The Associazione dei Geografi Italiani is the youngest of the geographical associations in Italy: it came into being relatively recently, in 1978, and celebrated its first jubilee last year. However, its origins can be traced considerably further back in time. Previously, in fact, the interests of geographers working in Italy's universities had been furthered by the Comitato dei Geografi Italiani (Co.Ge.I.), founded in 1967 and whose members were full professors in the geographical disciplines.

The association is open to all geographers working in various professional capacities at the country's universities and took on the professional development of its members, the defence of the discipline within Italian academe, its promotion, both in Italy and abroad, and the organization of scientific meetings.

The principal task of the association is organization of the Italian Geographical Congresses, organized with the same four-year intervals as the international ones.

Annually, except in years when the association holds its Congresses, are, as well, organized the Giornate della Geografia, seminars intended to prompt reflection on themes of outstanding interest and to present the results of the association's work groups. In fact, the association promotes research by supporting the formation of study groups and encouraging the international exchange of ideas.

It also ran fieldwork days in specific territorial areas: these inter-university excursions took the form of itinerant visits to regional areas and concentrated in particular on those most marginal to large-scale tourism.

The association also mounts various initiatives to develop relationships among its members - a purpose well served, for example, by the editing and updating of the Repertorio dei dipartimenti e insegnamenti di discipline geografiche nelle Università italiane (Directory of Italian University Geography Departments and Courses) and the Indirizzario dei docenti (List of Geography Lecturer Addresses) by the association's current president, Professor Alberto Di Blasi.

President: Professor Franco Farinelli (University of Bologna)  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Publications

Published uninterruptedly since 1995, it takes the form of monographic issues on themes of particular importance and subjected to specific research carried out by AGEI groups comprising scholars working at national level and in Italian academic institutions. The journal consists only of scientific articles.

Three issues published a year

www.agei.org

The Italian Geographical Society has been a free association since its foundation in 1867. Anyone can join who endorses the objectives in its Statute, which can be summarized as promoting the advancement of geographical knowledge.

As early as in 1869, the Italian State granted it the status of "moral entity" (non-profit foundation). More recently, the Society has been officially recognized as an environmentalist association. This administrative recognition is because the Society has always sought, and still does so, to make its heritage of assets and knowledge available to the general public, directly or indirectly via the use made of it by the Society itself. A constant feature of the Italian Geographical Society's long life has been its interest in its country and citizens and in humanity as whole, within the modes and limits of a scientific-cultural association.

The Italian Geographical Society does not concern itself solely with applied research. The main goal of its policy is the advancement of geographical knowledge; expanding, updating or innovating knowledge but also fostering geographic culture and environmental awareness. The Society seeks to foster geographic culture and heritage in various ways. The first, obvious and traditional, is that of documentation: with approximately 300,000 volumes, the Society's Library conserves the most important collection of specialized documentation in Italy, and one of the most significant in the world. The Map Library holds over 50,000 modern geographical maps, which is almost complete with regard to Italy's territory and seas. There is also an Antique Collection, an Oriental Collection, more than 150,000 photographic images from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, and the Society's Manuscript Archives. The collections are accessible to members and to all those applying to consult it; many of the works conserved are unique to the collection.

The Society also engages in activities intended to increase geographical knowledge. A wide-ranging 'diplomatic' initiative by the Society has been its invitation to the geographical associations of the EU countries to found a European Society for Geography, EUGEO. Also housed at the Italian Geographical Society is the Home of Geography, the permanent secretariat headquarters of the International Geographical Union.

Publishing activities remain essential for the exchange of ideas among scholars and for public awareness. The oldest Italian geographical magazine, and one of the oldest in the world, is the Society's Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana: published since 1868. There is also a range of scientific monographs. The Society's publications aim to present the results of Italian and international scientific geography, as well as essential news on the association's activities, to members, who receive the Bollettino free.

