Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

With the ongoing development of telecommunication techniques the emergence of a‘space-less world’ and the virtualisation of human communication were predicted.By modelling the relation between telecommunication and face-to-face contactGaspar and Glaeser (1998) showed that telecommunication is not a substitute buta complement for face-to-face contact and it can even increase the need for faceto-facecontact. Besides the revolution in telecommunication the revolutions thatended the Communist era in Eastern Europe made communication and travellingbetween different European countries easier. The expansion and the integration ofthe EU continued. Student mobility increased enormously because of the Socratesand Erasmus programs. Because of fading borders, economic growth and Europeanintegration we might expect more mobility in the EGEA network. On the other hand,some destinations might have become less ‘exotic’ and new travel opportunities maycompete with EGEA events.MethodsTo find out how EGEA (geographically) developed we wanted to know which entitieswere active during which period. This was researched by analysis of the participationof the Annual Congresses. The participation lists of the Annual Congressesprovide a fairly reliable picture of entity involvement, although it is possible that anotherwise active entity is not able to delegate a member to the Annual Congress. Itis also possible that individuals that participate in an Annual Congress, are not (yet)involved in other EGEA events. However, that said, the participant lists provide uswith a sufficiently accurate view of the development of the EGEA network. Dataavailable from other activities is fragmented and to specific to be used.To say something about which factors and means of communication play a rolein the expansion of the network we asked by email the entities’ contact persons ifthey knew how their entity got involved in the network. 36 entities responded. Inthose cases of entities that have been reactivated, we used the information on howthe entity was reactivated.The European Geography AssociationEGEA, the European Geography Association for students and young geographers,was founded in 1989 after the first congress. In 1992 EGEA registered in Utrechtas a foundation. The entities form the general board of EGEA. At the AnnualCongress they appoint the Board of Executives. EGEA is divided in four regions;the Northern and Baltic region, The Western region, the Eastern region, and thesouthern ‘Euromed’ region. Every region has one regional representative chosenat the regional meeting during the Annual Congress. The four regional representativesform the Board of Executives of the EGEA foundation. They divide the tasksof chairman, secretary, treasurer and vice-chairman. The fifth member of the Boardof Executives is the organiser of the Annual Congress of the next year.The current entities are very different in age, size, and activities. The organisationalstructure of the entities range from well organised independent foundations196