Main conference theme

This conference focuses on islands from three interrelated viewpoints: conflicts, sustainability, and peace, and addresses three overarching questions: 1) Why and how were/are islands involved in what kind of conflicts or uneven power relations? 2) How can islands’ sustainable development contribute to their political-economic autonomy? 3) If geography as a discipline has contributed to the geopolitical “fate” of islands, how can we, geographers, practice geography for island peace?

Japan, as a typical island state, consists of approximately 7,000 islands and continues to face many of the challenges mentioned above. Thus, Japan is one of the best places to hold this conference. This conference is open to any type of study if it fits the main conference theme. It is also open to any IGU Commissions, geographers, other scientists, university students, and the public who wish to share the theme topics with us. After the conference, a book compiling selected papers will be published. We sincerely hope that this conference will contribute to creating a better, more sustainable, and more peaceful world through geography.

Collaboration with the IGU Thematic Conference on
the Ocean and Seas in Geographical Thought

The IGU Commission on the History of Geography (IGU-CHG, C20.24) will also organize the IGU Thematic Conference on the Ocean and Seas in Geographical Thought held in Milan, Italy on June 6-7, 2023. Given that islands and the ocean are conceptually and empirically inseparable, we will actively collaborate with the IGU-CHG to connect the two conferences so that they can provide a more significant and comprehensive forum on islands and the ocean. In order to connect the two conferences held in different places and times, we plan to organize a joint virtual session for each conference and a virtual workshop on both themes between the two conferences (currently scheduled on May 19, 2023). We will do our best to realize this very new endeavor in the history of IGU thematic conferences.