Risultati per " Crisis"

Cartographies of the Repressed: The Crisis of Social Reproduction in the Processes of Urban Extractivism. – According to Jameson, erasure is a key mechanism by which dominant ideology shapes collective consciousness in capitalism, sidelining social contradictions via symbolically charged narratives (Jameson 1981). Based on a cartographic workshop with Rione Sanità Educational Network in Naples, Italy, this article deconstructs the hegemonic urban regeneration narrative by uncovering the hidden wounds of the district, which have been removed from the official discourse on urban regeneration. In particular, the empirical findings of the study illuminate three dimensions of the repressed: the labour-intensive burden of educational work upon which the weight of the crisis of social reproduction falls; the thinning of public spaces for children and adolescents; the loss of essential social infrastructures for the district and its habitability.
Living with austerity, rebuilding care. Social infrastructures in crisis and practices of self-organization in Antico Corso, Catania. – This paper examines how the dismantling and partial rebuilding of care-related social infrastructures in the Antico Corso neighbourhood of Catania has reshaped everyday life and local power relations. The closure of three historic hospitals—an outcome of prolonged urban austerity—has profoundly altered the neighbourhood’s sense of place. Drawing on a qualitative approach that includes ethnography, interviews, document analysis, and participant observation, the paper shows how institutional narratives present these closures as inevitable and beneficial, legitimizing top-down “urban regeneration” while excluding residents from meaningful decision-making. Many inhabitants respond with a mix of anger and resignation, perceiving the loss of the hospitals as a wound to the neighbourhood’s identity. At the same time, feminist collectives, civic committees, and grassroots organizations are developing alternative narratives and practices of social and territorial care. These initiatives contribute to redefining the neighbourhood from below and contest the spatial consequences of austerity. The paper argues that the crisis of social reproduction manifests not only as an economic issue, but as a spatial and political struggle that generates both new forms of marginalization and innovative practices of resistance and belonging. The case of Catania highlights the specificities and contradictions of austerity urbanism in Southern Italy.
Geopolitics of Early Modern Age. Global Lines, Territorial Power, and Geographical Uncertainty. – This article explores the origins of geopolitics in the early modern period (16th-17th centuries), demonstrating how three key elements – the establishment of global lines, the relationship between state power and territoriality, and geographical uncertainty – shaped both the politics of the era and contemporary geopolitical thought. Through the analysis of cartographic sources (e.g., the Cantino Planisphere, 1502), treaties (Tordesillas, Cateau-Cambrésis), and theoretical works (Schmitt, Bo-tero, Machiavelli), it argues that: global lines codified the division of the world into spheres of influence, foreshadowing bipolar or multipolar logics; political territoriality emerged forcefully, crystallizing in national borders and the principle of sovereignty (Westphalia), despite simultaneous global expansion; geographical uncertainty, stemming from discrepancies between maps and reality, became a defining feature of geopolitics, with echoes in today’s crisis of international orders. The article thus reinterprets the roots of geopolitics, locating them not in the 19th century but in the crucible of early modernity, with implications for understanding contemporary power dynamics.
Climate Crisis and Tourism in the Maira and Vermenagna Valleys (Piedmont Alps). – This study examines the transformations driven by climate change in the alpine context, focussing on the Maira and Vermenagna Valleys in the Piedmont Alps, two areas marked by environmental vulnerability and significant exposure to ongoing climatic and socio-economic pressures. The research explores how rising temperatures and decreasing snowfall are significantly reshaping the local tourism supply, requiring a reorganisation of the sector.
Combining in-depth interviews with local stakeholders and quantitative analysis of tourism and climate data, the study reveals a growing awareness of the phenomenon and its socioeconomic impacts. The climate crisis has exposed the unsustainability of traditional ski-based tourism, prompting a shift toward more resilient models such as experiential, outdoor, and cul-tural tourism.
While the Maira Valley shows greater adaptability thanks to an already di-versified offer, the Vermenagna Valley, historically reliant on alpine skiing, struggles to transition. The findings highlight the urgent need for locally coordinated strategies that integrate sustainability, cultural identity, and innovation.
The global south as a transcalar geopolitical construction site: african profiles. – The last two years, with the post-Covid adjustments, the climate transition and two ongoing wars of global impact, have been marked by intense international attention towards the African continent, despite its vastness and diversity. On the one hand, this may please Africans, for the help that can come to the solution of their many problems; on the other hand, it worries them, given the historical precedents. There seems to be a new scramble for Africa underway due to the crumbling of the European and, more broadly, Western presence, against the backdrop of a more general reshuffling of the international order. In this reshuffling, the “Global South” seems to be playing an increasingly important role. Who will lead and how will the world’s economic, cultural and political evolution unfold? The game is complex, but Africa is certainly one of the main arenas of contention. As an immense reserve of raw materials - minerals, energy, agro-forestry - the Continent is emerging as the world’s leading area of demographic development while acquiring growing geopolitical relevance, due to the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian crisis, the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, but also, due to the conflicting profiles that are emerging in the Indo-Pacific, between China and the United States. In this fermenting context, heterogeneous events have taken place over the past couple of years (2023/24) that have recorded an impressive acceleration: two coups in Francophone Africa, three world summits that evoke a pan-African partnership (Russia-Africa, China-Africa, Piano Mattei), two geopolitical summits in Johannesburg and Nairobi (unified African position on climate change, September 2023). It is worth trying to trace a coherent geopolitical profile of this heterogeneous set of events.
