DOCUMENTI GEOGRAFICI - N. 1 (2020)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Articoli

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Presentazione del fascicolo "Geografie del Covid-19".

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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.

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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.

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Geography under “full sails”: territorial analysis and reflexive cartography on Covid-19 in Italy. – The paper exposes the theoretical and methodological ap-proaches adopted to conduct an analysis on the contagion trend of Covid-19, in relation to the specificities of the territories. After a study of the geographical settings adopted for research purposes, the focus is set on the problematic nature of the data available inherently to the infection. This paper also reflects on the tools and sources of information (such as, for example, collective databases, scientific blogs, or online platforms) adopted during the analysis. Finally, through the exemplification of the evolution of the contagion at national and Lombard level, the contribution exposes the relevance assumed by the reflective maps and by the cybercartography which, underlining the territorial importance of Covid-19, contribute to the understanding of the phenomenon in its complexity.

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Community Readiness for Local Covid-19 Management. – In these days, we are learning important lessons in citizen science. Today, local administrations must equip themselves with the management of infrastructures (unimaginable before Covid-19) for enforcing social distance and tracking positive cases. One of the tasks that geographers are expected to take up is the determination of the levels of societal readiness, the levels of integration in society of new technologies, products and services. The pandemic requires policies of social and cultural innovation that make communities ready to respond to catastrophic events on their territory through access to data, communities of practice, co-creation, reflection and inclusion. Finally, Covid-19 ought not to undermine the work done so far to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 1 (Poverty), 3 (Health), 4 (Education), 5 (Gender), 6 (Water), 8 (Work), 10 (Inequalities) and 16 (Peace). Pope Francis has made it clear: «This is the moment to see the poor».

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Covid-19: outcomes of the pandemic on spatial-temporal remodulation. – The Covid-19 emergency has modified the time and manner of experiencing everyone‟s space, but above all it has represented an historically unprecedented shock. In the face of this event, previously unknown in the long history of humanity and the promotor of profound consequences on a global scale, we should give some thought to both the geographical interpretative keys with regard both to the rhythms of time and the con-tractions and dilations of space, and the new forms of organization in living time and space.

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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.

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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.

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Geographical scattering in the inner areas in the diffusion of covid-2019. –Regarding the high probability, highlighted by the epidemiologists regarding the repetition in the near future of other epidemic events, this contribution is aimed to highlight the importance of a multidisciplinary preventive strategy. This value was declined according to the specific geographical perspective, offering some ideas on phenomena typically subject to study of the discipline that could for the future constitute an important source of direction in the system of support for strategic decisions of a medical-political type used during pandemic phenomena.
Particularly, the phenomenon of the geographical scattering characterizing the internal areas was investigated, which unfortunately has been confirmed in the real spread of the Covid-19 epidemic.

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Territorial Reorganisation and Differentiated Autonomy: A Matter to be discussed in light of the Plague. – The arrangement of local self-government is one of the elements that the management of Covid-19 has involved most. During this period people saw many difficulties of the Italian administrative structure and it had consequences on the efficiency of the institutions and markets too. The arrival of Covid-19 has called into question many aspects of internal life in the country and the gained experience pushes for the revision of some aspects of Italian political affairs. This contribu-tion aims to underline – through two case studies – some themes of political geography raised by the new condition and to indicate the new opportunities they open up. To do this, the authors discuss, on the one hand, the reorganization of the state administration after Law 56 of 2014, the new hierarchy of administrative powers and the launch of the Metropolitan Cities. On the other hand, they address the debate on the request for Autonomia differenziata (differentiated autonomy) presented by three regions – Veneto, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna – in order to in-crease their spaces of power, and the consequences for the rest of the country.

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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).



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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.

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The Space of absence: geography and mass distance teaching. – The sudden change to a mass distance teaching because of Covid-19 pandemy highlights different kinds of absence in relation to several levels of territorial inequalities. The paper proposes a retrospective view in order to represent relationships between lack of literacy's skills, technological infrastructure inequal diffusion, socioeconomic diversities and distance teaching performance's limits in Italy.

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Health emergency and closure of schools and universities. Culture gap as a further consequence of Covid-19. – Almost 185 nations in the world were forced to close schools and Universities between March and April because of Covid-19 pandemic. Hence, almost a billion and a half students had to suspend their educational path. UNESCO is monitoring this situation giving a warning about a cultural emergency as a further consequence of Covid-19. This paper, starting from the available data, aims at analysing the possible effects of partial or total school closure. Closing such centres make and will make social and technological differences more evident on both a European and global scale. Indeed, even in those areas where online learning has been established, gaps are emerging. For this reason, when the health emergency is handled thanks to the discovery of a vaccine, the socio-cultural effects will have left clear marks, which will require adequate political measures.

