Reconstructing the BalkansAuthor(s): Derek HallSource: Area, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Jun., 1994), pp. 177-178Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20003418 .

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IBG Annual Conference 177

clearest method would either be a complete take-over of Conference by Council (with the organising committee made up of Council members and Council bearing the financial risks) or a complete hands-off approach by Council, leaving the local organisers to run their conference.

Farewell and adieu

We would not like to leave the impression that the conference was an onerous, unpleasant duty. Of course, it had its problems, as all conferences do, but on the whole, we enjoyed the event, and can only hope that those attending did so too. Not having the conference on the horizon will take some getting used to. To next year's hosts, the team at Northumbria, we follow an ex-junior minister and offer the following advice: nil carborunda illegitema-best

wishes and best of luck.

Michael McCullagh*, Charles Pattiet, and Michael Steven* *University of Nottingham

tUniversity of Sheffield

Reconstructing the Balkans This two-module session was held on the first afternoon of the January 1994 IBG Annual Conference at Nottingham, and attracted an eminent international audience. The stated aims were to explore the geographical dimensions and likely short-to medium-term consequences of the dynamism being experienced in the Balkans, and to suggest longer-term frameworks for the region's 'reconstruction'. The two modules divided rather well. The first, chaired by

David Turnock (Leicester), examined some of the factors behind, and consequences of conflict in the region, and the second, with Alan Dingsdale (Nottingham Trent) in the chair, focused on diverse aspects of both restructuring and reconstruction.

In attempting to confound Bismarck's observation that the Balkans were ' not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier', the session convener, Derek Hall (Sunderland), presented a short discursive introduction attempting to set the context for the papers which followed. He argued that the deliberate use of the term ' reconstruction ' in the session title implied more than just restructuring as there had been the need for a number of the pre-existing and new states of the region to recast themselves politically, economically and infrastructurally from year zero. He also pointed to the apparently increasing divide between the Balkans and the nations of Central Europe to the north and west. That relatively little

western investment was entering the Balkans reflected a number of short- and longer-term problems: the lack of a smooth transition from communism with continuing domestic political uncertainty, poor infrastructures and lower levels of economic development emphasising the initial advantage held by the Visegrad states in attracting the limited amount of investment entering Eastern Europe as a whole, and, of course, the long shadow of the wars of Yugoslav succession.

It was with great regret that Julian Minghi (South Carolina), had been forced to return to the United States from a European study tour due to family illness. He was to have given a paper on 'The Balkan interface with the West'. At short notice, Darrick Danta (California State, Northridge) stepped in with ' Ethno-territorial versus geo-economic factors in Balkan conflicts '. Darrick's participation was particularly welcome as he was convening sessions on the Balkans for the AAG conference in San Francisco in the spring, and some degree of trans-Atlantic collaboration had taken place in the planning of the British and American sessions and their combined publication potential. His lively paper pointed to the fallacies and futilities of attempting to equate ethnicity with territory in the former Yugoslavia, and presented a model applying concepts of catastrophe theory to the situation. He also stimulated a debate on the spatial semantics of' Balkan ', and the implicitly pejorative connotation that the term appears to hold.

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178 IBG Annual Conference

Alan Dingsdale (Nottingham Trent), in his 'Reconstructing the Balkans: Hungary as a place of refuge ', reminded the audience of the 'spatial fall-out ' of the Yugoslav conflict by looking at processes of refugee movement and the role of Hungary as a recipient of migrant south Slav groups. His paper included the cartographic presentation of some interesting original Hungarian data. Sarah Monk (Anglia) led the second session with ' Reconstructing the agricultural sector in Bulgaria-the problems of land reform '. The factors she emphasised-poor infrastructures, appropriate skill shortages, lack of capital, uncertain legislative frameworks (particularly for clarifying land rights) and poor investment guarantees-were vividly portrayed from recent experience in the field.

In David Turnock's (Leicester) presentation 'A new approach to regional development in Romania ', two related themes were explored. More evidence and data were becoming available to assist an understanding of the role and spatial outcomes of local and individual decision-making processes of the Ceausescu era. The role of local authorities in particular was projected forward as the focus of a discussion on the likely nature of local economic development in Romania. Secondly, however, and echoing earlier papers, it was suggested that planning discussions had moved far ahead of financial and legislative realities and that expectations would have to be dampened down if potentially damaging consequences of disillusionment were to be avoided. Finally, Mike Chapman (Heriot-Watt), in his ' Young state, old culture: the geography of cultural identity ', took two contrasting examples from the

Republic of Slovenia to explore the expression of cultural and national identity and heritage. He assessed the introduction of rehabilitation and renewal strategies in Slovenian urban areas as a response to the country's housing privatisation policy alongside an evaluation of the establishment of the country's first regional park as a means of protecting the natural and cultural heritage. Now that Albania is no longer the smallest country of the region, this exploration of a small yet relatively advanced ' Balkan ' nation provided useful insights and potential models for approaches elsewhere in the region.

This short yet lively session forged several new working relationships and consolidated a number of existing ones. It is to be hoped that San Francisco will assist that process further, and that Eastern Europe both as a whole and in its constituent parts will continue to attract

more interest at IBG gatherings.

Derek Hall University of Sunderland

Geographical aspects of fertility The first module of this Population Geography Study Group session was devoted to The Second John Coward Memorial Lecture which was given by Dominique Creton (Lille) on ' Fertility patterns and the changing situation of women in the Republic of Ireland '. Her

presentation was wide-ranging both in coverage and in the variety of approaches employed. She began by illustrating the distinctive patterns of fertility in Ireland at various scales and drew attention, in particular, to recent and significant increases in births outside marriage. Received wisdom in demography suggests that fertility differentials will decline during the last stage of the demographic transition and then disappear. Creton (Lille) challenged this view.

Using county and ward level data to generate regional fertility patterns within the Republic and more micro-scale patterns within the Eastern Region itself, she demonstrated both the endurance of some spatial differentials and the emergence of new ones.

The changes of the 1980s, with the total period fertility rate for the Republic now lower than that for Northern Ireland and increasing levels of extra-marital fertility, especially in certain areas of Dublin, are important features of contemporary Irish demography. The identification of differentials is, however, only the first step towards an explanation of the changes and Creton (Lille) went on to suggest that the key to such an explanation lies in the changing situation of women within the Republic and, perhaps, in the weakening of the ' culture of maternity ', despite the fact that Ireland still stands out in Europe as having a high

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