At the edge of the mar dulce: artificial lakes, new vocations and challenges along the Guadiana river basin. – The effects of the climate crisis on hydrographic systems, both superficial and underground, are now undeniable, with the incessant succession of prolonged droughts and catastrophic floods. The recent evolution of water governance in Extremadura, one of the European regions most affected by the effects of the climate crisis, is a relevant case study that allows stimulating reflections on today's hydro-social dynamics in the face of the worrying reduction in fresh water supplies. The Rio Guadiana basin was involved late in the process of hydraulic modernization which aimed at the renewal of Iberian agriculture. The pre-eminent irrigation purpose is associated with the production of electricity and the containment of floods. Added to this multifunctionality is the consolidation of a growing tourist presence along the banks of these mares dulces. But an arid nightmare is humiliating the dignity of Iberian hydrography.
Proximity tourism in a peripheral area: the case of the Pistoia mountains. – The Pistoia mountains represented the traditional holiday destination for the towns of Pistoia, Florence and Prato that reached its peak in the Seventies and declined in the following decades. However, since the pandemic crisis a flow of tourists has been reborn.
How to transform a temporary event into a permanent new model of tourism? This is the research question of our study.
The paper describes the characteristics of tourist supply and demand, the decline of family-run hotels in favor of B&Bs and the role of proximity tourism.
The study also qualifies the tourism supply by interviewing local operators, managing two focus groups, defining a SWOT analysis. The results can be used for some policy proposals to exploit the strengths of the territory, reduce its weaknesses, seize the opportunities of the sustainable tourism and avoid the threats of the social scenario and climate change.
Redefining the city-river relationship: a look at the Turin area. – The relationship between the city and the river is being profoundly redefined in the context of the water crisis, in the relationship between the natural and the built environment. The paper will focus on the case of Turin, where deindustrialisation has led to morphological, functional and symbolic transformations of previously industrialized areas, with a new process of landscape construction, in some cases based on the heritage of the industrial past, in others on a new meaning (re)attributed to the environment, as the main physical and symbolic dimension of the re-territorialisation of post-indus-trial spaces. This paper focuses on the relationship between rivers and cities, and in particular on how rivers are once again becoming a (potentially) founding element of post-industrial landscapes. We will draw on some case studies in the Turin area, where the river emerges as a potentially structuring element in rethinking places deeply marked by deindustrialisation and in imagining and constructing a new landscape.
Economic resilience and sustainability: Macroeconomic indicators and pre- and post-crisis political dynamics in the European Union. – This study examines the complex articulation of the global economic crisis on the member countries of the European Union (EU) in the last decade, and outlines diversified empirical results based on economic performances detected through appropriate indicators at national and community scale. Adopting a multi-disciplinary perspective, the study investigates the possible responses to the crisis of the EU institutions and individual member states by evaluating, among others, the adjustment programs supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the initiatives aimed at promoting solidarity tax. The study is based on the comparison of macroeconomic indicators such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), public debt, budget deficit, and unemployment rate. This allows us to provide a comparative perspective on regional disparities and national economic dynamics. The impact of external factors such as the pandemic (Covid-19), and geopolitical conflicts on continental chessboards, finally allow us to highlight the current challenges and the importance of coordinated action and inclusive governance to guarantee unity and, together, resilience of member countries. The study highlights the importance of promoting fiscal solidarity, improving economic governance and closing disparities in order to promote sustainable growth and prosperity across the EU.
V. Zelensky, J. Biden and the geography of body politics. – How does the body enter the media fabrication of the event? Does body politics have to do with the emotional characteristics of place? How can transcalarity, as the geographical foundation of geopolitics, be conceived not only in quantitative and dimensional terms, but also in qualitative and symbolic terms? To answer these kinds of questions, the essay analyzes the public profile of the corporality of Presidents V. Zelensky and J. Biden, on background of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis intertwined with the upcoming US presidential elections.
Marginal Narratives from a “Undisciplined” Excursion to the Architecture Biennale 2021. – If Neil Smith and David Harvey find space at the Arsenale, if at the Giardini the exercise is to dis-explore the Earth, it is because the Biennale is about surveying the crisis space of globalisation: it forces us to interrogate the geopolitical map of contemporaneity between the Anthropocene, techno-capitalism, encroachments and adaptations. This is why we thought of sharing a visit to the Biennale with those geographers for whom the exercise proposed by Architects is essential to our theoretical, disciplinary, ethical, civil and very human present of being geographers.
Our notes in the margin depend on this invitation to investigate the potential of the object of marginality starting from the concept of “hole in the plot - which - nourishes the other plots” (Negarestani, 2021, p. 106). Hole or absence that stands for the missed encounter between Geography (the material on display) and geographical discipline to imagine plots, narratives and “undisciplined” alliances to come.
New mountain people, new activities, and new forms of transhumance: adapting traditional patterns in val Aupa, Friuli Venezia Giulia. – The study is part of the broader topic of the transition to modernity, and the passage to post-modernity, in the rural and mountain peripheries of the Eastern Alps. A passage, which took place starting from the mid-1900s, which often means a catastrophic impact on society and territories, in particular of certain areas, such as some valleys of Friuli, which involves the well-known phenomena of crisis and depopulation, to the point of creating situations of real human desertification, and the abandonment of entire valleys. It is therefore a question of understanding how the premises can be created for such re-conversions, and for the acceptation of changes, to take place without trauma, to create situations in which modernist and post-modernist innovation (today connected with globalization, and with the various digital transitions, ecological and of various kinds) can be usefully combined to avoid dramatic ruptures. It is the question, first, of rural economies, of agriculture and livestock, possibly connected to transhumance, in its various expressions, to be repurposed and adapted in appropriate way.