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Covid-19: which consequences on productive sectors? A focus on Italy. – The research illustrates the indirect effects of Covid-19 pandemic on the Italian production system. During the lockdown, many Italian institutions have carried out forecasts which have led to estimates of a negative impact of Covid-19 on annual GDP between 5 and 10%. The average impact on annual GDP, however, is the result of heterogeneous shocks affecting most sectors of economic activity. Laying on the evidence collected, policy recommendations are elaborated to manage the social and economic consequences of Covid-19 in Italy.

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The Italian agri-food industry between global and local: food habits before and during the pandemic virus Covid-19. – The pandemic generated by the virus known as Covid-19 is an expression of an unbalanced relationship between man and environment on which geography is called to investigate and also to redefine the spaces of intervention. It will be useful to propose the adoption of a trasncalar point of view that, if in one way widens the horizon to the entire globe in a contagion and in a need for collaboration that do not recognize nor can allow us to raise limits, on the other hand, it becomes a metaphor and a warning to create a new ecology and new social political relations to weave as much at a global level as at a local and personal level.
From the forced isolation – due to the rules of social distancing adopted in many European and non – European states – paradoxically emerged a glocal dialectic to interpret. As can be seen from observing what is happening in the Italian agri-food sector, on one hand we are forced to open our economic spaces recognizing the indispensable contribution of immigrant labour for the cultivation and harvest in the fields. On the other hand we are led to close the horizon of our primary needs without being able to address the question to our trusted provider and/or topographically closer even through the network that puts us in contact with the entire rural world. The authors, also thanks to the results of the direct survey, conducted on the purchases and the alimentary habits of the families during the pandemic, underline the opportunities of growth and valorisation of the Italian agricultural and food sector.

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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.

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Geopolitics of pandemic: soft and hard power as reading keys. - The Covid 19
pandemic is one of the hardest challenge of the last century. With its
m edical emergency, Covid 19 has created a lot of changes in the
international relationships and in the geopolitical equilibrium. In this
paper, we are attempting to show and analyze global governments’
behavior against the pandemic through the use of both h ard and soft
power. We’ll see, particularly, Chinese and American government’s use of
hard and soft power. Then we’ll examine how European Union deal with
this global emergency. Each nation has carried on different diplomatic strategies to face the pandemic and to promote is own international image. Hard and soft power, in this sense, will be useful also to implement the social and economic policies and to make them effective in the post pandemic phase.

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Geographical barriers: borders versus frontiers. Significance and impact postCovid-19. – This work aims to study geographical barriers by analyzing the duplicity of geographical status which see them divided into two qualities marked by the terms border and frontier. Trying to read the different impacts that follow on communities and territories. By studying how these geographical status of barriers have changed following globalization. How they are returning after the epidemic from Covid-19. Analyzing the consequences in relation to the space-time compression caused by globalization and regarding the geopolitical and socio-cultural strategic dynamics of states.

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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.

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The experienced space between mobility and Covid-19 restrictions. – If it is true that lived space represents our becoming and our being individual in our society, any variation on it, it implicates for the human race a physical, mental and relational disturbance. Human being lives in his territory and territory is modeled, for better or for worse, by human being. Global events, such as pandemics, force human being to confront himself with an enemy more and more underhand, able to undermine his certainties, gained until today.
Daily mobility has to be reconsidered in a new way; principles, for example, as The Schengen Agreement, is put to the test, causing a block in every region, and calling into doubt the worth of the same principle.
Which scenarios shall we face at the end of this pandemic? How is human being going to take on global future events? And what restrictions are adaptable to our freedom and democracy? Are we ready to face them?

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Politicizzare il virus. Tensioni settarie in Medio Oriente al tempo del Covid-19. – Il Covid-19 ha esacerbato le tensioni settarie in Medio Oriente dopo la sua diffusione in Iran. Dal 24 febbraio Iraq, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar e Arabia Saudita hanno annunciato i loro primi casi di infezione imputandone la causa a viaggiatori e/o pellegrini iraniani. Il presente saggio ha voluto dimostrare, anche attraverso carte epidemiologiche relative ai casi e all'incidenza del virus nelle 31 province iraniane, l'insostenibilità dell'ipotesi che la diffusione del virus sia unicamente legata al movimento di pellegrini sciiti all‟interno dell'Iran e, più in generale, del Medio Oriente.

