First Circular
XVI Basque Studies Congress
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - IT. the future
COMITÉ SCIENTIFIQUE
Nicolás GAMINDE. Chair of the XVI Congress and of the Scientific Committee.
Javier RETEGUI. Chair of Eusko Ikaskuntza.
Jorge ASKASIBAR. Chair of the Basoa Foundation.
Anton AZKONA. Adjunct to the Management. IHOBE.
Carmelo BENGOETXEA. Vice-dean of the College of Civil Engineers of the Basque Country. Chair of the PEP(SD) Project.
Teresa DEL VALLE. Professor of Social Anthropology, University of the Basque Country.
Felix DODDS. Stakeholder Forum. London.
Carmen GALLASTEGUI. Professor of Economic Análisis, University of the Basque Country and Director of the Institute of Public Economy.
Alfredo GARCÍA RAMOS. ARALDI. Chair of the Sociology and Economics Section of Eusko Ikaskuntza-Basque Studies Society.
Xabier GARMENDIA. Environmental Developing Consultant.
Sixto JIMENEZ. Vice-Chair of Eusko Ikaskuntza-Basque Studies Society of Navarre.
Jean-Michel LARRASQUET. Professor of the University of Toulouse 3 and of ESTIA.
Txaber LEZAMIZ. Basque Govenment Director of Energy.
Alfonso MARTINEZ CEARRA. Director-General of Bilbao Metrópoli 30.
Juan Luis MORAGUES. MAS Attorneys at Law. Coordinator of the PEP(SD) Project.
Nieves ZABALA. Chair of Medicus Mundi.
Itsaso OLAIZOLA. Eusko Ikaskuntza. Technical Secretariat.
INTRODUCTION TO THE XVI BASQUE STUDIES CONGRESS
Eusko Ikaskuntza-Basque Studies Society is an institution that was born in 1918 to protect and impulse cultural and scientific development in culturally Basque territories. It is an entity that is in the vanguard of knowledge, which attempts to advance by reflecting on the main social challenges and to articulate positive responses thereto.
Historically, Basque Studies Congresses have played a very relevant role in terms of stimulation for research and technical and humanistic progress of communities united by a common cultural link. From the first of such congresses, held in 1918 and which marked the scientific awakening of modern Basque society, to that held in 2001 which dealt about the state of art, culture and science in the Basque Country within the new coordinates of the third millennium, each and everyone of the fifteen Basque Studies Congresses have represented a time of rigorous, in-depth and fructiferous reflection on the present and on the future projection of our societies.
It is following these lines that the XVI Congress of Basque Studies is set to be held on 29th and 30th November and 1st December 2005, with reference to an aspect that is transcendentally important for us all: Sustainable Development.
With the idea that Sustainable Development is clearly a factor of the maximum priority for the future of the Basque Country, in spring 2004 Eusko Ikaskuntza-Basque Studies Society started working on the first phase of prospective-strategic reflection involving over 60 specialists and social agents, with the purpose of identifying the key strategic factors and outlining political decisions and decisions on environmental, energy, social, cultural, technological and economic action that will lead us to a new and more efficient model of development that is solidary with the coming generations.
In Phase II, which started in February 2005, six working groups were constituted from a transversal, multidisciplinary and multi-participating perspective. The XVI Congress will be a milestone in this long process of reflection, at the conclusion of which a series of action proposals will be spelt out, and which will have to be fulfilled within the 2020 Sustainable Development deadline.
With the guarantee of its scientific thoroughness, its apolitical character and its positive relationship with public administrations in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, the Statutory Community of Navarre and in the continental Basque Country, Eusko Ikaskuntza-Basque Studies Society seeks the amplest social and economic, institutional and civic implication in this crucial process. A process that does not only point towards a better management of biodiversity, but also towards the management of demodiversity, that is the respect for the diversity f the peoples and cultures that make up the rich mosaic of Humanity.
The Congress will be held in three days:
On the first day a presentation will be made of the conclusions that are the results of the Second Phase of the process, together with the exhibiting of concrete achievements and presentations by international experts.
As we are witnessing the unstoppable “urbanisation” of our lives, the second day will be dedicated to the “Reinvention of the Towns”. The possibility of a new concept of sustainable town will be explored, as developed by citizens supported by technology and economic and cultural agents.
On the third day, Public Administrations and the institutions that are related with Science and Technology will explain their vision of Sustainable Development. Specific actions will be carried out by means of presentations, communications and debates. In parallel, during the second day there will be a Youth Forum with the participation of young people and students from the seven Universities of the Basque Country. Finally, the conclusions of the three days will be established, including those of the Youth Forum.