Requalification of peripheries with an industrial background: the case-study of Mirafiori in Turin. – The paper intends to develop a reflection, starting from the case of the Mirafiori neighbourhood in Turin, on the role that the peripheries can adopt as a laboratory of transversal innovation in the field of urban design, policy, governance, active citizenship and overall the global themes of Agenda 2030 (United Nations, 2015). The Mirafiori neighbourhood can be highlighted as an emblematic case, since it is an industrial suburb closely connected with the former FIAT (now Stellantis) industrial plant. Over the years, the neighbourhood has suffered a socio-demographic and identity crisis, and over time numerous projects have been launched to address these crises. Participation in European projects insisting on the neighbourhood allows us to be privileged observers and actors for: the re-designing and re-qualification of Mirafiori Sud through the realisation of Nature-based Solutions, useful to strengthen and increase the connection of the food system, a tool for social inclusion and territorial development, as well as to increase the envi-ronmental value of the already existing natural elements; to address activities with a Place-based Education approach, useful in the redesigning of spaces. The analysis of projects settled in Mirafiori is needed in order to assess the possibility of constructing new urban centralities starting from marginal places.
NextGenerationEU between pandemic, war, and energy transition. – The energy transition has been strongly questioned by the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The European Green Deal – designed and approved before the Covid-19 pandemic – became fully part of economic recovery program of the pandemic, and the war as well. Actually, the Green Deal becomes one of the fundamental pillars of the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Plan, as well as of NextGenerationEU and, consequently, of the various national plans related to it, including the Italian PNRR. As a typical win-win policy, NextGenerationEU must solve the problems related to the economic crisis, and those related to environmental quality, through the energy transition, as well. Obviously, the economic recover does not necessarily fit perfectly into an energy transition program. Actually, the policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions might imply many issues, related to economy and labor policies. Added to this are the socio-economic gaps between the countries that make up the EU, which have produced an energy divide (different levels of energy demand, different efficiency, different composition of primary energy sources), which has also further increased. from the pandemic, which requires a “calibrated” approach. This condition produces a more complex energy transition, and in many countries - especially those with the lowest GDP per capita - it could create obstacles to economic recovery. Although a Just Transition Mechanism has been prepared, precisely to bridge these gaps, the energy transition could be perceived as an external interference and a brake on growth, becoming a lever for forms of nationalism and sovereignty in key anti-European. The proposed work - after analyzing the structure of the energy supply in the EU, highlighting the inconsistencies in it - will address the impact of the Green Deal in the energy transition process associated with the relaunch of the economy.
Bounce-back or new development paths? Some reflections on the concept of generative resilience in the post-pandemic phase. - Bounce-back or new development paths? Some reflections on the concept of generative resilience in the post-pandemic phase. – The concept of resilience, derived from scientific-technological disciplines, has been increasingly used in regional and geographic sciences as an interpretative tool, at territorial level, for analyzing the evolution of crisis situations. In particular, in the period of emergency after the pandemic, the term was widely used in the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan, in particular to identify those investments and actions that can promote recovery dynamics after shock and orient places towards new development trajectories. Starting from a theoretical study on the notion of resilience, this work explores the different factors that can influence the ability of systems to react to shocks and to activate new generative practices. Particular attention is given to two components that can affect the dynamics of resilience, especially in peripheral areas: the role of local actors and different forms of agency; the potential connected to socio-technological transformation and digitalization processes.
Circular economy, institutions and enterprises in post-pandemic transition: two exam-ples in aerospace sector in Italy. – This paper aims to identify and illustrate some factors that have determined in recent years an acceleration of the transition process from the linear economy to the circular one in the European context. Among these factors: the change in attitude towards this issue by the business world, the greater impetus to carry out the transition provided by the institutions, and the advent of the Covid 19 pandemic, which, in addition to a health, economic and social crisis, has been seized, in Europe, as an opportunity for a post-pandemic recovery based on new models of organization of the economy and society. In particular, the latter aspect clearly emerges from the content of the European NextGenerationEU Program, implemented, in the Italian context, by the National Re-covery and Resilience Plan, Italy Tomorrow. The first part of the paper is dedicated to these issues, while the second part exemplifies these arguments with reference to the aerospace industry, in particular by illustrating the cases of two Italian SMEs in the sector that have strongly undertaken the transition process towards the circular economy. The paper concludes with some final considerations, which underline how institutions play a fundamental role in bridging the time gap between the short- and medium-term costs that must be incurred by companies in the transition process to the circular economy, and the long-term economic benefits that the realization of this path entails for the companies themselves.
