The Statute of the non-profit Association “International Urban Symposium” (IUS) was read, discussed, approved by the founding members on 15 June 2015. The approved Statute is included in the official Constitutional Act, legally registered on 25 September 2015.
The full Statute is available to all paid-up members of the Association. Below some extracts from Articles 1 and 3
ARTICLE 1 – CONSTITUTION AND HEAD OFFICE.
The non-profit organization named Association “International Urban Symposium” (IUS) is hereby permanently established. From now on the Organization will be referred to as ‘the Association’ or ‘the IUS’.
[. . . ]ARTICLE 3 – OBJECTIVES AND PURPOSE
The Association IUS is secular and apolitical. It operates exclusively through the spontaneous and free scientific performance of its members. The Association may use self-employed work only to the extent necessary for its proper functioning or to satisfy specific activities.
The Association does not pursue profit in any way. Its structure and procedures are democratic and transparent. It operates internationally exclusively for scientific and social purposes.
The main purposes of the Association are to bring together scholars of high calibre from various disciplines and non-academics who share a strong commitment to ethnographic research in urban settings; encourage topical research; launch debate through multidisciplinary panel discussions and seminars; train young scholars; and generate high-quality publications.
The Association IUS aims to create, promote, support, coordinate and conduct scientific empirical research initiatives in urban areas.
In the pursuit of the above listed aims, the Association IUS will engage in the following activities:
- Promote the ethnographic study of urban settings;
- Bring out the contribution of ethnographic research to understanding our cities.
- Offer a structured platform to high-level scholars engaged in empirical research;
- Implement and support research projects;
- Promote multidisciplinary debate and cooperation through research and annual meetings involving anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, lawyers, economists, political scientists, historians, architects and urbanists, medical doctors and other scholars;
- Promote debate and cooperation between academic and non-academic experts;
- Train young scholars and ethnographers through dedicated seminars and schools;
- Encourage high-quality publications in the form of books, articles and special issues in scientific journals, occasional papers and articles and comments in the media.