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Shipwreck with Spectator: Epidemics and Society in the Ancient World. – Starting from the meaning of the Greek word epidemia, the paper highlights its topographical and social connotation (“stay at home, stay in a city”), from Homer to Hippocrates. It then moves on to scrutinize some of the most impactful epidemic events in ancient Greece and Rome, focusing on their social and political consequences, on the geographic spread and the medical features. These events are the Athenian plague of 431 BCE, the epidemic cough of Perinthos as told by Hippocrates, and the Antoninian plague in Rome around 166 CE; the paper also recalls the so-called plague of Justinian, whose fateful aftermath has been often related to the end of the Roman empire. A possible connection is also discussed between the Antoninian plague in Rome and a very similar epidemics taking place in the same years in China, at a time when the first direct contacts between the two empires were established. Eventually, a reflec-tion upon the different perceptions of an epidemics is offered.

 

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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.

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Covid-19, from Venice to Wuhan: a historical recognition and potential mutations of globalization. – The consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic follow an east-west direction (from Asia via Europe to the Americas) which matches the flow of Modernity. This work aims to assess how these events are resulting in a comeback of what we might envisage as modern measurable space in Geography, through a historical comparison with containment measures put in place in the 18th century by Venice, during the plague. Indeed, Venice may be considered an archetype of global powers dealing with risk management issues and struggling to harmonize public health policies with the „needs‟ of trade. After offering an overview of the most common containment measures put in place by the countries affected by Covid-19, we will see how some of the measures implemented by the Venetians are showing their effectiveness today, and we will assess the extent to which the space recovered in this process is likely to transform the idea of globalization as it was known up until very recently.

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Some “precedents” of Covid-19 amidst geography, history, diffusion, and contain-ment. – The epidemics which throughout history have caused the deaths of thousands of people always find a common denominator in the travelling and moving about of people and goods. The contrasting actions re-call consolidated procedures, the memory of which has since been lost. Covid-19 has shed light on these aspects, related here to two historical cases: the plague of 1348 that from Asia reached Italy and Europe, and the one that spread to Alghero in 1582, relevant for the way in which the containment measures adopted – a sort of compulsory quarantine, similar to our red zones and lockdowns but applied with greater severity – succeeded in preventing the spread of the contagion beyond the city walls. By re-interpreting the data in geographical terms, this work aims to contribute to the analysis of the plagues from a geo-historic perspective, with the intention of verifying whether the spread, development and ef-fects of these phenomena have common trends, while taking into ac-count the different socio-economic and territorial aspects that characterize the various contexts.

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Global Event and Local Responses: The Case of the Flu Pandemic 1918-1919. – The experience of the flu pandemic in the year 1918 is considered an important event for understanding the First World War. The flu showed the interconnection due to political-military, commercial, information and news that allowed the virus to be physically transported to every continent and from there to find the possibility of spreading in every nation. Beyond the medical- health characteristics and the consequences derived from its seriousness, this episode shows the ability reached since the early years of the twentieth century to think of itself as an interconnected network that was used by the disease to advance rapidly and pro-voke its harmful consequences.

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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.

 

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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.

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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.

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Covid-19 between north and south of the world. – The article takes on a dialectical and relational vision of the metabolic relationship with nature. In this perspective, viruses are constantly changing in order to survive and the circumstances in which a mutation becomes dangerous depend on human actions. What are the factors that contribute to the spread of epidemics and their rapid transformation into pandemic event? A possible answer is precisely in the historical process: when geographic boundaries become blurred and the world is interconnected, pathogens spread faster, because they travel with goods, animals, plants and with man. And the human being is a node of relationships in all directions, beyond time and space. If we are able to recognize the value and dignity of every human being, we will have started to defeat the pandemic.

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Covid-19 and the spread in African spaces. A geo-anthropological overview. – It is not yet known how Covid-19 will spread in the African continent; many genetic, climatic, sociological, demographic factors can influence its evo-lution. There is no doubt that less developed countries such as the African ones have a weak capacity to respond. According to data provided by the WHO, UN-OCHA and other accredited sources, the spread of the Virus in the Continent appears limited compared to other areas of the Planet; the most affected country is South Africa. The governments of some countries have reacted by implementing, on the European mod-el, procedures such as curfew (Egypt) or lockdown (South Africa and Nigeria). The research aims to develop a framework on the spread of Covid-19 in Africa and the socio-economic impact of the measures im-plemented in the emergency. Another aim is to highlight the changes in the socio-anthropological aspects, considering that many African socie-ties define themselves on the basis of ethnicity, interaction with other communities and therefore social distancing measures will not be as ef-fective as elsewhere.

