Risultati per "Territori"

Socio-ecological infrastructures: rural communities and habitability in Southern Puglia. – This article examines traditional living places and socio-ecological reproduction as infrastructure among farmers practicing natural and regenerative agriculture in Southern Puglia. Exploring intergenerational knowledge, it shows how farmers enhance socio-ecological systems through cooperation with natural laws and refusal of extractivism. Case studies include “Torre dei Mastro” (Castellana Grotte), “Amadeco” (Salento), and neo-farmers in and around the Itria Valley. Findings show how neoliberal threats affect farmers’ capacity to sustain their systems, while double movement, self-governance and self-sustainability emerge, rooted in place-consciousness and autopoiesi. These practices embody restanza, stressing the potential of traditional farming for socio-ecological reproduction and their medium-long term potential socio-territorial change.
Western Italian Boundaries. The geopolitics of Sabaudian space in Giovanni Botero’s Relazione di Piamonte. – In recent decades, the historiography dedicated to the Duchy of Savoy has reflected at length on the theme of the borders and frontiers of the pre-alpine dominions, investigating in depth the composite nature of those territories between discontinuities (the Monferrato, the marquisate of Saluzzo, imperial and papal fiefs ...) and attempts at assimilation. Reasoning around a text such as Giovanni Botero’s Relazione di Piamonte of 1607, we intend to retrace in a geopolitical key the agglutination of the Savoy territories, taking into account both local and international dynamics of the second half of the 16th century. Amidst tensions with France along the Alpine ridge, internal frictions with the Waldensian valleys, and Mediterranean projections, the complex picture will emerge within which Charles Emmanuel I on the one hand consolidated the achievements of his father Emmanuel Philibert with the peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, and on the other prepared the breakaway from Spain in the wake of the conflicts over the succession of Mantua and Monferrato (1613-1618; 1627-1631).
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Climate and coasts: transdisciplinary research practices for adaptation to climate change in italian coastal territories. – The contribution presents the first results of the Research Project of National Interest PNRR 2022 on the contrast to the effects of climate change on Italian coastal geosystems, entitled “From the Beaches to the Coasts: towards an Integrated Coast Protection”. The PRIN involves a group of researchers from different SSD (lawyers, geographers, urban economists and statisticians) and Italian universities (Bocconi, Cassino, Iuav, Roma Tre, Urbino). The first results that will be illustrated in the article concern the design of collaborative research practices and transdisciplinary open science in the field of integrated coastal zone management and the Atlas of sustainability and integrated coastal management in Italy.
The Evolution of the State and Economy in the Modern Age as Premises of Contemporary Geopolitics. – The main institutional and economic phenomena that emerged in the Modern Age and that favored the subsequent birth of geopolitics in the 19th and 20th centuries are the following: the transition from the patrimonial dynastic State to the absolute State, the birth of political borders and related cartography, religious wars and their overcoming, the challenge of the Ottoman Empire to Europe, geographical discoveries, the capitalist organization of the world. These phenomena gave rise to a territorialist geopolitical thought in the Age of Imperialism, more sensitive, that is, to the political-military appropriation of the world than to the cultural, commercial and financial control of territories.
Collective land tenures: socio-ecological infrastructures in the mountain territories of l’Aquila, Italy. – This study examines collective land tenures as socio-ecological infrastructures articulating multi-scalar relationships among local communities, rural commons, and mountain governance. Despite extensive dismantling and erasure during the twentieth century, these institutions persist as self-governed systems supported by statutes and assembly-based practices. Drawing on qualitative methods including participant observation, interviews and walking as a research method in the mountain territories of L’Aquila, the research shows how collective land tenures continue to sustain ecological stewardship yet struggle to reproduce civic participation and territorial habitability due to depopulation and the erosion of cultural transmission. Recognizing them as socio-ecological infrastructures highlights their potential for civic regeneration, ecological care, and shared decision-making, offering self-organized responses to contemporary political and socio-ecological challenges in mountain areas.
Between Political Technology and Territorial Practices: Space, Power, and Territorial Practices in Late Medieval Sicily
Youth social infrastructures: dynamics and critical issues in two marginalised neighbourhoods of Palermo. – This article examines Youth Social Infrastructures (YSIs) in two marginalised neighbourhoods of Palermo – San Filippo Neri (ZEN) and Uditore-Passo di Rigano – exploring how places and organisations enable or constrain young people’s participation and sociality in contexts marked by public disinvestment and territorial stigmatisation. Drawing on ethnographic research, the study investigates formal spaces managed by third sector organisations and informal spaces of spontaneous aggregation. The analysis identifies key capacities of YSIs – including continuity, safe spaces, networking, and advocacy – alongside critical limitations: funding precarity, numerical inadequacy, difficulties in institutional co-design, limited youth self-determination, and deficit-based narratives that risk reinforcing stigmatisation. By examining YSIs in context and in contest, the article highlights the tension between grassroots vitality and structural fragility in southern European marginalised contexts.
The case study of Bitti (Sardinia): Risk perception and local best practices. – In alignment with Goal 13 of the UN 2030 Agenda, strengthening risk awareness within local communities can provide a framework for effective citizenship in managing extreme weather and climate events. In Sardinia, the community of Bitti (an inland area in the province of Nuoro, northeastern Sardinia) experienced a devastating flood in 2020. In response, local institutions and the community demonstrated resilience and implemented sound institutional practices. Following a field survey initiated through meetings with local authorities, this work presents the results of research aimed at understanding the risk perception among the municipality’s population. This insight aims to support the future implementation of participatory processes and citizen science tools designed to foster the development of communities resilient to meteorological disasters.
Politics, Education, and Geography in the Early Modern Period: Notes for a Histor-ical Analysis. – This article explores the connection between political au-thority, education, and geography in the early modern period, analyzing how the teaching of geography became a fundamental tool for managing and controlling emerging territories. In a context of fragmented educa-tional systems, the article highlights how geography was used to address the new political, economic, and social needs of European powers. Schools, both secular and religious, particularly those run by orders like the Jesuits, played a key role in transmitting this knowledge, contributing to the creation of new skills essential for colonial expansion. Finally, the article underscores how geography, understood as both a scientific disci-pline and a political tool, became a point of convergence between educa-tion and power, legitimizing the imperial ambitions of European.
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Mountain Tourism and Climate Change: What Are the Future Prospects? – In the collective imagination, when one speaks of a mountain tourist destination, the reference is typically to iconic places, especially associated with the winter season and the so-called “settimana bianca” (winter holiday week). Places like Courmayeur or Cortina d’Ampezzo have represented, and have been portrayed in films as well, a constant presence in the world of mountain tourism. The first major setback occurred with the Covid-19 pandemic in recent years, which changed the concept of travel and mobility as we had known it. In particular, the halt to national and international connections caused not only economic damage across the entire tourism sector but, more importantly, created a widespread fear of being together in crowded and enclosed spaces. This led people to rethink and reprogram their lives and their mobility habits, triggering - once it became possible to leave their places of residence - a timid yet urgent desire to be outdoors, to walk in the woods, visit beaches, and explore city centers where they could satisfy the longing that had built up over nearly two years of complete travel lockdown. This shift resulted in an exponential increase in visits to nearby locations at the provincial and regional levels, leading to a renewed appreciation for neighboring areas, as well as small villages and mountain towns. These places, in turn, had to adapt to welcome an increasing number of unexpected and unanticipated tourists. Adding to this scenario is climate change, which is severely challenging the operators of mountain facilities and accommodations. The seasons no longer follow their natural rhythm, and instead, we are witnessing increasingly unpredictable and violent weather events. This article will explore how certain mountain locations are confronting these emergencies and what changes they are likely to undergo in terms of tourism in the near future.
Rethinking the places of life and work: the inner areas facing the challenges of syndemics. – After a ten years long debate on the SNAI and the goal of demographic in-version to be pursued with a «reversal of the gaze», or «bringing the margins to the center», we can talk about the controversial process generated by this objective, still ongoing: centering the strategy on a spatial practice (living) has led to a concentration of scientific and policy responsibilities on territorial planning which, while certainly crucial, works if the project is equipped in advance with a strong analysis of the places. This is the basis of the thought on inner areas that must be strengthened so that these places can be freed from intellectual subalternity. In fact, the theory and practice of planning also need to recover a good description of the territory, that ability to interpret the complexity of the relationships between natural space and human action, which is the work of the geographer. The paper aims to reflect on the need to re-think the descriptive investigation as a prerequisite for good planning, due to the urgencies issued by climate change and the pandemic shock, phenomena which, closely connected to each other, have shown how unpredictable and diversified they can be territorial responses to external stresses. The complementarity between description and planning, i.e. the alliance between geographers and architects, will be adopted as a guiding category to be able to read the depopulation of internal areas not as a merely housing issue but, rather, in a holistic vision, as the effect of the limits of a production system based on unsustainable territorial hierarchies.
Il numero monografico, che qui presentiamo, traccia seppur in modo campionario, un profilo di cosa i geografi italiani pensano a tal proposito e di come procedono oggi, nell’analisi critica e nella progettazione del territorio, facendo emergere un’identità tutt’altro che incerta verso le prospettive transdisciplinari.
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.
Integral Land Reclamation and Climate Transition: A Mesological Perspective on the ‘Macchina della Terra’. – This contribution examines integral reclamation in the Gulf of Oristano, Sardinia, employing Berque's concepts of ecumene and mesology alongside geographical insights. Lucio Gambi’s metaphor of reclamation as a “macchina della terra” serves as a foundational idea, while Federica Cavallo highlights modern territorial constructs that emerge from contrasts such as water vs. earth and modern vs. wild. On the centenary of the Santa Chiara dam’s inauguration, which transformed Oristano’s coastal wetlands, the region now faces the challenges of climate change. The interplay between land and local communities reveals both contradictions and potential alliances in ecological resilience, particularly in discussions surrounding Nitrate Vulnerable Zones. A century of human-environment interactions has reshaped these areas into vital agro-food production hubs, underscoring the need for a mesological perspective on this evolution.