The use of force in interstate relations: theory and evolutions in geo-political practice. – The use of force in relations between states and other players on the world stage: theory, practice and developments in political geography. Based on the experiences of the twentieth century (world wars, genocides, ideological-totalitarian degenerations, decolonization processes), the geopolitical thought of late modernity, starting from the 1960s, essentially develops in a “critical” sense. Then it assumes, among its favorite themes, the discussion on the essence of power (whether or not it is intrinsically “bad”), of the state and of politics (if they inevitably have to rely on the use of force); then it starts the development of a method targeted to regulation and prevention of conflicts, based on a process of deconstruction of alleged “false” ideas of power, to prevent the effects of escalation that have led the whole of humanity to the risk of destruction and self-destruction. These needs are translated operationally into the search for the so-called “insider” factors, that is, those that, in a certain scenario, beyond an immanent and self-evident “casus belli”, cause effects of permanent and out of control conflict, to the point of making war an element that justifies itself (an end, rather than a means). Effects that confuse any causal chain, which make it difficult to identify links and motivations, and therefore the search for a solution, and with it the pacification of crisis scenarios (which in fact tend to perpetuate themselves in areas of “endemic” conflictuality. All this proceeding on the basis of a neo-Enlightenment (possibly neo-liberal) assumption, which almost deterministically assumes the affirmation of an open society, refractory to violence, and the assimilation of “evil” to the mechanisms of democratization, to open market and capitalist prosperity. All this in a context of multilateral policy development, the establishment of international organizations, and the consolidation of a trans-national geo-economic apparatus, of civil society as an “answer to war”, with the aim of progressively limiting, up to cancel the same occasions of conflict; and this to the point that an idea of war as something obsolete spreads (perhaps in an illusory way). The latest events, however, and recent developments, seem to contradict this trend, re-proposing themes and tensions that ge-ographic-political theory seemed to have abandoned for some time. A fact made even more evident by the current invasion of Ukraine, which leaves you dismayed, like aggression to troglodytic times, when the invasion did not need to have a justification; it seems to cause deliberate violence and destruction on a large scale, so much so as to question the entire “critical” paradigm. Putin 24th February discourse deliberately denies the right of Ukraine to survive as a national human community. Evolutions that make it necessary to rethink the practices of limitation and regulation, of the intervention and prevention devices of war, and of the same method of study of the scenarios; perhaps a return to models that, just until a few months ago, were considered outdated.
Geopolitics and Communication: First Analysis on the Epimedia Space of the Russian-Ukrainian War. – How do we translate the relationship between geo-politic and communication, when the wider analytical fields of the crisis have been solely reduced to the war dimension? This essay focuses on the Ukrainian crisis. Starting from the “epimedia space”, an analytical concept that proves to be of significant heuristic power, the paper explores the ways in which information is bent to the needs of communication. By mobilizing fake news, of course, and political propaganda techniques, to which manipulative paths of various kinds must be added.
The NRRP, going towards Sustainability. Focus on Piedimont. – The role of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), as regards the response that has been created following the pandemic, urges the long-standing processes in European planning. The pandemic has accelerated smart behaviours and the NRRP is the operational means of this programming for the choices that will be made in the next two or three years, which will define Italy’s future in the energy transition as well as some of its important regional specializations. The response to the crisis caused by the SARS-Cov-2 epidemic has accelerated and induced the European Union to respond to the dictates enclosed in the UN 2030 Agenda in response to climate change and the social and economic needs that are considered fundamental for the global stability and peace. From the point of view of sustainability, the data of Piedmont compared to the Italian average attest the Region in 8th place out of 20 Regions (IRES 2020, 2021). The answer largely depends on the indicators chosen. In 2020, the National Table for the implementation of the SNSvS selected 43 indicators in order to monitor the 17 Goals of the 2030 Agenda. These 43 indicators incorporate some of the Fair and Sustainable Well-being indicators. This ensured greater significance at the national level and allowed greater comparability with the European and international level of the Piedmont Region.
Political ecology of borderscapes: the Poland-Belarus border in the BiaÅ‚owieża Forest. – The BiaÅ‚owieża Forest stretches across the Poland-Belarus border and it is considered as one of the most ecologically valuable forests of Europe. The area, which is partly protected for its natural value, has been historically interested by military operations including the recent construction of a fence along the border due to the migrant crisis between Belarus and the EU. Here migrants are used by Belarus as pawns in a game of blackmail with Poland and the other European countries, with serious implications on people’s life also due to the harsh climatic and environmental conditions of the area. The case of BiaÅ‚owieża suggests the potential of a new field of investigation on the militarisation of natural, protected areas in Europe as well as around the world.
Geographical observations on the Gilet jaunes movement: from inner-city violence to protest roundabouts. – Against a backdrop of economic crisis, climate catastrophe and anti-globalisation struggles, social protests characterised by a strong spatial rootedness have developed in the recent past. The contribution aimed to analyse the influence of spatial differences on the development and articulation of social movements, with particular reference to the role of space in violent expressions. In particular, the Gilet jaunes movement was analysed, which in terms of the complexity of political protest and the dialogue between protest demands and spatial context, seems to be a particularly significant case not only in terms of political symbolism but also in terms of spatial semiotics. Indeed, the movement developed in two main spatial contexts whose differentiations generated different declinations of the protest and different perceptual and representational processes.

