About us

Presentation | Administrative Bodies | Activities | Publications

Presentation

The Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles (Association of Spanish Geographers, henceforth referred to as the AGE) is a group of geography professionals whose main aim is to promote and advance geographical science and its applications in Spain. In addition, it aims to promote wider public knowledge and a greater understanding of geography.

The AGE was founded in 1975 during the IV National Geography Conference. Since then, it has mainly been involved in promoting scientific meetings, coordinating the activities of Spanish geographers and collaborating with other national and international associations.

The association currently has a membership of over 1,000 people, most of its members being teachers, lecturers, researchers and practising geographers. Given the wide variety of topics related to geography and ever greater thematic specialisation, the association has set up Work Groups which members can join in order to pursue certain specific lines of study.

Administrative Bodies

The AGE’s administrative bodies comprise the General Assembly, which is an annual meeting of all members, and the Board of Directors, which is in charge of implementing the programme of activities put forward by the General Assembly. The Board of Directors is elected for a four-year term of office and is partially re-elected every two years. The board comprises the President, the Secretary, the Treasurer and eight Board Members.

Activities

Every two years the AGE organises the Spanish Geographers’ Conference. These conferences, held in the geography departments of Spanish universities, are one of the association’s most important activities. On the alternate years, the association organises Geography Awareness Workshops designed to encourage wider public interest and understanding of geography and convey its viewpoint on current affairs.

The Work Groups also hold periodic scientific meetings and organise a variety of activities dealing with subjects related to their various fields of research.

The association’s statute envisages setting up Working Committees comprising a small group of members specialised in each subject. With this, the association intends to be more dynamic and go deeper into specific fields of interest of geographical science. The “Geography Teaching Committee” has recently been formed in order to analyse geography-related subjects at all educational levels. Other committees which were set up for specific purposes have completed their work and the results, in some cases in the form of detailed reports, have been presented to members of AGE.

For a number of years now, the AGE has maintained relations with the Associação Portuguesa de Geógrafos (Association of Portuguese Geographers), which has resulted in the Iberian Colloquiums on Geography. Every three years these colloquiums are held alternately in Spain and Portugal.

The AGE has also signed permanent agreements with geographical associations from other countries, such as the Institute of British Geographers. This has resulted in periodic meetings between Work Groups from the two areas. A collaboration agreement has also been signed with L’Association Française pour le dévéloppement de la Geographie (Association of French Geographers).

The association has special relations with the International Geography Union (IGU). The AGE holds the presidency or the vice-presidency of the Spanish Committee in rotation, in addition to one of the two general secretariats. Above all, this relationship has led to Spanish participation in international conferences and other exchanges of information and experience.

There is also a collaboration agreement with Intermon-Oxfam, the objective being to cooperate in this association’s development aid activities.

Members of the AGE are kept fully informed of the events being held and their results, in addition to benefiting from considerable discounts if they wish to participate.

Informative media and Publications

The AGE publishes two periodicals which are distributed to its members free of charge.

The Boletín de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles (Bulletin of the Association of Spanish Geographers), which is published twice a year, is designed to be the principal mouthpiece of Spanish Geography. One of the issues is monographic and the other deals with miscellaneous subjects. The monographic issue intends above all to steer debate towards topics of current affairs.

The second publication, Geography News, has been published since 1992 and it aims to provide members with quick, easy access to information. In addition to an opinion page, there is information on activities being carried out by the association (agreements reached by the Board of Directors, activities etc…), conferences, colloquiums, seminars and courses, the reading of theses and books received, etc.

In addition to these two periodicals, the AGE publishes special issues of representative collective works on Spanish Geography. Likewise, both the conferences and the scientific meetings held by the work groups give rise to publications which report on their work. There is therefore a wide variety of bibliographic material.