Researcher Dr. Bogdan-Constantin Ibanescu to give a lecture at the Faculty of Economic Sciences on March 26, 2025
Dr. Bogdan-Constantin Ibanescu (Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University) will be the speaker at the next seminar of the Spatial Warsaw Center. We invite you to attend the lecture at the Faculty of Economic Sciences on March 26, 2025, at 15:00.
Dr. Ibanescu will present his study titled „Mapping Europe through young people's eyes: Regional divides and the EU in drawn representations”. We encourage you to participate in person at the Faculty (Room F). There is also the possibility to join the meeting remotely via the Zoom platform.
Link to the meeting: https://uw-edu-pl.zoom.us/j/95115795277?pwd=Vh6Pgkqg120fFCvR85RNk1oPChlBeP.1
[Meeting ID: 951 1579 5277
Passcode: 696070]
Below, we present the abstract.
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The presentation will explore the main results from an innovative research approach. More precisely, it explores how young people conceptualize Europe through mental maps, revealing their perceptions of regional divides (North vs. South, East vs. West), as well as the limits of the European Union. The methodological approach consisted in a mixed method framework that focused in the first step on the collection of over 300 survey responses in which participants sketched their representations of Europe, followed by drawings’ digitisation through ArcGIS, allowing for a spatial visualization of common patterns and regional biases in young people’s perceptions.
As the survey collected data on socio-demographics, political spectrum, as well as self-assessment of the European history and geography prowess, the research allowed for the identification of significant variations in how different regions of Europe are cognitively structured, often reflecting historical, cultural, and socio-political narratives. The North-South divide was primarily associated with climate-dependent visions, while the East-West distinction was shaped by historical legacies, particularly those of the Cold War. The study highlights the ways in which youth conceptualize European geography beyond political boundaries, offering insights into collective identity formation and territorial imaginaries.