New perspectives on Covid-19 and epistemic injustices. – The Covid-19 outbreak is often associated with pollution and overexploitation of common global resources. Less attention, though with a few exceptions, has been paid to the social and human origins of the crisis. In fact, asymmetric power relations among social groups can determine the outbreak of crises and a reallocation of their related risks towards social and territorial peripheries. Research shows how the concept of epistemic injustice can take on systemic connotations, as the use of inappropriate or ineffective analytic tools can lead to practices that are perceived as just, effective, or efficient, but in fact lack these requirements. The negative impacts of such an eventuality would far outweigh the mitigating effect and magnitude of the ongoing redistribution processes and may fuel increasingly unequal power relations between insiders and outsiders. In this scenario, the rediscovery of an ethic of the common good is an essential element in the design and implementation of a collective way out of the crisis.

Crisi finanziaria ed economica in Russia durante la pandemia di Covid-19 e potenziali soluzioni. – La crisi finanziaria ed economica nella Federazione Russa causata dalla pandemia COVID-19 è stata caratterizzata da un impatto negativo sull’economia reale che ha portato a un deflusso di fondi di investimento in titoli e a una rapida svalutazione di azioni e obbligazioni. Questa crisi globale è unica nella sua natura, poiché non ha prerequisiti economici e inizialmente si è sviluppata principalmente attraverso linee non economiche. A causa degli squilibri del mercato causati dalla pandemia, il governo russo ha elaborato il modello di sostegno finanziario alle imprese, volto a stabilizzare la competitività delle imprese, delle imprese commerciali stra-tegicamente importanti e delle PMI, nonché a sviluppare nuovi settori di attività. Date le limitazioni delle sanzioni, è essenziale mantenere e aumen-tare la competitività delle tecnologie nazionali. Questo fornirà un’opportunità per facilitare l’indipendenza tecnologica dell’economia rus-sa e stimolare la crescita economica assicurando uno sviluppo avanzato dell’industria nazionale della costruzione di macchine. I piani di ripresa economica dovrebbero concentrarsi sul passaggio verso una società sostenibile e inclusiva, con investimenti statali che diano priorità al settore finanziario, all’economia reale, al commercio estero, al settore sociale, all’economia digitale e agli incentivi agli investimenti privati.
Convergence of web design and spatial, statistical, genomic and epidemiological information: the case of geo-dashboards in the Covid-19 crisis. – In response to the Covid-19 outbreak several organizations, as well as private citizens, considered the opportunity to design and publish online geospatial dashboards (geo-dashboard), blending geographical, graphical and statistical representation approaches. In particular, in this paper geo-dashboards are reviewed and conceptualized in the framework of online explanatory data visualization tools and GIS. The study presents the analysis of a significant number of relevant publicly available geo-dashboards to track, visualize, and communicate indicators related to the epidemic outbreak. Covid-19 is a significant case study on how and how much public communication in a pandemic crisis uses spatially related data and technique.

