Il Pianeta Cattolico. Una Geografia culturale

Migrants, abandonment and reuse of historical centers. The case of Riace in Calabria. – Italy, a migratory crossroads between Europe, Africa and Asia, has always been affected by migratory movements that have affected its regions in different ways. In recent decades, they have assumed a synergistic demo-graphic dimension between population and depopulation, which modifies the structure and composition of the population, mitigating the unstop-pable demographic decline along with the depopulation of historic cen-ters. This is possible through urban redevelopment and socio-economic revitalization paths linked to the reception of migrants. The contribution analyzes possible causes and effects of migratory processes on the Cala-brian population, using the Riace case study as a model in which the “wel-come path” has had positive results and revitalized the historical center with the return of residents and the construction of a society with high values of cultural pluralism.

Campi Flegrei: nature and culture. Landscape, risk and everyday life. – The Campi Flegrei are an area of volcanic origin, located north of Naples, where geological events and eruptions have upset the geography of this territory/physical-chemical laboratory. The area has been a favorite place for anthropic settlement since ancient times: the strong presence of sulfur and nitrogen have made the Phlegraean soil very fertile and the presence of the sea makes the climate mild. The Phlegraean territory has welcomed famous Greek colonies and Roman centers of primary importance, such as Cuma, Dicearchia / Puteoli, Baia, Miseno and large modern manufacturing settlements. I intend to analyze the landscape results that have been created and perceived, trying to investigate the particular relationship between physical geography and human geography that has been formed in this territory, together with the considerations that emerge in relation to the risk that the Phlegraean community experiences daily and social vulnerability and environmental peculiar to the area. 

Considerations on the regional landscape plan of Sardinia: a contribution from internal areas. – The concept of landscape is at the core of many geographical studies and is rich in different meanings that over time have given rise to numerous interpretations. According to the European Landscape Convention adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in 2000, landscape is a combination of natural and cultural elements in continuous transformation. Transformations that, if not planned attentively, can give rise to processes of deterioration and loss of quality of landscape configurations. In a Europe where there is still a significant dualism between urbanized and rural areas and in an environmental, economic and social era marked by the objectives of sustainability dictated by the 2030 Agenda, it is therefore necessary to adopt and strengthen policies and strategies for a more cohesive development and planning of the territory. The contribution, after a brief review of the literature on European and national policies on the landscape, wants to focus on the ability of regional realities to activate reconstructive interventions and environmental improvements from the adoption of Landscape Plans. In particular, the attention wants to focus on the Sardinian regional context, the first reality in Italy to have adopted a Landscape Plan in 2006. A plan that, to date, has identified only in the coastal areas the areas to be protected and enhanced. However, in the light of the priorities for a sustainable future, the Plan needs to be reviewed and a new plan that can also include the internal areas that are still not sufficiently integrated in the development process of the island.

Calabrian ways: religious itinerary for Geography’s path. – In recent years, historical, religious, food and wine and cultural itineraries have become increas-ingly important for the discovery of Italian villages and landscapes: in constant growth is the interest in these tools of knowledge of the history and heritage of Italy.
This work proposes the creation of geo-itineraries based on historical studies concerning the life of two Calabrian monks. The creation of these itineraries, through Gis technology, would lead to the enhancement of still little-known villages, belonging to the internal areas of Calabria, and, at the same time, the rediscovery of the relationship between the tourist and the landscape.

When conflict is not seen. Resilience/resistance and territorial hegemony in the forest territories of Chile. – The central-southern regions of Chile have undergone a socio-ecological reterritorialization in the last forty years due to the conformation of an industrial forest monoculture, associated with a forestry sector structured in an oligopoly, dominated by two holding companies. This paper analyses the territorial relations between the wine sector and the forestry sector in the Itata River Valley sub-region. Wine-growing was born in this territory in Chile in the 17th century and has consolidated over time, becoming a reference point on a national scale. In recent decades it has been subjected to various shocks: from changes in wine-making processes to forest expansion. The results of the research lead us to think of socio-ecological relations in terms of a territorial hegemony operated by the main forest societies in economic, cultural and political terms. In cases where they come into contact with productive activities which are “resilient” to this expansion, such as wine-growing, forestry companies adopt practices of co-optation, favoured by the strength derived from the dimension of multinational holding.