We wish to encourage the active participation in the Congress by Basques from the Autonomous Community, which is already equipped with a Sustainable Development Strategy for 2002-2020, by those from the Statutory Community of Navarre, which is a model of energy planning, and by those from the territory of Iparralde, which has such a delicate harmony between industry and countryside, between urban and rural life. We also invite corporations and economic agents to assume their dynamic role, trusting this will provide them with a competitive advantage; and public organisations and entities, who are to establish the strategy and operational system that is to lead us towards a fairer and more excellent future by means of Sustainable Development. And, of course, we open the XVI Congress of Basque Studies to young people, whose critical sensibility towards the present and whose dynamic imagination towards the future is indispensable to impulse a structural change in our model of growth.
Nicolás Gaminde
Chair of the XVI Congress and of the Scientific Committee
April 2005
PROGRAM
Tuesday, 29th November 2005
Presentation of the Special Multidisciplinary Project on Sustainable Development
In 2004, Eusko Ikaskuntza-Basque Studies Society started the Presentation of the Special Multidisciplinary Project on Sustainable Development -PEP(DS)- with the objetive of promoting Sustainable Development for the benefit of all.
The first prospective-strategic reflection visualised the important opportunity we have, from this social platform, to carry out Sustainable Development – with the help and participation of all the actors implied – within the central strategic framework of all the decisions and activities generated in our society.
As a result of this reflection, six Working Groups were set up:
- Land Planning and Management of the Territory and its Resources
- Social Dimension
- Corporate Dynamism
- Economy and Taxation
- Energy
- Transport
Each of these Groups has been carrying out an in-depth analysis on:
- The causes, reasons and characteristics of Sustainable Development;
- The degree of the effects and demands resulting from the changes implicit in Sustainable Development;
- Possible responses from our social and territorial environment.
In the framework of the XVI Congress, and derived from this analysis in search of common starting points, progress reports will be presented which will point out:
- “What is happening” and “What could happen”
- “How and in what fields does it affect us”
Later on, in the post-congress phase, the scope of the discussions will be widened and the analysis with Debating Forums and, if applicable, of possible agreements between public and private actors, with the purpose of providing answers to three questions:
- “What could we do?”
- “What are we going to do?”
- “How are we going to do it?”
Our society should prepare as soon as possible to face the challenges of the future, redirecting our thinking and action, our attitudes and habits, in a sustainable manner. The success of our stakes (in the social, economic, and cultural fields) will greatly depend on the capacity we may have to adapt to the tendencies that are drawing up in the horizon, to reduce the level of uncertainties and to know how to anticipate to the ruptures that could take place in the middle and long run.
Wednesday, 30th November 2005
The Reinvention of Towns and Sustainable Development
The starting point for the second day of the Congress is the changing nature of towns. In towns, individualities and collective groups constitute their main capital and they participate in the permanent construction of the citizenry. Towns are points of reference not only for their residents but also for people who, from other towns, take them as points of reference for work or spare-time activities, and for people who arrive looking for opportunities and improvement. For this reason they create and recreate flows of people, communications, goods, products and services with the corresponding stress that all of that brings about.
It is therefore a matter of showing the diversity and the place occupied by individualities and groups in the urban structure and analysing the processes they generate: hybridisation, miscegenation, alternative movements. Dynamics that proceed from the tensional distribution of wealth, services and mobility are also recognised, since towns are conceived essentially and from the beginning as a gain to be administered in a democratic manner. But this is a gain that is to conjugate both local and global aspects.
The reinvention of towns implies three dimensions: a participative dimension, that gathers various dynamics, the hybridisation of groups, communities, individualities; an interactive dimension, where fluidity and physical and social articulation are of prime importance; and the creative dimension, which leads to daring views of towns which, from a point of view of sustainability, advocate for articulation and fluidity between social, economic and environmental levels.
The centrality of change demands a reflection on the conception and practice of civic matters, while at the same time it evokes thinking from a solidary point of view, and thinking on the redistribution of tangible and intangible resources. Thus, starting from variables such as age, gender, social condition, cultural expressions, and handicaps, it is necessary to tend to needs coming from diverse and changing populational sectors which seek, among other objectives, identity niches, work, relationships, and housing.
Thursday, 1 December 2005
As expressed in the main title (SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT – IT. THE FUTURE), Innovation and Technologies will be in the centre of the debate throughout the XVI Congress, but especially on the Third Day. Representatives from various Science and Technology-related entities will be reflecting on the implications new technologies may have in the change of the socio-economic paradigm, by presenting initiatives carried out in different contexts. The idea is to find out to what extent scientific-technical progress can contribute to a new model of Sustainable Development.
