Thematic Sessions

In this session we are considering it as a debate scenario to articulate the developments in the discussion in Political Geography in relation to contemporary territorial dynamics in multi-scalar perspectives. We wish to highlight the role of Political Geography in the construction of peace scenarios in the world and particularly in Latin America. Likewise, we suggest exploring how critical readings have brought to light the geopolitics that allow the development and maintenance of wars in the world, crossed by the dynamics of capital accumulation, relations with nature, control of common goods or strategic resources, as well as the logic of mobility of goods, capital, ideas and people that are reconfiguring the conception of global geopolitical spatiality, including border regimes and the very conceptions of sovereignty, as well as the forms of action of States and other actors in the configuration of territorial political relations from global to local scales.

Coordinators and Scientific Committee

Juan David Delgado Rozo – jddelgador@unal.edu.co
Jorge Mario Aponte Motta – jmapontem@unal.edu.co
Adriana Dorfman – adriana.dorfman@ufrgs.br
Heriberto Cairo Carou – hcairoca@cps.ucm.es
María Lois – mdlois@ucm.es
Jaime Vladimir Montoya Arango – vladimir.montoya@udea.edu.co

The globalization of (in)formal economies and the various unregulated production and consumption activities constitute a mosaic of multiple combinations, oppositions and diversities. Immersed in these we find illegal activities such as drug trafficking, illegal mining, human trafficking or illegal logging, involving, among others, economic circuits of an uneven urbanization, the territorial diffusion of a “migration economy” and the configurations that demarcate economic activities in conflict/post-conflict situations. In this panel we want to explore the dynamics, spatial expressions and effects of informal and illegal economic activities in relation to the production of an economy arising from migration and the economic impacts caused by conflict/post-conflict situations: what is the role of such activities before, during and after their consolidation? What effects do they have on territorial configuration? What are their aftermaths for urban environments? And what type of relationships can we find between the actors that promote these economies and the state and society?

Coordinators and Scientific Committee

Luis Gabriel Salas Salazar – lgsalass@unal.edu.co
Jemima Garcia-Godos Naveda – j.g.g.naveda@sosgeo.uio.no
Stefan Peters, CAPAZ – stefan.peters@instituto-capaz.org
Edilson Pereira Júnior – edilson.junior@uece.br
Denise Bomtempo – denise.bomtempo@uece.br

Transitional justice measures address a variety of needs and objectives, with the Colombian experience as key to framing the idea of transformative justice. In this panel we want to explore the practice of transitional justice-based programs oriented towards toward post-conflict reconstruction and territorial planning: What programs are in place? How are these mechanisms designed and operated? How have the rights of victims – truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition – being integrated into these programs? How is transitional justice harmonized with special indigenous justice in the territories? How successful have these programs been and under which criteria?

Coordinators and Scientific Committee

Luis Gabriel Salas Salazar – lgsalass@unal.edu.co
Jemima Garcia-Godos Naveda – j.g.g.naveda@sosgeo.uio.no
Stefan Peters, CAPAZ – stefan.peters@instituto-capaz.org

This session expects papers that explicitly address the ways in which nature is a part of social and/or armed conflicts and their proposed solutions: disputes over access to natural resources such as oil, gold, and water; but also impacts that lead to the natural world as a victim, as a means of inflicting pain or suffering on the enemy (for example, by polluting water or burning crops and forests), or as collateral damage from the conflicts. Peace and reconciliation processes are incorporating the environmental dimension as a necessity, since the complete reconstruction of society requires restoring its livelihoods and reimagining new collective horizons and ways of relating to nature. It is expected to have works ranging from issues of environmental degradation in the context of social and/or armed conflict (deforestation, pollution), to others that investigate how different actors make use of nature in the midst of conflicts (resources for survival, such as infrastructure for war, even as biological weapons), to initiatives of environmental peace understood as the restoration of environmental conditions so that populations can return and develop their collective projects in a dignified manner (for example, ecotourism projects, community energies, organic agri-food production, nature-based solutions).