The memory of water. Hydrosocial fragility and urbanisation in Cagliari. – In Italy, the modern abstraction of human beings from the environment has led to a strict technicist management of natural resources and to a clear separation between urban and social policies, not entirely overcome by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). In particular, urban strategies struggle to reason about the role of water in the territorial system, relegating it to technical risk management interventions. From the debate around the mesological approach, various declinations of the relationship between human presence and water outline an often-chaotic palimpsest of plans and visions of urban space.
The contribution addresses the case study of the Cagliari municipality of Pirri, in the relationship between the historical condition of hydrogeological and social fragility and the new urban strategies to contrast risk. This systemisation is possible by adopting a reading of Pirri as a hydro-social territory, which allows us to critically reconstruct the history of the hydro-social fragility of this territory and consequently to re-read past and future planning policies.
Major sporting events, discussed legacies and host destination transformations. –Among the various interpretations with which one can look at events, one possibility is to understand their legacy, understood as what remains in the territory at the end of the event itself in terms of symbols and values, or structures and systems; and if this legacy often becomes more important than the event itself. The article aims to examine the case of the Barcolana, an annual sailing event and regatta that takes place in the Gulf of Trieste. It is one of the largest and most famous sailing regattas in Europe and the world. The regatta attracts thousands of participants and spectators, mak-ing it a significant cultural and sporting event in the region. The Barcolana is known for its unique format, which involves a mass start in which hundreds of boats of various sizes and classes participate in a single regatta. Almost eighteen hundred boats were registered for the fifty-fifth edition last year. The event lasts a week with events on land and at sea, as well as the sailing competition which takes place on Sunday. After a review of the literature relating to the topic under study, through a qualitative methodology the factors that together create those effects, often positive but not only, on the territories involved in the event were analysed. The “on the move” interviews with some event participants were useful for understanding the involvement and quality of the event itself, and how to guarantee its continuous and gradual development.
Living with austerity, rebuilding care. Social infrastructures in crisis and practices of self-organization in Antico Corso, Catania. – This paper examines how the dismantling and partial rebuilding of care-related social infrastructures in the Antico Corso neighbourhood of Catania has reshaped everyday life and local power relations. The closure of three historic hospitals—an outcome of prolonged urban austerity—has profoundly altered the neighbourhood’s sense of place. Drawing on a qualitative approach that includes ethnography, interviews, document analysis, and participant observation, the paper shows how institutional narratives present these closures as inevitable and beneficial, legitimizing top-down “urban regeneration” while excluding residents from meaningful decision-making. Many inhabitants respond with a mix of anger and resignation, perceiving the loss of the hospitals as a wound to the neighbourhood’s identity. At the same time, feminist collectives, civic committees, and grassroots organizations are developing alternative narratives and practices of social and territorial care. These initiatives contribute to redefining the neighbourhood from below and contest the spatial consequences of austerity. The paper argues that the crisis of social reproduction manifests not only as an economic issue, but as a spatial and political struggle that generates both new forms of marginalization and innovative practices of resistance and belonging. The case of Catania highlights the specificities and contradictions of austerity urbanism in Southern Italy.
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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.
Counter-Geographies of Wine: Marginal Viticultural Practices and the Transition To-ward a Post-Alcoholic Enotourism. The Role of Acquata. – This article proposes a critical re-reading of contemporary wine geographies through the notion of counter-geographies, focusing on acquata—a traditional post-fermentative beverage derived from the rehydration of grape pomace—as an epistemic and territorial device capable of reconfiguring the cultural and ecological meanings of wine production. Building on the theoretical framework of post-alcoholic enotourism, the study explores how emerging “NoLo” (no- and low-alcohol) consumption regimes intersect with transformations in rural landscapes, sustainability policies, and socio-symbolic practices of conviviality. Historical and geographical analysis reveals that acquata, far from being a marginal residue of pre-industrial viticulture, embodies a vernacular knowledge system rooted in circular use of resources, social equity, and ecological restraint. Its historical erasure through modern regulatory frameworks reflects broader processes of epistemic and territorial exclusion within capitalist agri-food regimes. By reactivating ac-quata as a cultural and political tool, the paper advances the hypothesis of a regenerative geography of wine, in which residual practices and marginal knowledges serve as generative forces for more inclusive, sustainable, and plural forms of enotourism and territorial identity.
Geopolitics of Early Modern Age. Global Lines, Territorial Power, and Geographical Uncertainty. – This article explores the origins of geopolitics in the early modern period (16th-17th centuries), demonstrating how three key elements – the establishment of global lines, the relationship between state power and territoriality, and geographical uncertainty – shaped both the politics of the era and contemporary geopolitical thought. Through the analysis of cartographic sources (e.g., the Cantino Planisphere, 1502), treaties (Tordesillas, Cateau-Cambrésis), and theoretical works (Schmitt, Bo-tero, Machiavelli), it argues that: global lines codified the division of the world into spheres of influence, foreshadowing bipolar or multipolar logics; political territoriality emerged forcefully, crystallizing in national borders and the principle of sovereignty (Westphalia), despite simultaneous global expansion; geographical uncertainty, stemming from discrepancies between maps and reality, became a defining feature of geopolitics, with echoes in today’s crisis of international orders. The article thus reinterprets the roots of geopolitics, locating them not in the 19th century but in the crucible of early modernity, with implications for understanding contemporary power dynamics.
The contract of life: transdisciplinarity and territorial governance in times of polycrisis. – The article, which deals with the problematic nature of territorial planning in times of polycrisis, reflects on some of the questions that the current issue of the journal puts to the attention of researchers, namely: what theoretical apparatus does geography have at its disposal to deal with problems that need to be tackled in an interdisciplinary manner? Can the current debate on climate change lead to a geographical attitude towards transdisciplinarity? Is a transdisciplinary vision aimed at the integration of knowledge capable of co-design as a mental attitude before a research programme? How can geography contribute to the operationalisation of such a scenario? In short, by using geographical analytical skills, one wonders if it is possible to envisage a method of governance that brings out a design suggested by the peculiarities of places and by the knowledge/experience of the inhabitants, who are no longer seen exclusively as recipients of interventions, but as designers and evaluators of the intervention itself.
Climate change as an opportunity for a new “habitability” of the mountains: the Orobic massif system. – Rising temperatures in many cities are altering their habitability, leading to the return of urban populations to the countryside and generating new opportunities for mountain areas. To trigger a new habitability of these areas, it is necessary to have a more correct geo-historical and territorial reading of them. Geo-historical and territorial interpretation based on the systemic culture of massive and the reticularity between different valleys. The Orobic Massif is an exemplary case of such dynamics and leads to the development of a change of perspective, bringing to light the material and intangible heritage still widely diffused and contrasting its valley disarticulation. To guarantee the habitability of the mountain it is also necessary to activate co-designing actions that transform the inhabit-ants into stakeholders in the role of planners and evaluators. The contri-bution presents the first results emerging from the research conducted by the authors within the framework of the PRIN 2022: “Governance for mountain reticularity: co-design and activation of a “contratto d’abitare” for the territorial regeneration of the Seriana Valley”.
The participatory process of community tourism in Oscata for the enhancement of Alta Irpinia. - Tourism is one of the most disruptive phenomena on a global scale, both as concerns intensity in terms of the flows of people it moves and for the economic, social and environmental transformations it brings. The exploitation of territorial resources and the effects tourism produces can at times result irreversible on the environmental system of reference. This element has often been underestimated by the tourism industry remaining unable to prevent the negative consequences of mass tourism which, on the one hand, damages resources and, on the other, corrodes the socio-territorial fabric. Consequently, a rethinking of the processes of development in the sector is necessary from the perspective of sustainability through local community participation.
The paper, based on the experience of Oscata, a rural village situated in Alta Irpinia, aims to reflect on alternative forms of tourism such as community tourism which welcomes visitors offering them hospitality underpinned by emotional and culturally interesting involvement thus triggering integration and participation in the local community's routine activities and mainstream social events.
Rethinking the urban role of nature in climate change. The project for an urban green wall. – The paper discusses the Green Urban Oases project that aims to reconverse more than 500,000ha of land into new urban forests and restor about 300,000ha of forests in the Sahel and Central Asia. The project is part of a broader reflection that sees cities at the centre of the debate on climate change and aims to rethink the relationship between society and nature. Since, on the one hand, nature is increasingly becoming a protagonist in the process of urban adaptation, on the other hand it seems continuing to be conceptualised only in terms of human needs.
The aim of this contribution, part of a broader work, is to reflect on the role that nature-based solutions, implemented in particular through the above-mentioned project, have in cities and if they represent ways for the ‘nature’ to go beyond the marginal, passive and anthropocentric interpre-tation it has had until now in climate change depate.
Climate Crisis and Tourism in the Maira and Vermenagna Valleys (Piedmont Alps). – This study examines the transformations driven by climate change in the alpine context, focussing on the Maira and Vermenagna Valleys in the Piedmont Alps, two areas marked by environmental vulnerability and significant exposure to ongoing climatic and socio-economic pressures. The research explores how rising temperatures and decreasing snowfall are significantly reshaping the local tourism supply, requiring a reorganisation of the sector.
Combining in-depth interviews with local stakeholders and quantitative analysis of tourism and climate data, the study reveals a growing awareness of the phenomenon and its socioeconomic impacts. The climate crisis has exposed the unsustainability of traditional ski-based tourism, prompting a shift toward more resilient models such as experiential, outdoor, and cul-tural tourism.