Considering that the contemporary maxim that says «think globally, but act locally» is essentially on the right path, the Congress will focus its attention to the role that corresponds to Public Administrations in those levels that are closest to the citizens (local or regional levels), without thereby forgetting state and supra-state institutions. It is important that Sustainable Development is present in the agenda of all the management areas (not only in those that affect the environment, industry or energy, but also in the organisation of Transport, in the Economy, in the Health Services and in Social Matters). It would therefore be a matter of transversal and inter-departmental management with the amplest possible participation by society.
Both as refers to Science and Technology and to Public Administrations, an analysis will be made by means of presentations, communications, debates and round tables of the specific actions to be carried out, always searching for the maximum implication of the Congress participants.
In parallel, during the day, a Youth Forum will be held with the participation of young people and students from the seven Universities in the Basque Country.
Finally, the general conclusions of the Congress will be established, together with those produced by the Youth Forum.
COMMUNICATIONS
During the Congress communications may be presented on any aspects related with any of the following nine topics:
- Land Planning and Resource Management
- Social Dimension of Sustainable Development
- Corporate Dynamism & Economy and Taxation
- Energy and Transport
- The Reinvention of Towns and Sustainable Development: the social field
- The Reinvention of Towns and Sustainable Development: the economic field
- The Reinvention of Towns and Sustainable Development: the environmental field
- Innovation and Sustainable Development
- Institutional implication in Sustainable Development
Communications may be presented in any of the four official languages of the Congress: Basque, Spanish, French and English. An Evaluating Committee will select the communications to be presented by their authors themselves or read in summary form by rapporteurs.
Deadline for communications: 30th July 2005.
Norms for communications
1. Original papers should be given in, indicating the name of the author, the title of the paper, the program used (which may be any of the usual programs in PC or Macintosh). Also, two paper copies in DIN A4 format, on one side only, double spacing and a left-hand margin never below 3 cm.
2. The extension of the papers is recommended to be around 12 pages. All pages are to be numbered, including those with notes and graphs.
3. A title page is to contain the title (eight words maximum, complemented, if necessary with a subtitle), the name of the author or authors with two surnames (second Christian name only with the initial), personal data, address, telephone, fax and date the work was finished.
4. An indicative summary with an extension of not over 60 words is to be attached to the paper. Also included will be the Key Words (not more than eight) in the same languages. Key words will be written in order of importance.
5. For a correct disposition of the text, we suggest it is divided into clearly differentiated sections, using only Arabic figures and in levels numbered consecutively (1/1.1./1.2./1.3.../ 2/2.1./2.2...). These should not be mixed with Roman figures or letters.
6. Illustrations, graphics, tables, etc. are to be given in computer format and/or vegetable or couché matt paper, with Chinese ink, avoiding handwriting and photocopies, which will not be admitted. Its size is to be sufficient to allow for reproduction. In the case of the pictures sent in computer format, these are to have a minimum resolution of 300 pp, with a size of over 10 x 10 cm and the file format should be TIFF, EPS or JPG. All graphic material is to be given in numbered correlatively in a single series an preceded by the word “Figure” (or its abbreviation), with the corresponding footnote indicating its position in the text.
7. Quotations will be placed between quotation marks or in italics and integrated into the text only if they are not over two lines. For more extensive quotations, a smaller font size will be used, in a different and indented paragraph.
8. Notes will be numbered correlatively and placed on the same page if they are explanatory notes and at the end of the work, in alphabetical order, if they are bibliographic notes. Abbreviated note norms will be respected (Bibliographical References ISO 690, UNE 50-104). That is: surnames (in capital letters), name of the author. Title (in italics), edition number, town: editorial, year; pages. BIDANIA ARREOLA, Mikel. Artesanía y artesanos vascos, 1ª ed., Bilbao: Editorial Vasconia, 1979; 422 p. The preposition “In:” will be used when the reference is part of a bigger bibliographical unit. ZAMORA ELICEGUI, José A. “Piedad y venganza”. In: Anuario de Estudios Éticos, nº 2, 1981. Salamanca: Universidad, 1982; pp. 123-134.
9. Each author will reference his/her own affiliation (university, research entities, etc....).
Please strictly abide by these rules so as to ensure the best possible publication of these works.
The subscription form for the XVI Congress will be sent together with the final program.
INFORMATION
Anybody interested in receiving further information on the XVI Congress of Basque Studies should specify so in the attached form and send it to the Congress Secretariat.
FORM