Coordinators and Scientific Committee

Alice Beuf – aabeuf@unal.edu.co
Fabio Vladimir Sanchez – fvsanchezc@unal.edu.co
Germán Andrés Quimbayo Ruiz – gquimbayo@gmail.com

This session seeks to share the experiences and perspectives of those actors who have been historically invisible in the understanding of conflicts and in the implementation of plans to achieve peace. The dynamics of exclusion and inequality are prevalent in the access, use and control of spaces and natural goods, which are crucial for achieving peace. The reflection on intersectionality and the guarantee of rights must recognize the cultural, social and environmental specificities of each territory and be present in the design of inclusive strategies that recognize and value diversity as a tool for peacebuilding. This session aims to invite different social actors, not only from the academic world, to maintain a collective dialogue that contributes to the repositioning of narratives around peacebuilding.

Coordinators and Scientific Committee

Andrea Natalia Barragán León – nataliabarragan@udenar.edu.co
Rosa Inés Babilonia Ballesteros – ribabiloniaballesteros@correo.unicordoba.edu.co
Hellen Charlot Cristancho Garrido – hellen.cristancho@ucaldas.edu.co

This session invites authors to explore the relationship between urbanization processes and violence arising of civil wars, international wars, organized crime activities, or common violence. Among the expected subjects are studies associated with the destruction of the physical structure of the city, disputes and forms of territorial control, the influence of criminal networks on the production of urban space, the fortification of the city against internal and external threats, the sociological impacts of violence, crime patterns at different scales (urban, metropolitan, and regional), the increasing urban violence linked to organized crime, the diversification and expansion of psychoactive drug trafficking, as well as the study of urban policies against the urban crime.

Coordinators and Scientific Committee

Jhon Williams Montoya Garay – jwmontoyag@unal.edu.co
Isabel Duque Franco – miduquef@unal.edu.co
Johan Andrés Avendaño Árias – johan.avendano@igac.gov.co
Nohora Carvajal Sánchez – nohora.carvajal@uptc.edu.co

This session expects lectures on geographic education and research processes, which prioritize learning how to transition from social, environmental, and territorial conflicts in a nonviolent manner toward forms of Territorial Peace and the production of Peace in the broadest sense. Particularly interesting are inquiries that address the formation of subjects and territories that challenge the territorialities of war and propose the re-production of territorialities for Peace and a dignified life.

Coordinators and Scientific Committee

Diana Maritza Soler Osuna – diana.soler@uexternado.edu.co
Alexánder Cely Rodríguez – acely@pedagogica.edu.co

This panel explores the spatial dimensions of peace, analyzing how peacebuilding actions transform economic geographies, environmental relationships, and everyday practices in contexts affected by conflict and violence. We welcome all the contributions aiming to understand the practices and concepts of social movements, state institutions, communities, and individuals in promoting spatial, environmental, and place-based justice. By examining the lessons, synergies, and contradictions in these efforts, we seek to understand what makes peace sustainable. The geography of peace emphasizes intersectionality—how social categories such as gender, ethnicity, and class shape peace processes—and relationality, which highlights the interconnectedness of spaces, actors, and practices. These perspectives shed light on the conceptions of peace circulating among social actors and how they are embedded within broader networks of relationships and flows.

Coordinators and Scientific Committee

Luis Berneth Peña – Luis.Pena@ku.de

Migrations, driven by various factors and occurring at different scales, represent a central process that has characterized population movements throughout history on a global scale. Each era exhibits unique traits that help us understand the diverse forms of spatial mobility. Territorial conflicts, which can lead to periods of calm, tension, or confrontation, profoundly impact the populations inhabiting these spaces.
This session aims to explore, from various spatial scales, how peace and war contribute to the reorganization of contemporary territories. In this context, the goal is to provide a platform for presenting research that helps explain or understand the changes in the contemporary geographies of population movements. These movements are shaped both by the effects of initiatives aimed at building peace across multiple territories and by expulsions, forced displacements, and humanitarian crises resulting from wars—conflicts that are increasingly frequent, not always officially declared, and manifest in diverse forms in today’s world.