While the Maira Valley shows greater adaptability thanks to an already di-versified offer, the Vermenagna Valley, historically reliant on alpine skiing, struggles to transition. The findings highlight the urgent need for locally coordinated strategies that integrate sustainability, cultural identity, and innovation.
Living in Valbrevenna Today: Urban-Mountain Dynamics within the Greater Genoa. – The concept of “metropolitan mountain”, which has recently gained significant traction in academic discussions, encourages the reflection on the relationship between center and periphery, aiming to transcend traditional oppositions between metropolitan and mountain areas. Moving away from the city, the territorial processes reveal increasingly distinct dynamics that may offer valuable insights into the potential of these mountainous regions within the metropolitan context. In this article, the municipality of Valbrevenna (in the Metropolitan City of Genoa) is studied to explore the territorial re-configurations of cotemporary lives, moving beyond dichotomous perspectives to embrace a nuanced view of the social, economic, and demographic complexities that define this territory. Based on the results of extensive qual-itative field research, this study offers contextualized reflections aimed at stimulating further discussion on the specific configurations of a “metropolitan mountain” within the Genoa area also for what concerns the challenges offered by the climate changes.
Towards a new Geopolitics. Reflections on the challenge of theoretical clarity, in the complexity of the new Millennium. – In a historical phase of accelerating change, persistent conflict, falling ideological veils, and recognition of the importance of the spatial element in influencing politics and conflict, contemporary Geopolitics is faced with a formidable historical challenge: that of developing theoretical clarity. This is a difficult task, however, because of some legacies of classical Geopolitics and differences in approaches. Nevertheless, contemporary global political changes make it possible not only to broaden horizons, overcoming the state-centric paradigm and the theoretical rigidities of the past, but also to reorder concepts and theories, maintaining at their basis the stability of the geographic factor, albeit bal-anced by human action. It can also be done by seeking to broaden the investigation into territoriality, geographic space, and the territorial concentration of power. This can be achieved not only by extending the multidisciplinary dialogue, but also by synthesizing the most solid findings generated by different approaches and schools, such as Critical and Neo-classical geopolitics, in the direction of a dynamic Geopolitics, able to approach, even if in small steps, a general theory.
Global Goals, Local Gaps: The Presentation of the 2025 ASviS Report on Territories
A geography for institutional cohesion. The OSAII Interuniversity Center: rebuilding politico-administrative territories through the interweaving of knowledge.
Soil consumption, climate change, and large commercial structures. The Italian case study. – In Italy, between 2006 and 2022, over 1,200 km2 of land was consumed, most of which was derived from urban expansion processes. There are many relationships between soil consumption and climate change, both in causes and consequences. In this work, I focus on the soil consumption of large commercial structures, such as shopping centers, factory outlets, and retail parks. In Italy, there are over 1,300 of these structures, and – apart from the few cases that have occupied areas derived from the reconversion of abandoned industrial sites or other urbanized areas – they have mostly developed in rural areas or by occupying residual urban and suburban green areas. In this work, I first reviewed the interna-tional literature on soil consumption deriving from GSCs, discovering that it is extremely rare and does not deal with this type of urbanization independently but only in a generic way as one of the many aspects of urban sprawl. Instead, they become protagonists of scientific literature when they are abandoned. There is no specific legislation in the European Union or Italy on soil consumption in commercial areas. In Italy, the legislature in this matter is delegated to the regions. Still, despite the existence of restrictive regional laws on land consumption, there is no effective response to the problem at the moment.
Nature-based solutions and the Erasmus+ program: a combination that can generate socio-environmental value in inner areas. – In areas subject to depopulation, although this trend risks hindering climate adaptation efforts, it also opens up opportunities for renaturalization and ecosystem improvement projects. This article explores the role of nature-based solutions (NbS) in in-land areas, highlighting their potential to promote environmental aware-ness and community involvement. Through a case study on Bergolo (CN), we aim to provide an initial analysis highlighting how the community garden located here can create and renew the social fabric, specifically thanks to the role of the Erasmus+ program. Through a series of semi-structured interviews, this work aims to be a starting point for highlighting how such initiatives increase local awareness of socio-environmental issues and strengthen community ties at both the local and European levels.
Urban green spaces and community roots: the social infrastructure of Parco Uditore (Palermo). – This article examines how urban green spaces act as social infrastructures capable of countering fragmentation in contexts marked by austerity, marginalisation and the erosion of collective life. Drawing on critical perspectives on roots and identity, it interprets green-space care as a form of re-rooting through which communities rebuild relations, memories and shared attachments. Using Parco Uditore in Palermo as a case study, the article explores how bottom-up management fosters social cohesion, produces territorial knowledge and supports new forms of citizenship, while also revealing structural vulnerabilities and limits to replicability. The findings show how community-led green spaces can rekindle bonds of place and open pathways toward more shared and meaningful ways of inhabiting the city.
“Erasing landscape to make space”. The protection of Palestinian olive trees as a practice of territorial control.
Geographies of the sacred: the sanctuary of the SS. Trinità of Vallepietra between tradi-tion, territorial identity, and new practices. – The Sanctuary of the Santissima Trinità of Vallepietra represents an emblematic place where faith, tradition, and new social and territorial practices converge. This study examines how this sacred space continues to hold strong spiritual significance while also embracing new dynamics related to slow and sustainable travel. Younger generations are rediscovering pilgrimage through paths that combine spirituality with a search for territorial authenticity, maintaining a strong connection with tradition. The “companies” of pilgrims, symbolically united by banners and the practice of gatherings, perpetuate an identity bond with the territory, reinterpreting their belonging through a lens of re-territorialization. In this context, events related to pilgrimages and gatherings of banners are seen as practices of reclaiming the territory, strengthening the bond with the local community, and reaffirming the collective meaning of the sacred site. The approach of the Holy Year 2025 and the extraordinary Jubilee of 2033 has renewed attention to these places, intensifying the process of re-territorialization and reinforcing the bond between spirituality and territory. This study shows that, although influenced by socio-cultural changes, sanctuaries remain focal points of collective identity and territorial relationships, able to evolve without losing their original religious significance.
Perché amiamo i luoghi delle canzoni che amiamo? In un percorso di geografia configurativa, Luca Bertoloni e Arianna Chieppe ci portano in quello che può essere considerato il cuore della territorialità emozionale: l’artializzazione.
Questo numero di documenti geografici si focalizza sul tema degli eventi nel loro rapporto con il territorio. In fisica, un evento è un “punto nello spazio tempo” e questa definizione ci sembra ben si applichi anche al modo in cui in geografia e in altre scienze sociali è andato consolidandosi l’ambito degli “Event Studies” con sotto-ambiti di specializzazione per caratteristiche delle manifestazioni (mega-eventi o eventi nazionali e medio-piccoli; ambito tematico: sport, cultura, politica…), nonché tempi (prima, durante e dopo) e prospettive con cui guardarli (considerando le diverse valenze e impatti culturali, economiche, politiche, ambientali e territoriali per le località ospitanti).
The new opportunities offered by immersive and inclusive technologies to represent and rediscover the complex relationship between human communities and water resources. – In order to know, represent and interpret the complex relationship between water landscapes and human communities the new technologies (immersive cartography, three-dimensional web, augmented reality, 3D environments) represent extraordinary and functional tools both for research and for territorial information and promotion actions in terms of tourism. Evidence of this is the project “Tourist Itineraries to Discover the Waters of Italy”, conceived and promoted by the GECOAGRI LANDITALY Interuniversity Research Group Association and financed by ACEA, aimed at promoting a process of water resource enhancement in the dimension of environmental, economic and social sustainability. The authors through some exemplifications and using a methodology of operational analysis, characterized by new syntaxes, reconstruct with the help of augmented reality and immersive technologies, as well as the canonical geocartographic and documentary sources, the material and immaterial dimension of the water resource in the Conca reatina, Umbilicus Italiae, where the sociocultural dynamics underlying the relationship between water and population, narrate experiences of vulnerability and development, participation and conflict, protection and threat. Through 10 ten interactive and implementable totem-stations, it is possible to embark on an inclusive and participatory journey that allows people to explore even inaccessible places. Not only video and audio, historical and thematic cartographies, photos and three-dimensional images, but also drone shots from which to observe from above what nature and culture have achieved and, if necessary, to land in particular places reconstructed through augmented reality that allows one to observe them as they were and as they are today, making clear the processes of transformation of which signs and sedimentations remain in the landscape palimpsest.
Proximity tourism. The perception of locations as rediscovery and development of local destinations. – The Covid-19 pandemic fundamentally reshaped the concept of mobility across the globe. People had to rethink their own lives and above all their usual mobility spaces. After restrictions, people could move to nearby rediscovering a proximity tourism which is characterized by an increased emphasis on local and regional experiences. It reflects a desire for safer, more sustainable, and easily accessible travel options, as tourists prioritize health concerns, lower carbon footprints, and less crowded environments. In this article we are going to understand how some locations have been changed due to pandemic and which geographical transformation have experienced.
Il testo, curato da Angelo Turco e Marco Maggioli, ha il pregio di riproporre nel contesto accademico piste di riflessione e chiavi di lettura geografiche contenute nell’enciclica Laudato si’, contribuendo all’ampio dibattito suscitato dall’uscita del documento, non solo in ambito ecclesiale.