About the representations of the Crisis. Partecipatory audiovisual practices in the time of Covid-19. – This article aims to critically reconstruct the main methods and perspectives of audiovisual representation - expressed through the peculiar dynamics of digital communication - which emerged during the world crisis triggered by the Covid-19 emergency. Particulary, by analyzing the projects and forms of participatory audio-visual communication and documentation promoted on an international scale by private and public cultural institutions.

Health crisis and oil crisis. – The collapse in the oil price recorded in the early months of 2020 has far roots, but finds the contingent reasons in the health crisis caused by Covid-19. The health crisis Covid-19 produces a sharp drop in oil demand, first by China and then by other countries that gradually, after China, will suffer the effects of the coronavirus and proceeded to the so-called lockdown, that leads to the reduction of pro-ductive and commercial activities, limiting the movement of the population from their home. In this work we will highlight the connections between the health crisis and the oil price crisis, also highlighting the problems related to the international geopolitical context.

Ten years of commissioner for the medical emergency in Calabria: dozens of dead people due to the Covid-19/ a medical crisis will become an economic crisis. – Pandemics are too complex to be left only to a medical science and must be addressed with a systems approach, necessary in the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the epidemic Covid-19 in Calabria, because of a previous crisis both of the medical and socio economic systems. Medical system is only one of the problems to reflect upon the post emergency management: it must be integrated and related with others, to understand and to manage the processes that pandemic will continuously create in different ways in the different lands. Contamination's map and epidemic effects must consider the global crisis problems and reshape them in local key. In Calabria these aspects are both managerial of the emergency and operational to the economic, political and social sectors. Only the link and the consultation among the different sectors will offer the space-tome chances to get out from the current medical crisis and to face up to next economic crisis.
Covid-19: crisis of globalization and “revenge of the border”. The effects of the pandemic on the world economic and political future. – The rapid global spread of the Covid-19 virus has strongly highlighted, on multiple and transcalar levels, some problems that emerged worldwide after the end of bipolarism and the advent of the 21st century, i.e. the crisis of globalization and the “revenge of the borders”, which have clear repercussions on the world economic and political situation. The pandemic is entering a phase of global instability, linked to the tensions caused by the trade war between the United States and China, as well as the slowdown of the economy and the growth of populisms. In this sense, the consequences of the pandemic have caused the greatest shock to the international order since the Second World War.
Redefine tourism model. Reflection: critical issues emerged during Covid-19. – The new emergency we are facing with current spread of coronavirus imposes restrictions in everyday life and mobility across different territories and countries; we are globally compelled to face mutual problems, regardless of unilateral positions and this is giving strength to globalization just when a crisis of the globalized world model seemed to be consolidat-ing. Even modern tourism in the pre-pandemic economic and political situation was building a path of progressive quantitative growth and showing positive signs even in the most difficult moments of the recent international economic crisis. However, global tourism is now displaying an overall weakness as never happened in the pasts and it is starting featuring negative data and forecasts showing how this emergency is affecting a substantial portion of the Italian economy, which has reached 13,2% of GDP in 2018 with subsequent significant meaning also in terms of employment. Although it is difficult to foresee future tourism developments, this paper wants to suggest a reflection on the possible scenarios that could be configured out in the medium term, starting from considerations on the role that the national corporate system in tourism has played within the Italian supply chain.
Urban solidarity networks as antidote for global epidemics. – The Covid-19 emergency leads us to reflect upon the issues related to the unpredicta-bility and exceptionality of the phenomenon, introducing new reforms that are in stark contrast with the practices of local contexts. In this sce-nario the city can become the place where the “metabolization” of crisis phenomena takes place through widespread forms of adaptation. The study aims to analyze the practices that are being experimented in this period in order to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. We speak of tactics aimed at building networks of urban solidarity, guaranteeing subsistence services to citizens and promoting practices of mutualism and collaboration aimed at codifying new forms of social capital. Through solidarity networks examples, the research highlights how forms of active territoriality can contribute to the resilience of the urban system in times of crisis.
Spatial and temporal dimension of the pandemic covid-19: from the territorial repre-sentation to the governance processes. – The Covid-19 has been increasing interesting and now it results widely argue. This theme is territorial and geographical studies are such important to the role of Italian territorial or-ganization to stem it. The methodology refers to the analysis of spatial and temporal dimensions unfolds along the effects of the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy on a regional and sub-regional scale with respect to the trend and the current scenario; according to a methodology specific to a position paper, taking into account the situation in the making, the contribution addresses the question of territorial organization and governance with reference to the state and local management of government processes triggered by the crisis and, in particular, the role played by public health. The acknowledgment of evolution and diffusion of Covid-19 is a necessary condition, but it is no sufficient too, despite the recognition of the government best level and the group of authorities. The last question of this topic is about a new proposal to individuate the best institution and the features: the role for the authorities and territorial for the dimension.

 

In this paper we suggest that, to approach the actual urban configurations, we are in need of new geographies. To critically understand the production of socio natural space we propose two methods: Planetary Urbanization and World Ecology. Consistent with the ongoing debate in Urban Political Ecology, we approach the Covid-19 pandemic as a result of the ecological crisis which is, as we show, an urban crisis. In order to immagine new methods of living with and
within nature, we suggest to go beyond the normative dichotomies developed by the Capitalistic culture. Considering this problem, we approac h to the urbanization as a multiscalar and uneven process, with a specific attention on public spaces (common), mobility (daily or wide ranging) and the relationship between infrastructures and nature (the Mapuche case).

Covid-19 and tourism in Italy: from the devastating effects of the pandemic to the relaunch policy for a strategic sector. – The world is facing an unprecedented global health, social and economic emergency as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 has gravely wounded the world economy with serious consequences impacting all communities and individuals. Moving rapidly across borders, along the principal arteries of the global economy, the spread of the virus has benefited from the underlying interconnectedness – and frailties – of globalization, catapulting a global health crisis into a global economic shock. Travel and tourism is among the most affected sectors with a massive fall of international demand amid global travel restrictions including many borders fully closed, to contain the virus. Looking at this context, the contribution aims to evaluate the pandemic effects on this strategic sector. The research, in the future, opens a direct focus on the impact of the virus on some specific sectors of Italian tourism, to identify priority and useful guidelines for relaunching the sector.