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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.

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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.

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Sport, Tourism and environment: rethinking local development in the times of Covid-19. – The contribution aims to try to imagine possible territorial development paths starting from the relaunch of individual and team sports, from sporting events driving tourism and from the environment, parks and biodiversity. The costs, in social and economic terms, that Covid-19 is causing on sport and tourism, can only be absorbed if we can quickly identify new forms and new methods of practice and social consumption. The organizational reconfigurations that will concern three major sporting events such as the Tokyo Olympics, the Winter Olympics in Cortina, the Ryder Cup in Rome can serve as a laboratory to rethink a new local development that serves as a basis for rebuilding trust in a global dimension that today it seems tarnished.

 

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The impact of Covid-19 on air transport and tourism: possible evolving scenarios. – This study aims to provide a critical reflection on the current and potential impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on air transport and tourism, with particular attention to the effects on a global, European and Italian scale.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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Habitat, society and “post virus” economy. Possible scenarios. – Starting from the necessary rethinking of the hyper-technological, hyper-fast and hyper-connected global system in which we have been so far immersed and which has contributed to trigger the current pandemic, the present work aims at starting some preliminary reflections on possible scenarios aimed at overcoming the current critical issues and at safeguarding the human group from similar future risks. More precisely, the research will try to highlight not only how the necessary social distancing and forced isolation can strengthen the hypothesis of the shut-in economy and the remodeling of urban spaces, but also how the destruction of habitats and the emissions generated by a linear system of productivity, aimed more at exploitation than at the protection of renewable resources, make urgent both the launch of an economy rethought in a circular sense, and the strengthening of "zero km" production.

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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.

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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.

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New spatialities at the time of Covid-19: the case of Genoa. – The Covid-19 epidemic has had a significant impact on Liguria’s and Genoa’s population in terms of infections rate and associated fatalities, both due to the links with other regions of Northern Italy and the old population. Following national lockdown measurements, the population had to face dramatic changes in habits and everyday life. The paper looks at the impact that the lockdown measurements had on spatiality and everyday life in Genoa’s neighbourhoods. A survey has been carried out among a representa-tive sample of Genoa’s population. The results are analysed also in terms of their spatial distribution, showing the different impact that the lockdown measurements had in the city’s neighbourhoods.

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Geographies of Pandemia in the Chile of Social Riots. New appraisals of urban-rural inequalities. – The global spread of the Covid-19 virus, its speed and mode of propagation, the implications on morbidity, social relations and local and state economic dynamics, redefine the social construction processes of the territories. We propose a reading of the Chilean case, in an attempt to relate the structural, economic and territorial conditions, with the evolution of the health measures adopted, read through the perspective offered by social questions at the center of the protests that have animated the country since 18 October 2019. The structural political framework is the hyperliberist economic model, imposed during the dictatorship of General Pinochet, preserved and enlarged by the center-left governments in the last twenty years, which has among its elements characterizing the maximum opening and dependence on markets international, a production sector flattened on the export of raw materials, the privatization of fundamental services (such as health). At a time when, due to the virus, individual states restore a generalized closure of borders, the Chilean model aims to perpetuate itself by depriving special economic interests of collective well-being, further accentuating internal inequalities between groups social and between territories. The objective of the contribution is to analyze how much the geographical peculiarities of rural areas (low settlement density, relative isolation in terms of connectivity, ecc.) can limit the spread of the virus and, at the same time, how the limited presence of essential services (such as specialized medical centers) may give rise to greater negative effects than in metropolitan centers. The adopted methodology foresees: – a quantitative analysis of the dynamics of the spatial diffusion of virus – a diachronic and micro-territorial analysis of the containment measures adopted by the central government, supplemented by an analysis of the discursive constructions of the main social actors - a discussion of the interrelationship between political actions, social and economic factors.

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Social capital and digital interactions in Italian regions during the emergency phase Covid-19. – With the implementation in Italy of the prevention measures against the spread of the Covid-19, social interactions have been recalibrated through the use of digital infrastructures such as Internet, which have strengthened stable and innovative social relationships. The aim of this research was to evaluate by a quantitative approach, the relationships in all Italian regions of social capital and digital interactions. The analysis has corroborated the existence of a regional divide and a dominant position of some regions of northern Italy and a different relational involvement of the population in all Italian regions.