Coordinators and Scientific Committee

Harold Córdoba – jhcordoba@pedagogica.edu.co
Yulier Cadena Montero – gcadena@unal.edu.co

This session is expected to receive works on conceptual bases and case studies in which physical geography and/or geographic information technologies have made contributions to territorial analysis, knowledge management, harmonization of terrestrial dynamics and spatiality of natural phenomena. It also addresses issues associated with climate change and its connections with environmental change, vulnerabilities, adaptation processes and the territorial and environmental transformations resulting from changes in the society-nature relationship.

Coordinators and Scientific Committee

Germán Narváez Bravo – gnarvaez@udenar.edu.co
Grace Andrea Montoya Rojas – grmontoyar@unal.edu.co
Juan Guillermo Popayán – jgpopayanh@unal.edu.co
Ángel Antonio Barbosa – abarbosae@unal.edu.co

In this session, contributions are expected that deeply and critically examine the relationship between tourism and its role in reconciliation processes and peacebuilding. We request studies that analyze the relationship between tourism and communities in territories affected by conflict, focusing on their geo-historical dimension and the contemporary challenges, as well as the new tensions or inequalities in conflict and post-conflict contexts. In this regard, it is essential to consider the role of local communities, their internal dynamics, and how tourism interacts with their political, social, and economic processes. We also invite reflections on the tensions between tourism development and community rights, the political use of tourism in official reconciliation narratives, and its impacts on collective memory and territorial justice. Therefore, the aim is to go beyond an idealized view of tourism as a pacifying tool and explore its ambivalent effects.
On the other hand, we also aim to identify research that addresses the role of tourism in biodiversity conservation, its connections to environmental discourses, and the dilemmas it faces in relation to climate change. Beyond the promises of sustainable tourism, we expect to receive studies that challenge its contradictions and critically analyze the transformations it imposes on landscapes, local economies, and community ways of life. In this context, it is important to consider how tourism dynamics can become mechanisms of appropriation and commodification of nature, as well as the ethical and political challenges this entails.
Finally, we expect contributions to provide a rigorous perspective on the contemporary transformations of human societies in relation to tourism. This includes analyzing its effects on globalization, mobility, territorial inequalities, and the new forms of socio-spatial segregation that may emerge. We encourage critical analysis that deepens our understanding of tourism’s impact on territories and their inhabitants.

Coordinators and Scientific Committee

Sairi Piñeros – sapineros@unal.edu.co
Jeffer Chaparro Mendivelso – jchaparro@unal.edu.co
Wladimir Mejía Ayala – wladimir.mejia@uptc.edu.co

The aim of this session is to stimulate a moment of dialog, both theoretical and empirical, on geo-economic, political and environmental changes in the first quarter of the 21st century. We have set the challenge of a renewed debate to stimulate academic production on the geographies of economic dynamics and environmental political economy today. Geo-economic, political and environmental organization in the 21st century is characterized by a complex spatial network of interactions, technical systems and cross-circuits of financialization, mineral extraction, transport, production and consumption, which often lead to destructive economies. Strategies for regulating the global pattern of flows of people, merchandise, goods, services, money, minerals and energy are being redefined; and new configurations emerging, made possible by innovations of various sorts, in a scenario remarked by geopolitical transformation, the diffusion of information flows and the “energy transition”. The problematization of several dynamics, such as territorial modernization, productive restructuring, global production networks, the platform economy, innovation and knowledge, environmental issues and energy problems are just a few examples of the topics that arise in the new global scenario. This panel seeks to emphasize the geographical dimensions of these movements and how they all reach different parts of space with different intensities. To this end, we welcome concrete experiences interpreted in the specific context assigned to territories and the diversity of economic and political life.

Coordinators and Scientific Committee

Edilson Pereira Júnior – State University of Ceará/UECE, Brazil – edilson.junior@uece.br
Commission on the Dynamics of Economic Spaces (IGU CDES)

Luciana Buffalo – National University of Córdoba/UNC, Argentina;
Regina Tunes – State University of Rio de Janeiro/UERJ, Brazil;
Denis Castilho – Federal University of Goiás/UFG, Brazil.