Urban green spaces as proximity tourism destinations: the potential of the Maredolce - La Favara complex between care practices and heritage enhancement. – Proximity tourism allows residents to experience familiar places in new ways and to perceive otherness in an elsewhere that does not imply distance. In urban settings, green spaces offer an evocative appeal that can be emphasized when combined with interest in the presence of heritage emergencies. Therefore, it is possible to reflect on the potential of green areas in urban settings and the implications for tourism and sustainability challenges. Green spaces in cities generate crucial connections that strengthen communities while contributing to local development. This article aims to analyze the role of heritage communities in the care and enhancement of urban green spaces as destinations with the aim of promoting critical tools useful for more equitable and sustainable planning of green space enhancement strategies for tourism. This research explores the case of the Maredolce - La Favara complex (Palermo) with a qualitative methodology that included participant observation and field survey. The green space is subject to processes of care put in place for decades by a group of inhabitants who work for the enhancement and involvement of the area in the representation and governance policies of the city. The processes and dynamics related to the context under study are analyzed to highlight how heritage walks, as effective practices of proximity tourism, can contribute to sustainable urban development that enhances local in-stances of signification and affective belonging to places.
Dante’s itinerarium: geographies for knowledge of the elsewhere. – The itinerary traveled by Dante to the three reigns of the afterlife and narrated in the Divine Commedia is emblematic of a type of knowledge journey that places physical and metaphysical realities on the same stage and considers the cultural identity of the narrating self and the geographical characteristics of the elsewhere voyaged by the traveler-narrator. This paper aims to offer, from a geographical perspective, an insight into the mean-ing of travel, considering not only the material geographic reality, but also the perceptual and symbolic dimension that is given to spatiality by persons and communities that identify with a specific culture.
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.