Comparative Experiences of Equestrian Sports Events in the Metropolitan Area of Rome. – Sports events offer an opportunity for regeneration, visibility, and international repositioning for the hosting territories as they can lead to the creation of cultural districts, displaying the territory’s self-representation and specialization. While these events require significant organizational and financial commitments, they also present strategic opportunities with various effects, such as economic diversification and cultural enrichment. This study examines the territorial impacts of two equestrian sports events in the Rome metropolitan area: the 2022 World Equestrian Games and the Piazza di Siena horse show. Despite
performing the same sport discipline, these events have different economic, social, and environmental impacts, as well as varying dynamics related to managing territorial conflicts. The reflection aims to analyse how to reconcile the goals of tourism-economic development and environmental protection in areas with significant natural value, by identifying programmatic actions and best practices.
L’incessante avanzamento tecnologico comporta uno straordinario impatto sui territori e sui loro corpi idrici, presentando sfide e opportunità per la comunità scientifica in generale e per quella geografica in particolare. L’innovazione tecnologica riveste infatti un ruolo sempre più pervasivo nella configurazione e nelle dinamiche di sviluppo del territorio e rende necessario identificare metodologie di analisi e strumenti tecnologici innovativi per analizzare, verificare e condividere conoscenza e pratiche virtuose.
The management of water resources in mountain contexts in ecological transition. – The frequency and concatenation of environmental and climatic phenomena requires a reflection on our way of managing the change, and in this direction the principle of “custody of the high lands” enhances the awareness of the communities on ecosystem services related to the precious water resources, essential to the biodiversity and the basis of stable economies for the mountain. The contribution intends to build a critical framework on interventions oriented to stem the water crises, adopted in the most vulnerable national mountain areas but which at-tempt the difficult territorial transition path on the climate tendency scenarios. The strategies will be analyzed, promoted by regional legislation and innovative regulations, for the territorialization of the actions on the management of the resource, but also complex projects and multi-sectoral studies with direct repercussions on physical and cultural landscapes, which therefore lead to inclusive forms of governance and participate.
The Rome of “great events”: mapping and diachronic analysis at the city-territory scale. The impact of a century and a half of extraordinary interventions. – This survey offers an accurate analysis of the major events held in Rome since the beginning of the 20th century. The time under review starts with the 1900 Jubilee, when the organization of hosting activities was for the first time under the responsibility of Italian authorities with specific economic support for reception facilities, and with the 1908 Olympics, where the planned venue for sporting events anticipates some of the choices made for Rome 1960 Olympics. The latter were strongly advocated by Pope Pius X, but in the end canceled by decision of Giolitti with similar motivations to the “no” expressed by Monti for the Rome 2020 event. The time spans up to the next Jubilee to be held in 2025 with the PNRR- financed projects.
Through a GIS mapping of planned and/or implemented interventions, and a comparative analysis with official ante quem and post quem cartography, the pilot survey aims at highlighting how much and how the “extraordinary” influences the “ordinary”, that is, how much targeted interventions in the city specifically needed for a major event impacts and directs its transformation, pointing out how the “extraordinary” is binding for the “ordinary” in individual case studies.
Cultural innovation, museum network, territorial system: the role of management software
Territorial management and promotion of the tourism offer: a study on the city of Benevento. – This paper explores tourism management in the Sannio region, focusing on Benevento. It highlights the importance of integrating the region’s natural, cultural, and gastronomic resources into a cohesive tourism offer. Through surveys and interviews with visitors, the study identifies key strengths, such as the region’s unique identity and attractions, but also highlights challenges like limited accessibility and inadequate infrastructure. Wellness, nature-based, and cultural tourism are identified as high-potential growth segments. The paper recommends strategic, integrated management, including infrastructure improvements, targeted marketing, and collaborative governance to enhance tourism developTerritorial management, Proximity tourism, Tourism, Territo-rial competitivenessment and competitiveness.
Strategic planning and local tourism: the case of Grecìa Salentina. – The XXVI edition of the Report on Italian Tourism from the Institute of Sciences of Cultural Heritage of the National Research Council (CNR ISPC) revealed that in 2022 (Marasco et al., 2023), out of the 70.1 billion euros spent by Italian tourists within the country, only 15.2 billion euros remained within the visitors' home regions. This marked a decrease of about 0.5 percentage points compared to 2019, showing a negative trend for local tourism. Despite this, proximity tourism shows strong potential, especially in marginal and inland areas, which can contribute to these places' development and cultural awareness. To achieve this, it is important to integrate local tourism into a long-term process led by the local community, emphasizing environmental, cultural, economic, and social sustainability as outlined in Agenda 2030. This approach is exemplified by the Strategic Plan for Tourism Development for the Union of Municipalities of the Grecìa Salentina, which aims to promote sustainable tourism.
Re-think Rome, re-generate the peripheries. The Jubilee 2025. – The importance of major events for the territorial development of Rome highlights how they have influenced urban planning choices throughout history. Rome has alternated between positive and cautious approaches toward such events over time. In particular, the Jubilee, whether in its regular or extraordinary programming, demands a planning approach that balances Rome’s identity as both a capital and an apostolic seat. The Jubilee 2025 offers an opportunity to rethink and regenerate the urban development of Rome, not only in the central neighborhoods but also in the peripheries. This contribution focuses on the urban planning project for Jubilee 2025, with particular emphasis on the southeastern quadrant of the city, to evaluate whether the proposed actions can effectively address the socio-territorial challenges faced by areas such as Tor Vergata and Tor Bella Monaca.
I paesaggi, gli studi, i progetti, gli strumenti e il lessico delle e per le aree interne definiscono la struttura di questo corposo volume, che raccoglie i numerosi contributi di studiose e studiosi – in prevalenza architetti – impegnati nella riflessione scientifica e nella progettazione territoriale concernente l’arcipelago di paesi protagonisti della SNAI.
Digital currency and geopolitics: the challenge between United States and China. – This research focuses on the potentially revolutionary role of the Chinese digital currency, the Electronic Renminbi, in reshaping the Chinese banking system and transnational geopolitical and economic dynamics. The e-RMB, part of the Chinese reform agenda since 2015, aims to redefine international balances by challenging the dominance of the US dollar. The Chinese strategy, exemplified by initiatives like the Belt and Road Initiative, seeks to transition from American unipolarity to a multipolar system, ensuring stability for China’s economic growth. The e-RMB presents a seemingly liberal standard with privacy guarantees, but it actually aims to build a parallel system based on authoritarian capitalism and surveillance in the new territories of cyberspace.
Cooperations, mediations and conflicts between Italy and Switzerland in the Ticino River catchment basin: some geographical reflections. – This paper aims to describe and critically analyze the set of agreements, common laws and practices that were build up, across the years, to regulate cooperation between Switzerland and Italy around the Ticino River catchment basin on a series of issues concerning lakes and rivers. We identified five: shipping, fishing, regulation of water levels, electricity supply and production, and environmental protection. Interreg projects that were developed in the area are analyzed as recent means to solve conflicts based on innovative cross-scale governances. Eventually, issues of potential discord demanding mediation and cooperation in the near future are outlined, specifically in relation to climate change.
Glaciers and Water bodies: Considerations and Emerging Prospects in Alpine Settings. – This research highlights the importance of the relationship between glacier health, snow cover, water resources availability and territories in the Alpine region. Snow has the strategic task of protecting glaciers, feeding freshwater reserves, regulating sea level and supporting local communities. However, snowfall is decreasing and snow and ice are melting faster due to global warming. Therefore, planning future risk management strategies is mandatory for water governance and environmental protection. In this regard Engadin represents an interesting case study. In this region, a local project aims at slowing down the retreat of the Morteratsch glacier. Moreover, a watercourse renaturation project has also been implemented in order to overcome the problem of substantially increased river flow due to rapidly melting glaciers. These are examples of policies that should take into account current climate changes and the physical conditions of the mountain environment.
Analysis and perspectives on water stress reduction: territorial implications and innovative approaches. – Ensuring water sustainability through technological innovation is crucial, especially for groundwater, a vital component linked to the hydrological cycle. It plays a pivotal role in supplying drinking water for various purposes, including agriculture and industry. Climate change pose significant threats to groundwater conservation, raising concerns about both quantity and quality with significant socio-economic implications. Effective preservation requires hydrogeological monitoring of underground basins, coupled with dynamic water balance modelling to provide predictive insights. These modern tools are essential for proper physical resource management. Implementing innovative technologies and strategic political and management planning for underground aquifers are imperative for initiating a robust program to mitigate risks and achieve a sustainable balance for this precious resource.
The policy of museum free admission and the enhancement of cultural sites as a potential tool for the transition of territorial gathering spaces. – The choice to adopt museum policies that provide free admission to museums could impact the increase in visitors. It could generate social repercussions on the territory and act as a tool for transforming meeting spaces, with particular attention to some European realities. The study aims to analyze the correlation between free admission, frequency of visits to museums and propensity to return. The literature outlines an overview of the current situation of the economic, social and territorial impact of the museum sector and the use of the museum as a possible new aggregation space for the younger population. The methodology used is a qualitative em-pirical approach through interviews aimed at a sample of young people, aged between 18 and 26, identified among student groups. The sample survey will make it possible to establish, specifically, how much the income of the subjects interviewed and the difference in admission policies between the various European museums and territories considered can affect the degree of use of the museum facilities.
Territorial gap and sustainability of tourism in Italy. Proximity tourism as a possibility? – Tourism is one of the most relevant factor of impact on development and sustainability. In Italy tourism generated strong territorial gaps, as we’ll show through several maps of tourism densities, migration dynamic, house rents and basic services levels of accessibility. This paper is aimed to discuss the near-home tourism as a possible key of sustainable development, with particular focus on Apennines in Lazio and Abruzzo regions.
