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New IGU Regional Network:
Southeast Asia, Australasia and the Southwest Pacific

IGU has established its fourth Regional Network, adding to the existing Latin America, Mediterranean and Commonwealth of Independent States IGU Regional Networks. Taking advantage of the regional location of the July 2006 IGU Conference in Brisbane, the new network brings together geographers from Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Southwest Pacific island nations including Papua New Guinea. The Network aims to foster collaborative research and teaching initiatives, mutual support and mentoring activity. The Network has adopted the acronym SEAASWP, to be pronounced "Sea-Swap", reflecting its regional coverage, maritime extent and spirit of exchange.
SEAASWP is coordinated by Associate Professor Philip Hirsch from the School of Geosciences, University of Sydney. Professor Hirsch convened a full-day pre-conference workshop in Brisbane on 2 July 2006, involving more than 30 geographers from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Several members of the IGU Executive also attended the workshop, and IGU President Professor Adalberto Vallega and Professor Anne Buttimer both addressed the final session, lending their support to the Network. The workshop covered both thematic aspects of the Regional Network and organizational issues. It received generous funding support from the Australian Academy of Science, AusAID's International Seminar Support Scheme, the New Zealand Geographical Society, ChATSEA and the Australian Mekong Resource Centre.
The overarching area of interest of SEAASWP is theory and practice in teaching and research on development and post-development, within which there is room for sub-themes and more focused study groups and projects. SEAASWP builds on several existing collaborative initiatives, and it provides a framework for developing new areas. The existing initiatives include:
  • ChATSEA - The Challenge of the Agrarian Transition in Southeast Asia - a collaborative research program whose core is a grouping of geographers from ten universities in SE Asia, Australia, Canada and the UK, and whose funding comes from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
  • A program on community economies involving geographers from Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia supported by AusAID
  • The Mekong Learning Initiative, a teaching, learning and research network involving universities in SE Asia and Australia with NGO support
  • A transnational communities project, based in New Zealand and engaging geographers in the SE Asia / Pacific region
In addition to the pre-conference workshop, SEAASWP was the subject of a plenary session at the main conference and also formed the basis for a grouping of seven panel sessions under the headings of Critical Geographies of the Asia-Pacific: Power, Identity and Globalisation, and Agrarian Transitions in Southeast Asia and the Pacific: Environmental Change and Regulation. The Regional Network will establish a website based at the University of Sydney, and it invites participation from geographers either located or interested in the region and the themes it covers. The University of Sydney is providing support through its International Program Development Fund for the first year of SEAASWP's establishment. The next major face-to-face SEAASWP event is the biennial conference of the Southeast Asian Geography Association (SEAGA) 28-30 November 2006. For further information please see www.seaga.co.nr.
For further information and to join the network, please contact Ms Kate Griffiths at kate.griffiths@geosci.usyd.edu.au.