A New Region of Europe: Regional Development Paradigms in Baltic−Black Sea Intermarum

The space under study has new qualities of social and geographical environment that requires the development of special methods of deepening knowledge about social and political processes occurring here in the context of spatial planning as well as monitoring of the changes in social environment and human geography.

“The new region” represents a group of states which is sometimes marked only by means of an un-precise epithet “post-Soviet” at the present time. This is a group of states included in integration processes of different directions and intensity which determine new limits of this region and at the same time confirm its existence so far as the majority of existing socio-political problems can be solved more effectively applying the regional approach instead of acting on a national basis. The context of “the new region of Europe” understood in this way, the research of processes occurring in economy, legal and political systems gets its importance. At the same time this social space has unique cultural and civil practices which create the most important foundations of political and social processes.

The quality of human geographical and local environments determines, in turn, transboundary and regional processes. The development of modern regional systems, the opportunity to study the specificity of mobility processes (either social or political, economic transformations, cultural evolution) in the Baltic-Black Sea region of Europe represent unique sources of knowledge about trends of the development of modern social systems.

We are especially interested in submissions that address the following topics:

• Integration, intergovernmental and transboundary interactions in the region.
• The role of transport and infrastructure for the sustainable development and competitiveness of the Baltic-Black sea region.
• Energy security in the Baltic-Black Sea region: common challenges, energy cooperation and projects of common interest.
• Regional policy and space transformations in the states of the Baltic-Black Sea region of Europe.
• “United wider Europe”: memory policy, migratory processes and transformation of citizenship institute in the states of Intermarum.
• Legal foundations of the system of international, transboundary relations and regional policy in Intermarum.

Conference organizers:

• European Humanities University (Vilnius, Lithuania),
• Vytautas Magnus University (Kaunas, Lithuania),
• Belarus country office of Konrad Adenauer Foundation
• in cooperation with The Center for Advanced Studies and Education (CASE).

Eligibility:
Researchers and policy makers from all European countries, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Moldova.

Languages of the conference:
Russian and English

Application process:
Prospective participants should submit an application form, a 250-word abstract and an academic CV at the conference's e−mail: intl.conference@ehu.lt.
Application deadline: July 1st, 2010.