Territorial education through the rivers. The “Flowing with the rivers” public engagement project. – The contribution reflects on how the value of water resources in the ecological transition can be shared and strengthened through geo-graphical education. In particular, the Public Engagement project “Flow-ing with the rivers”, financed with 48,500 euros by the University of Turin, whose objective was the development of an educational model to sustainably reconstruct the relationships between human communities and territory around water as a resource and fundamental element in all relationships between natural and human systems. The project activities developed between 2021 and 2023, concentrating the action on the territory between Turin and Savigliano, in particular between the Po, Tanaro and Maira rivers, and involved universities, associations, schools with teachers, students and parents, citizens, media and local administrations. The involvement of local communities was considered a basis of geographical education, starting from the idea that through awareness of the ecological, cultural and economic value of rivers it is possible to arrive at a plan for life, care and sustainable development that produces a social and cultural change in the valorization and management of water resources. The interdisciplinary working group, scientifically directed by Cristiano Giorda, involved fifteen researchers from six different departments and scientific areas. The main methodology followed was that of territorial education through outdoor education and place and art based learning activities, ca-pable of territorialising the scientific and artistic dimensions with skills linked to territorial values, landscape, sustainable development -bile and active citizenship.
Il varo della Legge n. 86 del 2024, meglio conosciuta come legge sull’autonomia differenziata, costituisce un punto di svolta nel sistema istituzionale italiano, ridefinendo i rapporti tra stato e regioni. Già l’istituzione delle Regioni (1970) ha rappresentato il primo importante passo verso la decentralizzazione, considerato che sin dalla sua nascita, l’Italia post unitaria ha sempre privilegiato un assetto territoriale centralizzato, proprio per sopprimere le eventuali spinte indipendentistiche ancora pericolosamente presenti nel paese.
Territorial and geopolitical dynamics of the international professional tennis tour. – Major events, and in particular sports events, play an important role in contemporary society, mobilising huge amounts of resources and helping to delineate political, social and territorial phenomena of great interest. In this sense, just think of how many actors are involved in the organisation and management of competitions that, although they often take place in local contexts, are part of broader and more complex relational networks that often reach the international level. This contribution focuses on the territorial and geopolitical dynamics that characterise the major events of the international professional tennis tour. In particular, an attempt will be made to identify the logics underlying the geographical distribution of the different locations in an attempt to understand whether the choices depend on geopolitical reasons or are instead essentially linked to territorial characteristics or whether they depend on a mix of motivations. In addition, we aim to investigate whether and with what effects climate variations has already influenced or may influence the organisation of events on the international professional tennis tour in the future.
Rationalities and socio-spatial effects of hydraulic infrastructure in Sardinia. – The infrastructural processes of the water system unfold over extended periods, often resulting in nonlinearities within the processes themselves, despite originating as explicit projects aimed at material control over resources and territorial development. These constructions give rise to various interpretations of irrigation systems, intersectoral conflicts, and power struggles among the different actors involved in their management and use. The aim of this article is to engage in dialogue regarding the water infrastructure process in Sardinia, examining its intersection with the different rationales guiding water management and territorial development policies. It highlights both internal and external factors influencing these processes, as well as the significance of historical legacies.
Redefining the city-river relationship: a look at the Turin area. – The relationship between the city and the river is being profoundly redefined in the context of the water crisis, in the relationship between the natural and the built environment. The paper will focus on the case of Turin, where deindustrialisation has led to morphological, functional and symbolic transformations of previously industrialized areas, with a new process of landscape construction, in some cases based on the heritage of the industrial past, in others on a new meaning (re)attributed to the environment, as the main physical and symbolic dimension of the re-territorialisation of post-indus-trial spaces. This paper focuses on the relationship between rivers and cities, and in particular on how rivers are once again becoming a (potentially) founding element of post-industrial landscapes. We will draw on some case studies in the Turin area, where the river emerges as a potentially structuring element in rethinking places deeply marked by deindustrialisation and in imagining and constructing a new landscape.
Hydric resources as patterns for a community regeneration: the Gleno dam between memory and innovation in Scalve Valley. – Geography offers tools for territorial analysis and planning which, by integrating field research with geographic information technologies, propose innovative approaches to support re-generation processes. This is strategic in mountain contexts where, over time, water resources management has been at the core of a delicate co-evolutionary relationship between humans and non-humans and, sometimes, has caused catastrophic fractures induced by anthropic action, like dam collapsing. The essay presents the case study of the Gleno Dam in the Scalve Valley, province of Bergamo, where, since the collapse centenary (1923-2023), the geographers of the Imago Mundi Lab at the University of Bergamo have been carrying out research aimed at reconstructing the territorial stratification generated over time, focusing on the role of water and the disastrous results of the dam collapse on the entire valley. Many places abandoned after the disaster can today be regenerated through co-design processes using mapping systems and placing water at the centre of new symbolic meanings, cultural functions, and production practices.
Il volume a cura di Margherita Ciervo fornisce un’analisi delle strate-gie di bioeconomia europea e nazionale. Attraverso lo sguardo di diversi esperti, appartenenti a numerosi ambiti disciplinari, tali strategie vengono affrontate e valutate dal punto di vista geografico, economico, ecologico, medico, restituendo una ampia lettura degli indirizzi assunti e delle loro criticità.
Relational goods, imbalances, and the society-environment relationship. – The interactions between the economy, the environment, and territorial systems form a complex network that influences the structure and development of regions. The reflection is carried out both in relation to imbalances and in the reinterpretation of ecological and socio-spatial relations, collaborative processes, and the organisation and reorganisation of space as relational goods. The issue of territorial imbalances is linked to the question of conflicts within political ecology. The objective of this paper is, therefore, to present a theoretical reflection that aims to deepen the relationship between the economy, the environment, and territorial systems, focusing specifically on relational goods in the context of two spatiotemporal dimensions and referring to a territorial system as an alternative approach. The complexity of the territorial system, therefore, suggests taking into account the communicative and relational interdependencies between local actors, that influence economic growth and sustainable development. Finally, the responsible use of territorial resources requires public policies that reduce spatial inequalities, promote the active participation of territorial actors and the sustainable management of resources as components of local development.
Le rappresentazioni territoriali nei prodotti mediali di carattere finzionale riscuotono da tempo interesse da parte dei geografi. Ancora poco esplorato è, tuttavia, il mondo della canzone, analizzata prevalentemente come insieme di cartografie, elencazione di toponimi o riflessione intorno a pratiche sociali condivise, venendo considerata soltanto in poche occasioni come una macchina simulante della territorialità, secondo il modello proposto da Marcello Tanca.
Urban regeneration and tourism in peripheral neighbourhoods: the case of Bagnoli (Naples). – This article deals with the relationship between suburbs, urban regeneration and tourism development by addressing the case of Bagnoli, a former industrial district on the western outskirts of Naples. Bagnoli is a coastal neighbourhood which preserves the dismissed facilities and the social landscape from its industrial past and is still struggling to fully implement a regeneration process that would allow it to regain its ancient tourist vocation. However, the new debate and the new planning ferment that seem to be developing around the issue today perhaps justify cautious optimism: If good intentions are followed by concrete facts, it could actually be possible to get out of this thirty-year impasse and enhance the territorial resources of Bagnoli, which range from sea bathing to thermalism, from traditional to innovative kinds of cultural tourism.
Il lavoro di Giulia Vincenti aggiunge un significativo contributo al dibattito scientifico improntato sul rapporto centro e periferia. In questa fase storica, caratterizzata sia dall’impetuoso sviluppo digitale e sia da azioni di programmazione post pandemia, le riflessioni dell’autrice offrono al lettore nuove chiavi interpretative.
Agreements on the use of water, cooperation, policies and conflicts: river contracts in Italy. – The paper aims to explore the concept of river contract as a tool for participatory management of water resources, analyzing in this context the key role of conservation and management of their naturalness. The main objective of the research is to understand how river contracting can facilitate the conservation, enhancement and transmission of cultural heritage while promoting the sustainable development of local communities. The methodology is based on a review of the available literature on the river contract concept, its role in cultural heritage enhancement, and the need for the geo-mediation phase as an important moment of shared and participatory planning. The results of the research, in addition to highlighting regional differences in the application of River Contracts in Italy, indicate that the river contract although not widespread can act as a catalyst for the management and enhancement of cultural heritage, actively involving local communities in the conservation of their territories. The implications of the research may be useful for scholars, practitioners and institutions interested in the conservation and enhancement of water resources through the implementation of planning strategies by identifying the figure of the geomediator as a facilitator of performative processes.
The Gaza War: how the language of destruction on Israel and the Palestinians overlooks the greater tragedy of the Nation-state. – In the global battle over public opinion regarding the 2023-24 Gaza War, and more specifically within U.S. university campuses, the historical complexities of the geopolitical situation have been reduced to slogans asserting the absolute “right” of one side or the other not only to disregard but also to potentially eliminate the other. Consequently, the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is often interpreted as advocating the removal or destruction of the approximately seven million Jews currently residing in the region, just as the Islamist group Hamas is equated with all Palestinians, rendering them collectively deserving of elimination-a nihilistic claim to destruction mirrored by the opposing side.
The historical reality, however, is far more complex. The creation of the State of Israel was intended to serve as a refuge from persecution for a widely dispersed group, offering Jews protection from the hostility and consequences of historical anti-Semitism. In doing so, however, any possibility of a collective Palestinian political future was necessarily compromised for the population that had historically predominated in the area. The competing claims to the same territory that this process entailed cannot simply be resolved through the adoption of “better language.”
The war over language obscures the fundamental issue at stake: both Israelis and Palestinians are inheritors of the logic of the territorialized (ethno) nation-state, imported from nineteenth-century Europe. This underscores the broader tragedy of the nation-state that the Gaza War exemplifies. A shared political space remains inconceivable as long as this logic prevails.