The valorization of the natural and cultural heritage of the territory of Grassano and Grottole in Basilicata for sustainable tourism: geomorphological and GIS analysis for planning sustainable tourism itineraries. – The recognition of Matera as European Capital of Culture 2019 will certainly serve in the near future to channel more effectively part of the tourist flow towards the inner areas. Therefore, a study of a significant portion of the inner area of Matera was undertaken, aimed at collecting elements of the physical landscape that would act as a landscape “frame” for the formulation of hypotheses of routes with “multiple” values. In fact, the study area includes the villages of Grassano and Grottole, which have elements of cultural interest that are useful for valorising the itinerary to be proposed. The knowledge of the geographical elements of the study area, the accurate analysis of the forms of the physical landscape and the geomorphological processes that have generated them, the inventory of the main cultural attractions of the two villages located in the study area, as well as the use of a geographical information system, have made it possible to design the route proposed in this article.

Interactive apps for the tourist enhancement of Oman. – Many tourist destinations are embracing ICT in order to become an STD (Smart Tourist Destination), a place that uses the available tools and techniques to allow demand and supply to co-create value, pleasure, and experiences for the tourist in addition to wealth, profits, and benefits for organizations and the destination. The main aim of this paper is to present the prototype of an application for smartphones to explore the territory of Oman in relation to its resources (natural and cultural), infrastructure and accommodation for tourism purposes sector. The methodology provided for: the collection of data from the main statistical sources, the acquisition of geographical maps, the georeferencing of a substantial number of natural, cultural and recreational resources, the use of the Arc-GIS and Google Earth tools for data processing, the compilation and addition of text information to feature locations in tables, and the use of specific software for programming the app. The main goal of the app is to meet the needs of experiential tourism through interactivity that allows the users to obtain itineraries that reflect their tastes, needs and preferences.

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.

For a model of governance of Cultural Routes: Territorial Business Systems. The case study of the Via Francigena between Monti Prenestini ed Ernici. – Cultural routes and way are gradually assuming a leading role in territorial planning policies because on the one hand they are capable of responding to the criteria of environmental, social and economic sustainability and, on the other, of favoring an expansion of the tourist offer with a strong connotation identity. The study aims to support the hypothesis that a geographical approach by aggregates can represent the indispensable premise for the development of a governance model which, through the itinerary and the way, guarantees the implementation of actions aimed at enhancing and managing extended coherent territorial areas.

Safe and non-safe space: an investigation on new dwelling strategies in the context of Covid-19 pandemic. – The experience of Covid-19 gave us the need to rethink organisational methods of contemporary society, particularly public and domestic spaces. Our research used the pandemic struggle to examine current ways of looking at the safe and unsafe, entailing new practises of social action.
This research was structured in two different stages. First we investigated a series of behaviours and perceptions within public and domestic spaces. Second we examined the strategies through which the subjects reorient the spaces and define new habitus and practices of dwelling. In both cases we focused on hygiene procedures and alternative measures undertaken to diminish the risk of contagion.
The case studies are grouped by three different ranges of contagion in northern, central and southern Italy. They are discussed with reference to theoretical and methodological debates within social geography and cultural anthropology.

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 “Global ’68” of the Students. An Introductory Historiographical Survey. – The article highlights the historiographical issue represented by the planetary character of the youth movements that operated around 1968 in the Western world, in the Socialist world and in the developing countries. The wave of student protest is therefore considered as a phenomenon of global history, and presented in its various aspects in the light of the historiographical debate developed in the context of the Global History current. Particular attention is given to the problem of periodization and to the comparison between political, social and cultural history. 1968 emerges as a great watershed of the second post-war period, which acts as a hinge between the first globalization of Bretton Woods (the so-called Golden Age) and the new scenarios of postindustrial modernity.