Pandemic crisis and economic crisis. The historiographical debate on the effects of the Black Death. – The great plague which hit Europe from 1348 has long been at the core of different historiographical interests. Alongside research focusing on the demographic consequences of the plague, other studies examined strictly epidemiologic issues, the socio-political effects of the crisis, or its „emotive‟ impact in the long term. Among the questions taken into consideration, the relationship between plague and economic trends has obviously played a crucial part. The essay aims to look at this debate, especially highlighting the significant interpretative changes which emerged in the past few decades. The gloomy picture of the post-plague economy, marked by a long decline, has now been replaced by a more optimistic view, which tends to underline the positive consequences brought about by the demographic drop in the medium-long term: in terms of wage growth, for instance, or increase in consumption, but also of the weakening of aristocratic control over peasants‟ work, processes of productive specialization, and the increase of commercial exchange.

The tourist attractivity of Italy in post covid-19 scenario. – The current world scenario, with the declared pandemic by Covid-19, is characterized by unprecedented crisis in all economic activities and in particular in tour-ism. After the pandemic, when the science finds a medicine with which the contagion will not be so widespread – vaccine or other “medicine” that cures it –, travel will resume inevitably but slowly in different ways from those we all know. Imagining new scenarios of international tour-ism and redesigning the geography of tourist flows will not be easy, es-pecially in Italy where the reasons of beauty probably will not be the only ones to attract millions of tourists. Therefore, tourism activities must be reconsidered with respect to the “new normality” and the limitations to tourism by health authorities and the results of the economic crisis in-duced by social distancing measures. The paper, therefore, after a careful assessment of the forecasts already made by international organizations at different levels of scale post Covid-19, will verify how the Covid-19 phenomenon will affect per-ceived geographies, in relation to markets. To this end, the results of a survey will be used both to monitor the travel “sentiment” of Italians, in relation to the forecasts for the summer of 2020 and in the coming years, and to outline the future behavior of all travelers – Italian and foreign –. It is assumed, in fact, that the reputation of the Italian territory, due to the need to have new models related to health security in the different Italian locations, will change, requiring a very complex time.

What remains of the legacy of Matera 2019 after Covid-19. – The health crisis, which brought with it a consequent economic and socio-cultural crisis, dramatically revealed the vulnerability of our economic and production model, which is not very resilient to sudden and sudden changes. The coronavirus crisis requires, in fact, to take the lens of sustainable development and the 17 Sdgs grid to "inspire" the restart, proposing and taking better choices for the future, thus avoiding wasting resources and perpetrating in secular errors. Nothing will be like before for the sectors that have suffered and are experiencing the uncertainty of tomorrow: first of all, tourism. Tourism and, more generally, the entire hospitality, catering and culture sector are among the sectors most affected by the Coronavirus crisis. Some particularly critical situations are above all in cities that add culture, business and congresses. The case of Matera, ready to manage and reap the legacy of the extraordinary year from ECoC, clearly poses the urgency of the convinced turn towards the 2030 Agenda, to make our territories more sustainable, resilient and inclusive.

The Gordian Knot and Ariadne’s string. The shape of space in the Covid-19 crisis. – Two antithetical versions of space seem to lie under the political management of the Covid-19 pandemic: on the one hand, the neutral and objective conception with which the Chinese lockdown has been implemented; on the other hand, the notion of space based on tracing and de-tecting specific relationships, exemplified by Taiwan. In Italy, a quasi-Chinese notion of space seems to have prevailed, with the noticeable exception of Veneto Region, where the system of swabs and track-and-trace on the territory was prevalent.

From “Italia dei barconi” to “Italia dei balconi”. National identity at the time of Covid-19. - This work is part of the debate known as «Media Geography» (Zimmermann, 2007; dell‟Agnese, 2011) and it aims to critically investi-gate the collective processes of identity narratives produced by the crisis developed by the Covid-19 emergency in Italy. These processes are identified in the media mainstream narratives of the sense of a common belonging and representation (Foucault, 1980; Schwartz, 2008). The survey takes into consideration the period February-April 2020 and it has identified a chronology of “Us”, structured as follows: “Us and Them”, “Us”, “Us and us”, through a semiotic and visual approach, a structure that encourages us to reflect on the contrast between local and global. Finally, the close link between politics and identity narration is highlighted: through the media, it tends to build images that activate and orient collective narration, confirming that «the ideological mobilization of identity concerns the images of identity rather than identity itself» (Pollice, 2005).



Geographies of Covid-19. – A first analysis of the scenario occurred as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic puts in evidence the changes in the way people deal with the spatial-time dimension, in the human rela-tions and in the consequent socio-territorial configurations.
Since the first moments of the pandemic geography gave an important contribution in the study of the phenomenon and in the analysis of its territorial consequences, useful to elaborate solutions from the global to the local scales.
In this path, the reflections made in the field of geography, and in partic-ular in this issue, regard on one side the global modifications on interna-tional assets, travels and mobility, globalization and borders, on the other side the changes in the daily way of living, furnishing tools useful to con-trast the pandemic and models for a sustainable development.