Proximity tourism and enhancement of the returning artistic-cultural heritage. – In marginal contexts, it is conceivable to think of a reflection on proximity tourism through artistic-cultural initiatives that dialogue with the landscape, highlighting the disparities in development between territories. Within the framework of this approach, the activity of relocating artworks emerges as an innovative strategy to transform the artistic heritage into an engine of revitalization and alternative fruition, while promoting local tourism. This approach is evident in various projects, including that of the MIC called “100 artworks come home”. This initiative aims to return artworks preserved in the deposits of 14 Italian museums, moving them to their places of creation to reconnect them to the historical and cultural context that inspired them. This study aims to explore the potential of this practice, analyzing some experiences to try to understand whether relocation (from the museum to the place of creation or first location) has generated ways of use capable of stimulating tourist dynamics and contributing to the attractiveness of villages and small towns. The lines of reflection that we intend to propose are therefore to seek a possible reading of proximity tourism with a view to enhancing the widespread artistic-cultural heritage and to reason precisely on the link between territory and heritage in terms of reconfiguring the dynamics of concentration (flows, cultural heritage...)
Promoting socio-cultural integration through a sustainable proximity tourism: the case of Pisino and its surroundings. – Istria is a historical region, stretching from the Gulf of Trieste and the Gulf of Quarnaro in the Adriatic Sea and the Julian Alps and the Dinaric Alps. Nowadays it is politically subdivided in three State entities; the largest part beloning to Croatia, the rest to Slovenia (mainly some cities in the coast) and to Italy (mainly the municipalities of Muggia and San Dorligo della Valle). In the past, this territory has been home for many different populations and object of many territorial disputes. This heavy cultural heritage has often caused difficulties of socio-cultural and economic integration.
Pasin, with approximately 9000 inhabitants, is the administrative main city of the region. Located in the centre of Istria, it has been isolated for a long time. Now improvements in transport infrastructure allows it to open to a niche tourism, based on its cultural heritage and its natural attactivenesses.
This paper analyses how a sustainable proximity tourism promotion in the region can contribute to understand the cultural differences, but also the common roots of the people now living in this territory, fostering social and economic development.
Water as a resource and as a value: territories in competition and the need for protection as a strategic tool. – The aime of this work the value of water as a primary good, focusing the attention on the sustainability and value of water as a limited and not infinite resource, to arouse a new awareness. The protection of water resources and aquatic ecosystems is one of the cornerstones of environmental protection. The value of water is the result of both the complex interactions between natural and anthropic factors distributed across the territory, and of their dynamics over time. The Danube region is facing several challenges and a new development protection strategy aimed at promoting economic development and envi-ronmental protection. A truly important step for the protection of biodi-versity and the environment. UNESCO has designated the Danube River as “the first 5-country Biosphere Reserve in the world”. The adhering States undertake to administer with particular attention to resources and sustainable development, with the full involvement of local communities. Is underlined the need for balance taking into account the multiple val-ues of water: biological, social, environmental, symbolic and cultural.
Major events and local identity. The case of “la notte della taranta” in Salento. – Major events are often created to enhance or regenerate territorial attractiveness. The goal is not only to maximize the economic and employment impacts that can directly affect the event itself but also to attract the attention of investors, tourists, and institutions to invest resources and projects in the territory. In reality, these events, in addition to their attractiveness purposes, also have generative purposes, potentially contributing to strengthening the sense of belonging within the local community, territorial cohesion, and, consequently, the affective and financial investment of individual inhabitants as well as the community as a whole. This contribution, starting from the analysis of the summarised interpretative framework, aims to evaluate the effects of the Notte della Taranta on the territory and the Salento identity over a quarter of a century.
Nearby tourism and local development. The unexpressed potential of the Lazio lakes. – In the last few years, due to global events, traveling has become increasingly complex. These difficulties have produced the birth of a new type of tourism: slow and proximity tourism. A type of tourism directed to nearby and little-known places. a type of tourism looking for outdoor activities, uncontaminated territories, a different way of appreciating local culture and the landscape. The Lazio Region is a large container of this type of tourism: historic villages, religious destinations, typical products and a landscape rich in rivers and lakes. In 2021, ARPA Lazio detected the presence of 20 lakes, different in geomorphological and hydrogeological characteristics, located throughout the regional territory, which are perfect for welcoming tourists looking for slow and proximity tourism. These lakes are exploited for tourism purposes only to a small extent. The objective of this contribution is to start a reflection on what has been done and what should be done, placing lakes at the center of sustainable development projects.
Mega events and urban spaces: Paris, Olympic City 2024. – Geographical reflection has now sedimented, through theoretical reflections and empirical analysis, the assumption that the organization of major events has disruptive effects on the balance, albeit always dynamic, of urban ecosystems. Infrastructure construction and preparatory governance processes are then accelerators of transformative dynamics that implicitly or explicitly impact the spaces and communities involved. The construction of the Olympic village in the St. Denis neighborhood for the 2024 Paris event explicitly seeks to intervene on the area’s marginal territorial milieu. Investment and infrastructure constitute the line of intervention on which, naturally, critical debate has been activated. This paper, based on a qualitative methodological approach, through Document analysis, and a number of field surveys aims to identify the main critical ribs specific to the case study.
Olimpiadi invernali e pianificazione spaziale: tra territorio locale e spazio regionale. – Nel corso della storia olimpica, l’edizione invernale ha subito trasformazioni significative nelle dimensioni spaziali, introducendo una nuova prospettiva critica sulla dimensione urbana. L’articolo analizza i diversi modelli spaziali delle Olimpiadi invernali attraverso indicatori statistici volti a un confronto quantitativo. Attraverso lo studio dei diversi modelli spaziali, verranno fornite nuove ipotesi sul rapporto tra le sedi olimpiche e il tessuto urbano, offrendo strumenti preziosi per valutare l’evento olimpico nell’area di riferimento. L’articolo esamina come la creazione di nuove strutture determinerà alcuni cambiamenti spaziali in grado di catalizzare nuovi impatti sulle connessioni interne della città e del territorio di riferimento.
Olympic territorializations: the case studies of Cortina and Bormio. – The material construction processes of Olympic territoriality have often triggered dialectics, controversies, and conflicts of a rather widespread political, social, and communicative nature, as emerged, also in the case of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, by the chronicles of recent months. These controversies unfold on multiple discursive levels. Firstly, on the legal level, which is the focal point around which revolve all the configurative conflicts of an environmental and landscape nature. Secondly, on the economic level through strategies of appropriation and access to territorial resources. Finally, on the political level in the dual dialectic of contrasts and different positions within administrations and between administrations and civil society. The study aims to investigate some of the outcomes of the projects and territorial transformations produced by the organization of the Milan-Cortina 2026 mega Olympic event, focusing in particular on the analysis of two case studies related to two infrastructures designed in mountain municipalities with a strong tourist characterization such as Cortina and Bormio. In this context, more specifically, controversies arising from the design of the bob track in Cortina and the so-called “Alute” bypass road in Bormio will also be considered.
Dantesque Geography as a genre of the Italian geography between nineteenth and twentieth centuries. – In Italian geography between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries developed the “dantesque geography” which appears to be not a mere research topic, but a real genre that shared to characterize the history of the discipline in that period. It is circumscribed nearly by the two sixth centenaries of the Dante’s birth and death or more precisely between the Italian unification and the coming of fascism. The essay reconstruct its origin and development from Covino (1865) to Revelli (1922). The “dantesque geography” dealt with the Dante’s cosmology, geographical and cartographical knowledges, also for the contributions, among others, of Dalla Vedova, Bertacchi, Mori, Magnaghi. Its main purpose, however, is to shape an image of Italy as a natural and linguistic region that present itself as a prophecy and historical legitimation of contemporary Italy and its territorial aspirations and so it produced also some maps of “dantesque Italy”. The theme of the Italian boundaries according Dante, particularly the northeastern border, is therefore central.
Southern transhumance routes between old and new economic perspectives: the case of Basilicata. – Transhumance is the seasonal movement of livestock guided, from dawn to dusk, by groups of shepherds together with their dogs and horses between the mountains and the plains along constant and marked routes between five geographical regions of the South. Since 2019 it has been included in the UNESCO heritage with its ways and can still be a driving force for economic and social growth for the regions of Southern Italy. In this work, taking into consideration the changes taking place on a global scale, we want to promote greater awareness of the genesis and evolution of the ways of transhumance and its economic vocations, of the production chains respecting cultural values and territorial identities, lifeblood for many fragile territories. A particular case is represented by the Basilicata region, so strongly interested in improving the quality of life of its smaller towns crossed by grass roads.
The contribution mainly examines the pilot project Parcovie 2030, as part of the Recovery Plan 2021.
Sardinia between transhumance and the Blue Zone. Socio-spatial dynamics, rural lifestyle and diet of a geographical area of exceptional longevity: Ogliastra. – The rural dimension of Sardinia is strongly represented by the historical and social role assumed by agricultural activities on the island, which have always been characterised by transhumance phenomena (in Sardinia Tramuda) that, at different scales from the rest of Italy, have characterised some Sardinian rural territories (Ortu, 1988; Lai, 1998). Ogliastra has long been one of the lands of transhumance in Sardinia (Schiavone, Schiavone, 2014), and is marked by a high number of long-lived individuals (Blue Zone), for which, the rural environment, lifestyle and local interrelation-ships and genetics have influenced the health status in this area (Pes and Poulain, 2014). The work aims to investigate the socio-spatial dimension of food production linked to the rural (transhumant) culture of Ogliastra, trying to understand the configurations of territoriality (Turco, 2010) and how this socio-spatial, rural and food model may have influenced the particular longevity of the area. The Blue Zone diet, in fact, typical of transhumant territories, can become a catalyst for the sustainable devel-opment not only of Sardinia but also of many small Mediterranean rural areas and, furthermore, can facilitate the re-appropriation by the younger generations of their ancient identity heritage.