Società Geografica Italiana
Villa Celimontana
Via della Navicella
00184 Roma
Italia

www.societageografica.it

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Publications

Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana

Published uninterruptedly since 1868, it divides into two parts, the first consisting of a news section and the second of scientific articles.

Quarterly journal.

Memorie della Società Geografica Italiana

Collections of monographs on various topics, which constitute important tools for scientific investigation.

Two or three issues published a year.

Rapporto della Società Geografica Italiana

Intended to provide land management experts and professional geographers with a permanent observatory on the dynamics of Italian society and the country's landscape.

Published annually.

Studi e Ricerche seriesks.

This series comprises a section of foreign-language publications, mainly in English, in the intention of reaching a broader international readership, thereby overcoming the difficulties of disseminating the results of Italian geographical research due to relatively scant knowledge of the Italian language abroad.

One or two issues published a year.

The Society for Geographical Studies is recognized as a cultural organization by the Ministry for Education. It was founded in 1885 with the name The Society for Geographical and Colonial Studies following the setting up in 1884 of an independent organization, the Florentine Section of the Italian Africa Society. This in its turn was founded in Naples in 1882 and grew out of the African Club, with the aim of encouraging research interest in regions of Africa such as Ethiopia where a peaceful settlement movement was underway, subsequently transformed into military conquest. From its inception in 1885 the Florentine Section of the Italian Africa Society published a Bulletin dealing with questions regarding Africa, its geographical description, and the civil, political and economic activities that Italy was called upon to carry out there. The Bulletin existed until 1895 when publication was suspended and it was replaced by the Italian Geographical Review (The Rivista Geografica Italiana), founded in 1894. In 1895 the Review became the Society’s official organ and since then the Society and the Review have led a joint existence.

The Statute of the Society for Geographical and Colonial Studies was approved on 18th January 1896, altered slightly on 29th March 1903 and again on 24th March 1912 and abrogated in 1936 when the Society took its current name.

The Society for Geographical Studies currently has 480 members, most of whom are university lecturers, and middle school and high school teachers. The Society’s main aim is the promotion and support of initiatives which will serve the progress and spread of the geographical disciplines. To this end the Society publishes the Italian Geographical Review (Rivista Geografica Italiana), the Geographical Memories (Memorie Geografiche), organizes study meetings and participates in national and international research programmes.

President Carlo Da Pozzo: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Secretary Cristina Capineri: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Administration:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Publications

Rivista Geografica Italiana , Italian Geographical Review

A peer reviewd journal; four issues per year; articles in foreign languages are accepted.

www.rivistageograficaitaliana.it

A.I.I.G. is a qualified Association for the training of the teaching staff, accredited to the MIUR (D. M. 27.02.2003).

It is an Institution dealing with the culture of the territory .

It is Member of  the European Standing Conference of Geography Teachers.

It is an Association for the Environmental Protection.

BETWEEN RESEARCH AND DIDACTICS FOR 50 YEARS

The AIIG, founded in Padua on April 22^nd, 1954, has local Branches in all the Italian Regions and in almost all the Italian Provinces. The Association in fact, is made up of Regional Branches, that can be divided into Provincial, Interprovincial and City Branches.

The Italian Association of Geography Teachers works in order to fulfil the following aims:

a) promoting the meeting of geography teachers from any educational background and course of study;

b) fostering  scientific and didactic refresher courses for geography teachers and promoting the relationship with other subjects;

c) promoting the research and experimentation in teaching methodology in order to make teaching more and more effective;

d) protecting the teaching of geography in all the schools and institutions;

e) spreading the geographic education and culture at any level;

f) promoting the environmental knowledge and protection in the framework of a proper geographic and ecological education, according to a more functional management of the territory;

g) promoting the mutual international knowledge and understanding, the respect for multiculturality and diversity and the rights of all the populations to development and progress;

h) keeping in touch and exchanging experiences with other similar associations in Italy and abroad, particularly within the European Community; encouraging transnational projects, especially the ones devoted to the development of the European dimension.