Instead of a Regional Conference, the IGU organized a thematic conference entitled Geographies for Peace, be held in La Paz, Bolivia from April 23 to 25, 2017. The location was appropriately chosen, not only because of the name of the city but also because it immediately preceded the 2017 EGAL, the 16th Conference of the Latin American Geographers (XVI Encuentro de Geógrafos de América Latin¡a, 26.-29 April 2017). This allowed a number of Latin American members of our Commission to attend two important meetings consecutively. Our Commission had proposed a paper session under the heading “Globalization as a source of marginalization; marginality as a source of tensions and conflicts” with three panels (following the initial interest expressed by potential participants). The title eventually chosen by the organizers was “Mobility, marginalization, conflicts”. Various speakers who had planned to travel to La Paz could not attend for various reasons. The following nine papers were delivered during two panel sessions:

Session 1:

• Walter Leimgruber, University of Fribourg, Civil society vs. globalization and marginalization

• Stanko Pelc, University of Primorska, Armed conflicts as a generator of marginalization

• Rocío Rosales Ortega, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, Ciudad de México. La cons- trucción del mercado orgánico: Certificaciones y Sistemas Participativos de Garantía en México

• Margarita Schmidt, Claudio Urra Coletti, Rosa Schilan, Gladys Molina, Instituto de Geografía – Univer- sidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Multi-marginality of a rural area and co-discovery of opportunities through action-research

• Claudio Urra Coletti, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Mendoza, Puente de integración social con un área marginal a través de una práctica educativa

Session 2 :

• Chryssanthi Petropoulou, Universidad del Egeo, De la solidaridad humana a la restricción, la punición et la segregación socio-espacial. Los nuevos llegados (migrantes / refugiados) y la bienvenida en Grecia como proceso glocal. El ejemplo de Mytilen

• Herman Geyer Jr., Stellenbosch University, The politics of new regionalism, service protests, gerry- mandering and sub-national migration in the bordering of municipalities in South Africa

• Mary Gely, Université Toulouse 1 Capitole, Los gobiernos locales: un posible posicionamiento clave de interfaz entre lo local y lo internacional

• Tomas Havliček, Charles University, Prague, Marginalization, marginal groups and religion: Orthodox Ukrainians in Czechia

• Peter Wood, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Marginality, religiosity, and the role of places of worship in Brazilian urban violence

The following paper was presented as a poster:

• María Eugenia Cepparo, Amanda Mamaní, CONICET – UNCuyo, Los trashumantes de Malargüe entre la marginalidad y la marginación. Sur de Mendoza, Argentina

The entire conference was bilingual (English and Spanish) with simultaneous translation in most sessions. This formula worked quite well, although the translators had a difficult task and some information may also have been lost during this process. The general topic was of particular interest for political geographers, but also historical and tourism geography were well represented. Several sessions (in Spanish) were devoted to the peace process in Columbia, a topic of great actuality.