Towards an ice age of globalization? The Covid-19 and the revenge of borders. – The main question of this contribution is if the Covid-19 has put in crisis also the globalization process in its fundamentals. Considering the globalization as the overpassing of the national borders – standing on some famous theories referring the post-Cold War period – the pandemic seems to correspond to a sort of revenge of borders at different scales: national, re-gional and even “domestic”. At the same time, the pandemic seems to be the extreme result of the globalization itself and for the forgotten mean-ing of the borders before the crisis.
The Pandemic between Evidence and Knowledge. – The pandemic’s hold on our lives represents a moment of crisis with regards to what really impacts our ways of life, having introduced in our everyday existence not only the fear of infection but also the even more distressful fear of death. The fact that Covid-19 was an unpredictable event has made any form of defence impossible, thus acquiring the characteristic of a tragedy. This aspect has forced us to change our perspective on reality as well as forcing us to revise our belief in a Science capable of dealing with the consequences of the unthinkable, therefore losing the sense of security that its indisputable progress had led us to live in. Consequently, the need to reconsider the worth of some well-established ways of thinking, as well as reconsidering the importance of some categories of values such as ethics and the common good has come about.

Covid-19 and Tourism. Sardinia: opportunities and tourist development perspectives. – The global emergency due to the spread of Covid-19 has resulted in restrictive measures for the movement of goods and people and in the stop of large production sectors, including tourism. The crisis that has affected the tourism industry worldwide also has negative consequences in regions such as Sardinia, already suffering from structural problems, among which there are seasonality and the prevailing incidence of the seaside model. In the Italian regional scenario, the island is among the least affected by the spread of the virus and, in view of a remodeling of its offer system starting from the implementation of organizational and governance structures and the strengthening of other identity tourism products capable of integrating different territories and sectors, could exploit this element to reposition itself as a smart and safe destination.

For an Epistemology of the Pandemic. – As, during the last days of February 2020, Italy went into lockdown and the numbers of infected rose, with hospitals sorely overburdened, intensive care units facing the ethical tragedies that emergency medicine involves and army trucks transported the coffins of Bergamo to who knows where, several of us had the feeling that people were not understanding what was „really‟ going on. On the one hand they were seriously worried about the ineffective treat-ments that were all doctors were able to offer, notwithstanding a level of absolute personal dedication that often pushed them to sacrifice their own lives. On the other they were unsettled by the discordant voices of the many new figures who invaded the media in their capacities as „experts‟ on public health or on scientific and medical matters of which most know nothing. Above all they were disconcerted by the inadequate media response to the problematic nature of the crisis no less than to its multiple implications and ramifications. So it was that the idea of creating a multimedia course on “The Epistemology of the Pandemic” emerged and, between 24th march and 11th April, became a reality. What we now propose is a synthesis which renders the spirit, that generated and sustained that experience and determined its didactic and epistemic design.

Ethiopia’s Tigray crisis spreads to Eritrea and Sudan. The risk of humanitarian disaster

Ambitions and cultural exploitations in response to the crisis. Discourses and urban metamorphosis in Cagliari. – This contribution reflects on how the cultural dimension is embedded in the "narrative" on the city (Cagliari) as a pos-sible answer to the problems of the current economic and social crisis. Our hypothesis is that the use of "miraculous" values of culture is the 'Trojan Horse' to legitimize neoliberal policies and actions on the city, where almost get confused public interventions of actual value but also speculative interests of private individuals. This hypothesis is argued by analyzing the speeches and achievements of some projects based on ex-plicit cultural and symbolic values, ambitions and/or exploitations. These also involve the ambition of a projection of the city on the international scene: from "Cagliari capital of the Mediterranean" to "Cagliari Europe-an Capital of Culture".

The crisis of the city in the age of the privatization urbanism. – We are seeing an unprecedented crisis that is sweeping many Italian cities and will affect also the urbane welfare. Health care was the first victim of this vision. Cancellation of hospitals, health centers and clinics and then the closing of the courts, of the Post Office and of the decentralized State's structures. Today even the primary schools of smaller municipalities risk of disappearing . Some cities go out, entire populations living an unprecedented setback and they lose their social integration prospects.

So if we want to maintain an acceptable standard of living and socializing in our cities we have to identify the real causes that led to the financial meltdown of italian municipalities and find the solutions to restore a perspective to the system of local governments. Otherwise, we risk to close a millenary urban history.

The CAR (Central African Republic) crisis. Transcalarity between violence and resilience. – The Central African Republic has been experiencing a sequence of political-military crisis starting from its constitution (with the death of B. Boganda) to the collapse of Séléka regime (2013) and the current transitional phase, which is leading by K. Samba Panza. The ingredients of this crisis are cross-scale, with mobile factors that easily pass from a scale to another. On the "domestic" scene, as it is in itself very complex and marked by a plurality of actors even foreigners, take place regional, pan-african and global dynamics. Facing this changing framework plagued by violence, the development of a cultural resilience assures the endurance of Central African Republic as political and social entity.

In the course of the time, the concept of «uncertainty» has been investigated from different points of view. The aim of this article is to provide an interpretational key of present territorial process – first of all starting off by the example of Rome town in the real estate market, to make a comparison with other Italian cities – basing on the idea of «geography of uncertainty». Such a conceptual formulation will be associated with uneven developments and oscillatory movements of modern occidental economy.