter ekskurzijam slovenskih geografov v ZDA in tamkajšnjih geografov in študentov v Sloveniji.

American geography: annual meetings of the American Association of Geographers and the Slovenian participation

The American Geographical Society (AAG) celebrates in 2024 its 120th anniversary. The annual meetings of the AAG are popular among American geographers, recently they’ve become a stage of presenting professional research results by foreign, including Slovenian geographers. The aim of this paper is to identify the reasons for the growing popularity and to define the changed focus of the gatherings in the three decades of Slovenian presence. The article deals with the period of Slovenian independence. The study is based on available conference programs and paper titles or/and key words published. The contents and authors of Slovenian contributions are confirmed by the COBISS Co-operative Online Bibliographic System. In the first few decades of existence, AAG annual meetings were held at universities in the eastern part of North America; in this century AAG annual meetings are mainly hosted in large metropolis with adequate conference capacities. In the last two meetings more than 5000 papers were presented; compared to 1992, the number of papers presented have increased by three times. In the last three decades the focus of geographical research has changed to a certain extent. The presence of physical- and regional-geographical presentations decreased and issues in human geography – with urban geography at the forefront – as well as methods monitoring the geographic perception, especially GIS, have gained ground. During the considered period 47 papers were presented by Slovenian scholars; they dealt with political- and social-geographic issues, rural-urban relations and issues related to geographic education. Based on presentations at AAG meetings, the activities of Slovenian geographers have become known to American geographers and, on this foundation, several institutional partnerships, scholarships, excursions, research projects and guest lectureships by Slovenian geographers in the USA and by American colleagues in Slovenia have taken place.