Marginal places and resistance in the filmography of Djibril Diop Mambéty. – The filmography of Djibril Diop Mambéty allows reflection on the manner in which urban Senegal takes part in the narrative through a form of decolonial representation. The director focuses on the peripheries of Dakar, a territory marked by colonialism. As the camera explores the urban environment, images and sound become instruments with which to control heterotopic spaces. By redirecting power through a painful negotiation between colonial legacy and a new, deviant focus, these tools show the irreducible otherness of places within the filmic discourse. Mambéty’s critical gaze is also manifested through his protagonists, who belong to a human universe that remains on the fringes of society. These are subaltern figures who, through their sense of se débrouiller, implement practices of resistance within a social and territorial framework permeat-ed by the informal economy.
The rediscovery of transhumance routes in the Matese area of Campania. Paths and economic chains. – The Matese mountain complex is part of the southern Apennines chain and currently divides the Campania and Molise regions. Inhabited since the pre-Roman age by Samnite people, throughout history it has represented a place of transit between the Campania plain and the Adriatic side. With the establishment and regulation of the Regi Trat-turi in the Aragonese era, part of the ancient walkways that crossed the Matese were used by the shepherds of the Campania side to connect with the main Pescasseroli-Candela sheep track that surrounds the mountain complex in the Molise part. Until the 18th century, sheep breeding and the production of woolen cloths represented among the most important items for the economy of the territories located on the Campania side of Matese. Centers such as Piedimonte d'Alife (today Piedimonte Matese), Cerreto Sannita, Cusano and Morcone based their economic well-being on these activities for a long time, so much so that they are considered among the most active centers of the ancient Kingdom. The purpose of this study is the rediscovery of this network of paths and of the ancient connected economic chains as a fundamental prerequisite for a development proposal for the area, which is currently experiencing a period of profound economic stagnation with consequent depopulation. The methodology used refers to the analysis of historical documentary and cartographic sources and the GIS will be used for the identification and tracing of these paths.
TERRITORIO, TERRITORIALIZZAZIONE, TERRITORIALITÀ
Textures and scalar relationships of transhumance between tradition and innovation. The Sportumanza project for a slow and responsible tourism. – Recalling the importance of transhumance as a territorial process and as the demonstration of the three attributes of space - scale, metric, substance – we can reveal the power of this ancient practice: it proceeds by multiscale relationships, foresees multiple metrics and it shows all its richness in substance, through the three characterizations of inhabiting (relational, functional and temporal). Through the case study of the vertical transhumance of the Orobic pre-Alpine context, we investigate how it generates relationships between human and non-human agents, functional practices for pastoral activity and for other ecosystemic services, care and preservation of biodiversity sites, enabling the shepherd and his animals to become sensors of environmental changes on a global scale. We then move on to the analysis of transhumance as an opportunity for innovation in the forms of living and doing tourism, especially in areas defined as peripheral and internal, by presenting the “Sportumanza” project.
Territorialization practices in the L’Aquila Apennines: transhumance, emigration and tourism. – The paper discusses the interconnected human and animal flows that have characterized the mobility in the high lands of L’Aquila province since the unification of Italy, when flocks and shepherds crossed their paths with emigrants, while tourists began to populate the mountains with different purposes, up to the present day, when the Abruzzo mountains are experiencing new opportunities to enroot the population and promote the territorial revitalization. Subsequently, the socio-spatial dynamics of some food productions of the southern slope of the Gran Sasso d’Italia connected to the practice of Transhumance are presented: secondary products of the pastoral economy of the past, mainly connected to the wool trade, which currently play a central role in creating employment opportunities of small local communities, with important repercussions also in the redefinition of tourist trajectories.
Transhumance in Cilento region: between resistance and new social practices. – The article discusses the significance of transhumance beyond its traditional territories, exploring new social and residential models due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Transhumance practices offer opportunities to rethink territorial centrality, but tourism could lead to both potential and risks of commodification. The Cilento region serves as a case study, where trans-humance has historical roots, but tourism has reshaped the economy. Initiatives to revitalize transhumance and its symbolism are emerging. The study reflects on their role in promoting social values, yet cautions about their complex relationship with tourism in the long run.
Transhumance and landscape: relationship between settlements and tractural roads in central southern Italy – The study analyzes the historical and spatial evolution of the settlement system in central-southern Italy, with reference to Abruzzo aquilano, affected by the phenomenon of transhumant farming. The main element examined is the historical evolution of the settlement
structure with respect to the tractural ways, understood as a fundamental morphogenetic element of the urban systems and the landscape. The objective of the analysis is the identification of a series of elements useful for the protection and enhancement of the paths and of the historical and landscape pre-existences attributable to the phenomenon. The methodol-ogy is based on the analysis of the bibliography, especially recent innovative elements about the degradation of the “Tratturi” system, and, with cartographic analyzes and in situ surveys, it defines the critical issues and the territorial resources to lay the basis for a valorization project.
Inside the Margins and Marginality: (Condi-)Visions and Scientific-Artistic Practices in Suburban Contexts. – The contribution aims at analysing areas which, due to characteristics of housing discomfort, are labelled as marginal spaces of the city. After exploring the concepts of margin and marginality with reference to two areas in the eastern suburb of Naples, analysed as urban fragments in a new centre-periphery relationship, the paper focuses on a project recently developed intersecting creative art practices and geographic research. The results of site-specific experiences – conducted by involving inhabitants, scholars and artists-in-residence in on-site workshops and theatre works – have contributed to a co-construction of a new knowledge of places. Aware of the methodological difficulties and limita-tions underlying geographic-artistic collaborations, starting from sites, and integrating everyday narratives and images has allowed to enter inside the margins, trying to contribute exploring the creative potential of the fragments beyond the labels of territorial and symbolic marginality.
Vladimir Putin’s territorial trap: what the invasion of Ukraine reveals about the contemporary war-sovereignty nexus. – The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 is a clear demonstration of how the conduct of a war can highlight what purpose the war is supposed to serve. In this article, President Vladimir Putin’s putative objectives in the Ukraine war are connected to the war-sovereignty nexus through the concept of geopolitical order, arguing that war fulfills different objectives under different geopolitical conditions because different combinations of sovereignty regimes are operative under different geopolitical orders. Attention then turns to the discourse of sovereignty adopted by Putin and how it reflects a certain set of contradictory understandings about sovereignty implicit in the conduct of the war.
Sicani-telling: small stories from Sicily’s margins. – This article tells some stories from the Sicani inner area, in Sicily. Drawing on the considerable debate that in recent years – particularly after the National Strategy for Inner Areas, launched in 2012 – has flourished, this article aims to contribute to the deconstruction of the aestheticizing visions that invest these territories. In particular, the narcotized image of the bourg is critically considered: a discursive and political tendency that underlies selective and pacified imaginaries. Following the idea that small stories produce the world, the article describes some narratives collected during an experiential guided tour through walking research methods. This storytelling is analyzed asking what discourse is produced on these marginal places. As a result, the small stories are a mode of the geographic discourse: a method in doing geography with an embodied and affective approach.
Animal cities. Mediated experiences and collective narratives for unnatural geography of the wild. – The clear separation – conceptual, ethical, spatial – between man and wildlife (Whatmore, 2002) remains to this day one of the most fascinating topics of reflection around our relationship with the environment. The cultural history of the wild, especially in its North American roots, hinges on the preservation of territories marked by the absence of appreciable anthropic traces, an exotic, ahistorical nature, in open contrast to urban and peri-urban areas, understood in an Enlightenment sense as spaces of civilization, themselves purged of the presence of the non-human. A binary biogeography that unequivocally identifies the right space for the human, placed at the centre, and the non-human, at the margin. Yet, this stark contrast has been brought to the centre of both scientific debate and public interest, especially during the historic 2020 lockdown, when images and multimedia content have extensively documented the fragility of this strict division of space. Starting from a reconstruction of contemporary mass media discourse, the contribution, therefore, aims to document how the emergence and circulation of grand narratives such as that of ‘nature spaces’ or the ‘awakening of nature’ can reveal epistemological dynamics common to different socio-economic contexts, but also substantially different responses to the various phenomenologies of the wild. The very notion of the margin as a dividing border between man and nature is discussed in relation to the descriptions and representations mobilized by newspapers and social media, to explore the possibilities and potentialities of a reunion between human and non-human, even in non-domesticated forms, in anthropized environments such as those of cities.
The border as operational space: ‘black spaces’ and border infrastructures. – How can one make sense of territorial borders in a context characterized by increasingly dislocated and widespread migration and border management policies? What policies emerge from the intersection between different types of mobility? And what contribution can geography make to understanding these intersections? Adopting a terminology of borders-as-infrastructures, this essay promotes a topological perspective that focuses on the productive tensions inherent in the very functioning and spatial reach of borders. With a focus on the territorial control mechanisms adopted to channel and filter mobile agricultural labour in the region of Basilicata in 2014-2019, the article moves beyond an understanding of borders as mere territorial divisions or technological devices. The argument advanced here is that border infrastructures involve significant socio-material entanglements – interactions between physical and social forces – that continue to channel and direct our relationship with the territorial state.