With Egypt. Dialogical Space in the Communication of ENI by Enrico Mattei. – This article aims to briefly reconstruct the contribution given by the Il Gatto Selvatico review, some documentaries and photographic reports commissioned by Eni, in the representation of the important political-economic and cultural dialogue developed between Eni and Egypt during Enrico Mattei’s presidency. Articles, photographs and films able to significantly narrate the tangible signs of Eni’s international extension, representing in different circumstances the peculiar modalities of the encounter with the world of the other and of the consequent ability to “make communities” with the its inhabitants.

La Geografia e il nuovo. – La Geografia, “condannata” all’oggi, al presente, da uno statuto disciplinare che la vorrebbe impegnata nella lettura del mondo qual è, mentre il mondo si restringe, si rattrappisce o, addirittura, si barrica nell’angustia dell’hic et nunc, si presta ad interpretarne le modificazioni. Mentre il mondo appare sempre più come la dilatazione del presente e come tale viene letto e interpretato, con la distanza annullata e l’altrove dismesso, la Geografia può, a buon diritto, rivendicare di essere il sapere più attrezzato per dare profondità di conoscenza all’incontro con il nuovo. Il presente contributo intende mostrare come, in particolare, la Geografia culturale sembri connettere bene il notum al novum, il mundus notus al mundus novus, a dar conseguenza, cioè, alla brama di sfondare il muro del tempo.

Defining the “Home”. – The article addresses the question of dwelling as an expression of life. Must a home be confined by the four square walls of a traditional building, or can it be a place on the streets within an urban area? Modes of dwelling are reflecting the socio-economic and cultural life of a person, family or social group. Also they situate the inhabitants. On the one hand the homes of the rich are becoming ever more luxuriant to the point of obscenity. On the other hand, the ever-increasing problem of homelessness reveals a politically legitimised destruction of “homes”. Thus we need ethical homes. This is not meant to promote the individual pursuit of happiness, but to seek standards by which people can live well together.

The Importance of the Mediterranean for a Different Centrality in the European Union – The Eu needs a cultural political design that goes back to enhancing the fundamental aspects of the Ventotene Manifesto. The Mediterranean macro region is experiencing ever increasing difficulties which would deserve joint intervention policies and, if these had no positive effects, which could undermine the foundations of the same European mechanism. This article aims to trigger a reflection on the future of the Eu that lies in the ability to give life to a new order of centrality, giving back to the     Mediterranean the role that geography has always assigned to it.

The Segmentation of Tourist Demand in Museum: The Case Study of the Museum of San Gennaro’s Treasure – This Article, in its first part, analyzes the tourist demand of the cultural heritage, preparing an overview of the most visited museums than less by tourism.

From this initial confrontation, the article runs through the elaboration of the reasons for which the most visited museums are always among the best known in the world, while lesser known ones have difficulties in attracting visitors. For this purpose, it describes the case study of the Museum of the San Gennaro’s Treasure, which although it has still a small number of visitors compared to major international museums, has had a significant growth in visitors in recent years. It shows, therefore, that only when the differentiated preferences of tourists encounter a tourist offer that meets their needs, cultural heritage can be fully tapped thanks largely to the role of the local population, which is the strategic instrument for sustainable exploitation of cultural heritage. In the last part, the article outlines the new possibilities for management of cultural heritage in order to the needs of both tourists and local community, thanks to an unconventional interpretation of the relationship between cultural heritage and types of tourists, referring to some influential variables on consumer buying behavior.

“Metamorphosis of the city”: Resilience and Interculturality. – With the advent of urban sprawl, the places have changed its physical structure by influencing the social and urban fabric. New Urbanism is a decisive movement for America and Europe, through it was possible to draw new planning visions. A current that would currently shooting for the operation, which has been show to improve the livability of neighborhoods and cities.
The methodology of resilience thinking and participation tools could improve the strategic planning and management of change and transformation of the social and urban systems, helping the administration to manage the urban policies.

