ESEH Biennial Conference 2017

Post date: May 23, 2016 7:00:47 AM

ESEH Biennial Conference 2017

Natures in between. Environments in areas of contact among states, economic systems, cultures and religions

Zagreb, Croatia, 28 June to 2 July 2017

Hosting institution: University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science, Department of Geography together with University of Zagreb, Faculty of social sciences and humanities, History Department and University of Zadar, Department of Geography

Conference Statement

Humans and their activities have been altering the Earth’s environment since the beginning of our evolution. Human induced changes of the environment return back to the human sphere as modifiers of societal and economic mechanisms which manifests, among other things, in landscape structure and landscape change. Regarding historical changes of the environment, contact or conflict zones of different states, peoples, languages, religions and economies have always been of special interest to scientists. There are several different ways how these contacts between different spheres manifest themselves: a) peaceful co-existence with dynamic exchange of ideas, goods and technologies; b) underlying conflict creating differences in spatial organization, appropriation of culture as well as resource exploitation; c) military conflict causing environmental and societal degradation and destruction. Both the suggested location of the conference as well as the excursion enables us to get to know different ways environments develop in a variety of contact areas. Because of unusual shape of Croatia’s territory and because of its historical development as a contact or conflict area of different worlds – Christianity and Islam, maritime and continental tradition to name a few – Croatia is a great place to study contact environments.

Different cultures and different economies have different ways of using the environment and its resources. Such heterogeneity can be seen in present and past landscapes.

Together with the increase of the human population and technological and scientific advances, the intensity of human-induced environmental change has increased dramatically. The environment has to sustain multiple uses from different groups and different views on its utilization have caused conflicts which are on the increase.

The conference therefore attempts to discuss the issue of multiple uses of an environment and with research exploring such issues in past and the present offers a possibility to discuss about potential conflicts and their solutions in the future.

More about conference / Više o konferenciji