Report on the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Economic and Social Geography Section of the Hungarian Geographical Society


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neoliberalism acts and looks just like zombies: it does not react to communication and is 
very tenacious, wants the brain (mind) of the living and its appearance is disheveled. He 
also analyzed the emergent, Latin American notion of “post-neoliberalism” and the pos-
sible politics related to it.

As usual, a book and journal exhibition with the presence of the most infl uential 
publishing companies enriched the two events, too. The exhibitors off ered their latest 
textbooks and journals which also helped to get familiar with the latest research trends 
and results.

The two meetings were both extremely inspiring and thematically rich. The joint 
organization gave an exceptional opportunity for networking and gathering new impulses. 
The next EUGEO Congress will be held in Rome in 2013 while the RGS-IBG Annual Meeting 
will be in Edinburgh in early July of 2012. 

Lajos Boros

Report on the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Economic and 
Social Geography Section of the Hungarian Geographical Society

The Economic and Social Geography Section of the Hungarian Geographical Society (HGS) 
celebrated the 100th anniversary of its foundation on 12 January 2012. The oldest section 
of the 140-year-old Association (HGA) was founded on 11 January 1912 under the name 
‘economic geography section’. 27 persons participated the inaugural meeting including 
the élite of the Hungarian geography such as Lajos Lóczy and count Pál Teleki. Hundred 
years later as a result of the eff orts of HGA, the section and the Department of Social and 
Economic Geography of ELTE University, a program of high standard was organized 
to celebrate the anniversary. About 80 persons from diff erent parts of the country came 
together on Lágymányos Campus of ELTE.

The commemoration was opened by József Szabó, the president of HGS and was 
followed by Mária Szabó, the head of Institute for Earth Sciences and Geography of Eötvös 
Loránd University who greeted the audience. The program continued with scientifi c presen-
tations consisted of two parts (according to the purpose of the organizers). First, presenta-
tions on the history and the establishment of the section were held, then the representatives 
of the contemporary Hungarian geography presented shortly the past, the present and the 
signifi cance of the main disciplines of the Hungarian human geography.

The fi rst part started with Patrik Tátrai’s presentation on the history of the section 
from its foundation up to the present. Aft er that Zoltán Dövényi delineated the details (e.g. 
participants, background information) of the inaugural meeting.

The second part began with Róbert Győri’s presentation (read by Márton Czirfusz 
as the author could not participate) on the history and the main schools of the Hungarian 
economic geography. The following presenter was József Tóth who tried to systematize 
and group the various research fi elds of population geography mainly through presenting 
scientifi c books and publications. 

The rich history of the Hungarian urban geography was overviewed by Pál 
Beluszky. Later István Berényi outlined the history of the Hungarian and the German social 



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geography emphasising the common points of the two systems. Besides the “traditional” 
disciplines of the human geography, new trends were also presented by academician Rezső 
Mészáros who summarized the human geographical approaches of new technologies. 
The last guest was Zoltán Hajdú who reviewed some issues of the Hungarian political 
geography.

The task of the presenters to overview their special fi elds was quite diffi  cult: all 
of them emphasised their diffi  culties in summarising the history, the great variety and the 
scientifi c results of each discipline, which resulted in diff erent approaches of the task. All 
in all the audience had the opportunity to listen to exciting presentations covering most of 
the research fi elds of the Hungarian human geography.

Aft er the scientifi c part of the program, Gábor Michalkó, the chairman and the 
secretary general of HGS gave the fl oor to academician Károly Kocsis, the president of the 
section, who closed the presentations and initiated that the name of the section should be 
changed to Human Geography Section. His proposal was accepted. The event was closed 
with a simple and modest reception where the participants celebrated the anniversary with 
some champagne and a “birthday cake”.

Patrik Tátrai

The audience of the commemoration event