Beyond the Anthropocene: Industry 5.0 for Territorial Co-Design. – The present proposal, which has its basis on the concept of territorial co-design in connection with the possibilities of the Industry 5.0, aims to understand how this revolution can help geography with new instruments in order to ac-tively take part in the debate about ecology; and re-think the ways we live the territory and in the territory. The context is that of the global challenges that grip us, as climate change and geopolitical transformations. The proposal examines some works of global leaders, such as AVEVA Industrial Software, and of some important authors, like Kate Raworth with her concept of Doughnut Economics. The focus will be on the re-organization of territory in a way that can be sustainable, resilient and human-centric – as the three principles of Industry 5.0 are framed as.

Climate Change: More Than Just Geography. – The ongoing climate change and its potentially severe consequences concern us as thinking human beings, regardless of whether we are historians, geographers, geologists, urban planners, economists, sociologists, or psychologists. The common endpoint of our reflections – and of the suggestions we offer regarding actions to be taken or avoided – engages us as citizens of the shared good that is the Earth, whose survival we value not only for ourselves today but, above all, for future generations, many of us being parents and grandparents. Naturally, it is both inevitable and important that each of us contributes based on our own disciplinary knowledge – be it historical, geographical, geological, or otherwise. However, in my view, the focus of our reflection should not be on the role each of these sciences can play, but rather on the responsibility that each of us must assume as citizens of the Earth.

Gaia’s Return: Reflections on Geography in the Age of the Anthropocene

Sound waves. Podcasting and teaching on water geographies. – In a resonant world, the attention to soundscapes of the international geographic community is growing, bringing into hearing ongoing reflections on cohabitation and interspecies alliances in the Anthropocene. At the same time, the use of podcast in academia is growing, to teach and disseminate geography beyond academic boundaries, and thus increase the public impact of research.
In this context, starting from the narration of the recording practices of
two sound artists – Renato Rinaldi and Attila Faravelli – with whom the author has recently collaborated in research on sonic waterscapes, the article question and discuss if and how podcasts can help develop a sensitivity towards water resources.

The Italian Unesco Biosphere Reserves and proximity (eco)tourism: What are the criticalities and possibilities? – During the pandemic, outdoor recreational practices received particular attention and saw an increase in the number of users, especially in areas close to everyday life, as it was considered accessible, safe and “natural”. However, tourism negatively affects the climate and environment, highlighting the complex relationship between humans and nature in the Anthropocene. Reducing travel distances or using environmentally friendly transportation is not enough. Despite greater integration of nature and culture, the idea of unspoilt nature that must be preserved persists, encouraging the commodification of nature. UNESCO Biosphere Reserves seek to overcome this dichotomy by promoting conservation alongside sustainable development and involving local communities. By analyzing three Italian reserves, we assess the proximity tourism that occurs there, how these dichotomies are addressed, and whether they can mitigate the negative impacts of tourism. The research shows that success depends on the actors involved, community participation, and more explicit management of tourism by the MAB reserves.

In the Flood. Circumpolar cultures and global warming. – The imaginaries of water in circumpolar cultures are changing. The erosion of old cosmologies and the accelerated melting of permafrost and continental ice are gener-ating new syncretic narratives that are beginning to be studied by ethnology and cultural geography. In the Arctic, water has become a new concrete threat and the hydrogeological disruptions triggered by rising temperatures and human mechanical alterations are redefining the local way of describing the world and man’s place in the world. By relying on some case studies centered on real and symbolic risks that come from water, this contribution intends to illustrate how the Anthropocene is shaping the concrete and imagined geography of the circumpolar regions.

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.

Journey through the Italy of the Anthropocene. The Visionary Geography of our Future

The Society of Anthropocene in the material and immaterial diffusion of violence. – The contribution aims to reflect on the social dimensions of violence linked to the elements of the physical transformations of the Anthropocene. The hypothesis is that in the material and immaterial diffusion of violence there is a growing interaction and hybridization between the two dimensions and this is largely due to the globalization and the technology with a new spatio-temporal, transcalar and autopoietic configuration. This is called the Social Anthropocene.
This configuration is moving Anthropocene society into a dimension in which the abstract subsystems of the anthroposphere (society, economy, culture, politics) are increasingly dependent on the technosphere, a phenomenon already considered by other disciplines in an evolutionary dimension and extended to other living species.
From a geographical perspective, this dependence generates new relationships between abstract subsystems that relate resources, men and machines in an interdependence that generates violence, from the material to the immaterial world and in the interconnections between countries at different levels of development. This perspective, which can be explained empirically using data through the metaphorical potential of the Anthropocene, by not denying it shifts the theme of violence from a territorial perspective, linked to the individual local culture (interpersonal, familiar) and social (of an urban district, of a city or region) to a global one. It also shifts attention from a political to a biopolitic perspective.

Anthropocene and geography. – The concept of Anthropocene is used today in many disciplinary sectors to thematize the issues concerning the enormous and growing impact of human activities on nature. His introduction in the field of geographic studies has placed at the center the reflection on the heart of geographic epistemology: the relationships between human societies and the environment, their ecological consequences, the interpretation of the landscape, the analysis and the critical deconstruction of representations, the relationship between physical and human geography in scientific investigation. The article discusses the contribution of geographers to research on the Anthropocene and presents some ideas on the role that geography can play in scientific research on the Anthropocene. On the one hand, geography can support the critical reading of the ways in which the Anthropocene has also become a concept widely used by the media, contextualizing and deconstructing narratives. On the other hand, also by using the potential of thematic cartography in visualizing data and allowing reflections and analyzes at different scales, helping to territorialize the Anthropocene narrative, highlighting the changes and processes in the different regions of the planet.

“Geography and Anthropocene. Man, environment, education” ed. Cristiano Giorda