Southern Italy and Euro-Mediterranean development. Cultural Routes for a new territorial vision – Cultural routes have assumed, for our country and especially for the South, a particularly important value and are becoming nowadays ever more instrument and opportunities for tourism innovation. The perception is that we are at the gates of a new historical phase in which a substantial reflection on new forms of enjoyment of territories contrasts with the aggression of the great cultural heritage.
To the south and along the trajectories of cultural and historical itineraries, the common Euro-Mediterranean root of crossed territories and the ties between communities deserve a different consideration, new forms of integrated tourism and a different narrative ability.
For these reasons an organic reflection on the prospects of territorial development, starting from the routes that run through and give life to the Southern Italy and Mediterranean tourist realities, erroneously defined minor, becomes particularly important nowadays, and probably one of the concrete sources of feasible sustainable development.

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".

Abstract. – I droni si stanno diffondendo rapidamente sul mercato gene-ralista. Gli hardware e i software attualmente disponibili divengono sem-pre più economici e questo accresce le potenzialità applicative di questi strumenti. Parallelamente al numero degli operatori commerciali, cresce anche quello dei gruppi di lavoro scientifici interessati all’uso di questi mezzi per lo studio delle condizioni materiali e dello status complessivo del paesaggio, del territorio e dei suoi beni storici e culturali. La tecnolo-gia si adegua rapidamente a diverse necessità operative; nel frattempo, in vari paesi europei iniziano a svilupparsi normative sull’impiego di questa nuova peculiare tipologia di aeromobile. Se è vero che sistemi e sensori di alta sofisticazione si rendono necessari in alcuni casi, l’esperienza tut-tavia insegna che, in altre circostanze, anche prodotti meno avanzati for-niscono una grande quantità di dati e contribuiscono all’acquisizione di conoscenza significativa sui fenomeni osservati. La possibilità, per un maggior numero di gruppi di lavoro, di avere accesso a queste tecnologie innovative grazie ad un’opportuna convergenza di approcci “open” e “low-tech” permetterà nei prossimi anni un più completo ed utile studio dei beni materiali del nostro “cultural heritage”. Tale concetto generale è stato sottoposto a verifica, fra il 2010 e il 2015 dal Geographic Research and Application Laboratory (GREAL) dell’Università Europea di Roma, in collaborazione con altri partner di rilievo fra cui l’Istituto per le Tec-nologie Applicate ai Beni Culturali (ITABC-CNR) e l’LT-TEKNEHUB dell’Università di Ferrara. Questo lavoro presenta alcune delle più signifi-cative applicazioni sottoposte a verifica e riassume le conclusioni tratte da tali esperienze.

La questione del confine nazionale italiano, dall'unificazione al primo dopoguerra, si intreccia, dentro e fuori l'accademia, con il progresso delle scienze geografiche e della rappresentazione cartografica.

L'articolo muove dalle definizioni di territorio, regione e confine, elaborate da Giovanni (1846-1900) e Olinto (1876-1926) Marinelli al giro del secolo XX e discute il contributo delle loro idee al disegno del confine nord-orientale dell'Italia. La disputa interessava le aree mistilingue o storicamente legate all'influenza culturale italiana che erano rimaste al di fuori dei confini nazionali dopo il 1866. In primo luogo Trento, l'Istria e Trieste, ma oggetto del contendere erano anche i territori di Bolzano e Merano, a nord della chiusa di Salorno, e la Dalmazia, da Fiume a Spalato.

Punto centrale è l'analisi del concetto di linea di spartiacque, che esula dalla mera lettura geo-morfologica, per indagarne gli aspetti sociali e culturali che si legano ad un discorso scientifico europeo e transnazionale. Lo sforzo della geografia di superare l'idea di confine areale, delineato da Friedrich Ratzel, per giungere a demarcare linee precise e cartografabili, si relaziona al processo politico e militare, attuato dallo Stato, per stabilire confini sicuri e comprendenti aree il più possibile omogenee dal punto di vista culturale. In questo contesto la cartografia svolge un duplice ruolo: da un lato, archetipo che condiziona e uniforma le scienze geografiche, dall'altro, strumento mediatico e di propaganda per la diffusione di concetti spaziali e politici. Oltre all'esame delle opere geografiche, questo articolo svolge uno studio critico della produzione cartografica coeva, attuando anche un paragone con le coeve teorie prodotte dalla geografia nel mondo tedesco.