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Cartography as a symbolic operator: the Covid-19 pandemic in Lombardy. – By anchoring itself to cartographic semiosis, the contribution intends to high-light the importance that cartography acquires within the media communication system, with particular attention to its use in the current health emergency. Indeed, cartography is conceived as a symbolic operator capable of actively acting to create knowledge and provide operational requirements in the Coronavirus emergency. Thanks to cartographic semiosis, it is possible to investigates the construction and communication mechanisms relating to the representation of the territory and the implementation of a cybercartography. This kind of cartography, if it is correctly constructed from a semiotic point of view, is an effective tool, through which it is possible to restore the social complexity of the areas most affected by the pandemic. This contribution will be exemplified on the multiscale mapping of Lombardy produced within the CST-DiathesisLab of the University of Bergamo.

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From open borders to their seal. Lombardy armored in the time of Covid-19. – The Covid-19 pandemic, among other things, has led to the ransom of borders. If, until now, the demolition of borders, walls, barbed wire has been exalted, the outbreak and the spread of the pandemic has produced a radical rethinking of the importance of sanitary cordons. In Lombardy, the most emblematic example is that of the area around Codogno. The area was armored, calling it Red, and the effect was that, in a few days, of bringing the infections to zero. In this paper, however, by borders, we do not mean only the territorial ones, but also the social distancing, at various levels, according to the places of contact between oneself and the other. We also include masks, “altruistic” or “selfish”, which become a relational boundary, as it is difficult to distinguish the physiognomy because they hide the pleasure of a mutual smile. The lockdown, however, was a necessary response, which, with the exception of other waves, serious or not, of Covid-19, is driving Lombardy and the whole of Italy towards a better living condition, compared to the one that occurred to Whuan. Although it involves a series of rules to fol-low, first of all the prohibition of “movida” and, in general, crowd.

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The effects of the diffusion of Covid-19 on the production situation in Campania. – The effects of the Covid-19 epidemic in the Campania region, less relevant than in the central and northern regions in terms of number of infections and specific mortality per 1,000 inhabitants, however, had an impact which, measured on the basis of income production and occupation, they came already profiling at the conclusion of the lockdown imposed on the population and production activities, extremely serious. The purpose of this contribution is to assess, on the basis of the first surveys made available, and on the basis of the analysis of the state of the regional economy and of the employment levels measurable on values referring to 2019, to what extent the region will face the situation following the first epidemic phase. In particular, the initiatives (including economic ones) put in place or planned by the regional territorial institutions and by the measures on a national scale falling within the socalled decrees “cure Italy” and “relaunch”. Attention is paid to the tourism sector and related activities, in the awareness that today the greatest suffering is showing.

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The Covid-19 pandemic within an inner area of Campania: peripherality, density and virus diffusion in the province of Avellino. – In Italy the Covid-19 emergency hit some of the territories crossed by the thickest commercial networks and the intense flows of human mobility
The paper aims to reason on the factors of territorial vulnerability that may have facilitated the spread of the virus, trying to formulate a first hypothesis about the low density settlement structure has protected the more peripheral communities of the inner areas. Starting from the epidemiological data in an inner province of Campania - that of Avellino - the analysis will try to give a first possible framework of the relationship between the degree of peripherality from the service poles, population density and virus diffusion.

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“Cronache Lucane”: Adaptability of the Basilicata in the times of Covid-19. – The Resilience Alliance has developed a methodological scheme for assessing disturbances in a socio-urban system: Resilience Thinking. This model analyzes the characteristics of the perturbing system in relation to the perturbed one. This work, through Adaptability and Transformability, pillars of Resilience, intends to evaluate the performance of these two variables in the geographical context of Basilicata, to add an additional piece to risk studies in the face of emergencies of this magnitude. By means of local sources of information and disclosure, the aim of this pa-per is to evaluate the impact of Covid-19 on Basilicata region and the ef-fectiveness of the active mitigation policies.

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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.
Agorà (Responsabili Giovanni Mauro, Maria Ronza)

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The Missed Europe

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Covid-19: deciphering chaos, representing chaos

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Why Covid-19 represents the worst enemy on the Franci’s road

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Flood and Exodus: Biblical Paradigms of New Begins

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Extremisms in the time of Covid-19

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2020: Which future awaits Italian regions

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Covid-19: A Geographer’s opinion

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Perception and communication in the time of Covid-19

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Development without interactions Face To Face

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The Role of Third-Sector in the time of Covid-19

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Dancing with the Polar Bear in the time of Covid-19

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In the smaller world of Covid-19, we shall come back to Geography