Il paradigma geografico e i processi territoriali che ne conseguono contribuiscono così alla definizione e all'affermazione di un'identità nazionale.

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.

New rurality and geographic food. A "filosofale" formula  for Abruzzo. – Geographic food is an expression that indicates the deep relationships between territory and eating costums. More precisely, in regard to the current post-modernity, it defines the need of recovering the cultural identities in the sphere of the concepts of place and collective tradition. Such need, which derives in a reactive way from the tendencies of uniformity produced by the mass consumption, can be considered always more as the way of escape deriving from the bottom that works against the processes of globalization and industrialization of the cultural products. Including those related to the field of food and eating customs.
In Abruzzo, the places of contemporary rural context do not seem to escape from such phenomenon. It is clearly proved by the rediscovery of old culinary habits in relation to the farming and pastoral past, the recovery of the agricultural biodiversity, the commercial achievement of local and traditional products, which is noticeably manifested through the country festivals, the proliferation of the country style wine and food places and the increasing diffusion of the farm holiday procedures. 

Nell’ambito di una rilettura del rapporto città-campagna chiamato  oggi a sconfessare posizioni contrappositive per aderire ad una visione e programmazione territoriale integrata, il presente contributo si propone di ripercorrere il rapporto città-campagna costruito dalla città abruzzesi di L’Aquila e Sulmona.In particolare, si sottolineerà il ruolo della posizione delle due città di Conca intermontana poste lungo la storica “Via degli Abruzzi” che può annoverarsi, senz’altro, tra i grandi itinerari commerciali, diplomatici, culturali e militari dell’Italia trecentesca.

The “Via degli Abruzzi”. a key route to local development. – The renewed attention paid by Institutions, public authorities and scholars to main historical routes as well as their more serious consideration of rural areas’ development suggest the author to focus his interest on the ancient route of the “Via degli Abruzzi”, which played a crucial role for several centuries for religious, cultural and most importantly commercial purposes, connecting Central and Northern Italy to Southern Italy. This paper aims not only to discover again such a history, but also to let re-emerge nowadays a network of potential relationships and a renewed interest in the areas covered by this communication route, by stimulating new cultural tourism flows which could travel through this route again, and even envisaging a possible institutionalisation of its itinerary, for a more varied and efficient use of its environmental and cultural resources.

La riscoperta del patrimonio culturale, sia materiale che immateriale, di un contesto di montagna può essere la chiave per una crescita economica e sociale, soprattutto delle aree depresse, che stanno vivendo un'emorragia demografica a causa della marginalizzazione degli ultimi decenni, con conseguente de-territorializzazione.In questo articolo si cerca di dare qualche esempio di valorizzazione e di riscoperta di luoghi e pratiche del passato, ritenute molto interessanti anche ai fini di un rilancio turistico.

The importance of knowledge for the innovation process is widely recognized in the literature. The diffusion of it passes through the use of resources internal and external to the firm. The work focuses on two aspects. On one side it identifies the impact of internal and external resources on the innovation process. The other aim is to find an indicator that captures the combined effect of the two resources with the objective of demonstrating the importance of using these synergies for developing the firm in a given territory. The territory in this case emerges as a key element in the analysis as it is able to provide a complex set of elements: social, cultural and economic, which are able to support the development of enterprises. In some cases, they become determinants by allowing an area of become more competitive than another.
than another.

Le riviste sono, forse, il genere di “manufatto” culturale che più di
altri, in questi anni, va riflettendo, secondo più modalità, il segno del
cambiamento portato dal rinnovamento delle tecnologie e di forme e
caratteri della comunicazione...

This paper intends to consider a epochmaking experience for the west European society, caused by the discovery of the New World: the crossing over the borders of the consolidated knowledge and of the domesticated spaces of Mediterranean Europe, and then the projection onto the reconfiguration and the refoundation of a new vision of the world. A new vision that is constructed on this triple dynamism – travelling, discovering, knowing – from then on part of the European historic consciousness and its cultural memory.