The relational space of transhumance: practices, values, visions. – In the past few decades, the study of transhumance has shifted from documenting a declining practice to adopting a more comprehensive approach, integrating heritage studies, political ecology, and the analysis of territorial resignification dynamics. This monographic issue aims to emphasize an articulated and relational perspective on the phenomenon. By using both old and new transhumance practices as a foundation for exploring forms of territoriality, the focus lies on the interplay between mobility and the creation of patrimonial value, cultural landscapes, and governance processes. The central question addressed is whether an operational approach to transhumance routes can effectively reconnect the past and the future. The contents of the volume are organized to prioritize research objectives, with contributions concentrating on the knowledge and patrimonialization of transhumance areas at risk of abandonment, ultimately aiming to preserve their ecological, biological, and cultural values.
Le tematiche riguardanti lo sviluppo rurale e la contrapposizione fra città e campagna sembrano trovare nuova vitalità negli studi geografici da alcuni anni. In particolare, nell’ottica di un mondo ormai post-industriale, il turismo sembra un potenziale sentiero di sviluppo praticabile per le aree non urbanizzate, potendo osservare una vasta galleria di paesaggi, da quelli che esprimono ancora vive testimonianze di sistemi agricoli di antica origine e di alta qualità produttiva, fino, alla scala opposta, a territori ormai devitalizzati demograficamente ed economicamente.
Criminogenic Dynamics of Actors and Stakes in Transhumance Territories. – Using the Abruzzo mountains as a point of departure, the contribution illustrates the dynamics of actors currently shaping transhumance territories, but which have nothing to do with the age-old practice of animal herding; instead, they threaten it. These are criminogenic dynamics supported by cross-regional networks of actors who aim to gain control of mountain pastures by dividing up the national territory. By utilizing the mechanisms of "titles" provided by the Common Agricultural Policy for the receipt of direct aid for farmers, European contributions amounting to millions of euros are obtained. The hypothesis that the research results, related to one of these networks in particular, seem to support is that there is substantial continuity with organized crime interested in territorial control.
Forms of Resistance at the Margin of the City. The Vesuvian Area and the Environmental Issue across territories and representations. – This contribution proposes an exploration of the forms of civil and artistic resistance developed at the margins of the metropolitan city of Naples and, in particular, it focuses on the Vesuvian area and the environmental issue. It develops through cognitive path that considers the dialogue between the Mount Vesuvius and the community of his habitants, as well as the link between artistic production and environmental struggle, which characterize many narratives that come from these places since the Seventies. From Operazione Vesuvio project to the land art installation of Salvatore Emblema, the article highlights a chain of radical environmental sensitivity, which, despite the environmental devastation and social rarefaction of this zone of marginality, propose new ways of coexistence with the environment and the natural landscape.
Itineraries in the Rome of immaterial art: between sidewalk, traffic lights and interstitial spaces. – The interest of geography for the urban art (street or public art) has increased in recent years. Not all the arts that take shape in the city leave a tangible mark in the urban space that can produce new rela-tionships and territoriality (Brighenti e Reghellin, 2007). There are also extemporaneous performances – which can be admired only when they are realized – and immaterial performances – which do not mark the ter-ritory with the localization of a semi-permanent product. Precisely because these forms of art are immaterial and not constantly visible, they are fluid and “elusive” even in the eyes of those who wish to investigate them. Therefore: marginal is considered the artist who practices them (Caccamo, 2005); marginal are defined some urban spaces frequented by artists and geographies that investigate these forms of art. In this contribution some itineraries will be presented, built in three years of field research in Rome, that connect the urban spaces of immaterial art.
Transhumance paths in the Tuscan Maremma: community and territorial development. – The practice of transhumance in Tuscany, now reinterpreted beyond its pastoral context, serves as an opportunity for territorial development. The CamBio Via project in Tuscany, for instance, aims to enhance transhumance routes by integrating cultural Heritage and landscape. The decline of transhumance is correlated to socio-economic changes and the abandonment of rural areas, however, projects like CamBio Via seek to preserve and promote this tradition by fostering sus-tainable routes and providing training for shepherds. Transhumance, alt-hough declining, continues to play a crucial role in the relationship be-tween rural life and mountain environments, contributing to biodiversity conservation and sustainable natural resource management. The tourist
valorisation of transhumance routes, as emphasized by initiatives like the Cammini, represents an opportunity to preserve and transmit this ancient rural practice. This overall purpose can be achieved also through means such as short films and documentaries able to narrate its history and current challenges.
Territorial disparities and SNAI criteria: re-thinking the classification criteria of inner peripheral areas– The concept of periphery can be defined at different scales (cities, regions, states) and according to multiple aspects which, over time, have attenuated the meaning of spatial position to favor the condition of socioeconomic marginality. In the regional context, there is a tendency to underline the decline in population and economic competitiveness, and the social decline of a territory in terms of poor relationships, often attributing them to the lack of opportunities and services, other times to poor accessibility. Some of these new meanings have been adopted by the National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI in Italian matter), launched in 2012 and revised in 2020, to identify and classify peripheral municipalities, i.e. those municipalities that suffer from the distance from some public basic services offered by the larger cities. This conceptualization has stimulated a large debate on the choice of classification criteria and applied methodology that directly influence the elaboration of territorial rebalancing policies. Considering this debate, the authors of this paper have analyzed the criteria underlying the SNAI classification as a pretext for exploring the different narratives of peripheral areas that have been following one another for several decades, sometimes overlapping, other times integrating and flanking each other. According to all this, the authors propose a revision of SNAI criteria and methodology to consider the accessibility of areas and their resources and endowments, recognizing the inner and peripheral areas as a place of opportunities.
Transhumance for legality: a case study in the Sicily region. – The article discusses the recognition of transhumance as intangible cultural heritage of humanity and its importance in safeguarding and promoting territories. The study focuses on transhumance within the project “Parks, Shepherds, Transhumance, and the Great Ways of Civilization”, highlighting the role of transhumance in driving economic development, even in situations where it has been in decline. The specific study area is Troina, a town located on the Sicilian Island, where transhumance is characterized by the exclusive use of horse breeds, particularly Ragusan donkeys. This practice carries symbolic significance for the municipality and the community involved as it symbolizes the reclaiming of land once controlled by organized crime. The collective practice of transhumance in this particular context reinforces the idea of legality. The study employs a comprehensive approach, including a review of relevant literature, a qualitative methodology involving field interviews with key participants in transhumance, and the analysis of historical and geographical data. Through these methods, the study aims to shed light on the current understanding of this equestrian practice and its impact on the local community.
App GIS-based per le Smart Tourist Destinations nel Governatorato di Muscat, Oman. – Le ICT e il turismo giocano ruoli fondamentali nello sviluppo delle economie globali emergenti, offrendo opportunità e strumenti strategici per promuovere la crescita delle mete. Le Destinazioni Turistiche Smart (STD) utilizzano strumenti e tecnologie disponibili per co-creare valore ed esperienze immersive per i turisti, generando nel contempo profitti e benefici per le organizzazioni e la destinazione nel suo complesso.
Il presente contributo espone nella sua totalità le fasi dello sviluppo di un’applicazione per smartphone progettata per l’esplorazione del territorio dell’Oman, comprendente le sue diverse risorse naturali e culturali, infrastrutture turistiche e strutture ricettive. La metodologia impiegata comprende la raccolta dati da fonti primarie, la georeferenziazione di numerosi punti di riferimento naturali, culturali e ricreativi, e l’utilizzo degli strumenti Arc-GIS e Google Earth per l’elaborazione dei dati. L’applicazione sviluppata si dimostra essere uno strumento intelligente e reattivo, in grado di soddisfare le esigenze del turismo esperienziale. Offre agli utenti la possibilità di personalizzare iti-nerari in linea con i loro gusti, preferenze ed esigenze. Integrando tecnologie all’avanguardia e dati geografici, l’applicazione per l’esplorazione dell’Oman porta le esperienze turistiche a nuove vette, mettendo in evidenza le diverse attrazioni del paese. Questo articolo specifico presenta le considerazioni finali alla luce di una serie di cambiamenti ambientali e territoriali che sono avvenuti durante la fase di validazione.
New mountain people, new activities, and new forms of transhumance: adapting traditional patterns in val Aupa, Friuli Venezia Giulia. – The study is part of the broader topic of the transition to modernity, and the passage to post-modernity, in the rural and mountain peripheries of the Eastern Alps. A passage, which took place starting from the mid-1900s, which often means a catastrophic impact on society and territories, in particular of certain areas, such as some valleys of Friuli, which involves the well-known phenomena of crisis and depopulation, to the point of creating situations of real human desertification, and the abandonment of entire valleys. It is therefore a question of understanding how the premises can be created for such re-conversions, and for the acceptation of changes, to take place without trauma, to create situations in which modernist and post-modernist innovation (today connected with globalization, and with the various digital transitions, ecological and of various kinds) can be usefully combined to avoid dramatic ruptures. It is the question, first, of rural economies, of agriculture and livestock, possibly connected to transhumance, in its various expressions, to be repurposed and adapted in appropriate way.
Dovessimo stabilire chi danneggi maggiormente l’Emilia-Romagna prostrata dal dissesto idrogeologico entreremmo in un dilemma. Il governo nazionale non mostra particolare sollecitudine nei confronti di una regione che la storia ha sinora assegnato all’opposizione e, sbagliando strategia, si aliena ancor più i consensi lasciando imputridire campi sterili per le melme alluvionali, smottare strade indispensabili agli abitanti della montagna, non affrettandosi a ricostruire argini di contenimento delle piene che alle prime piogge si riverseranno in aree già martoriate.
Edgar Degas: from public space to landscape. For a configurative geography of the Belle époque. – Edgar Degas geographer. The artist “does” geography, that is, he gives territorial meanings to the spaces that he crosses and that he represents. The impressionist painter participates in artialisation, which is an essential cultural ingredient in the construction of emotional territoriality. And he also contributed to the strengthening of the spirit of the Belle époque, thanks to the landscaping that the society of the time equipped itself with. Once again proposing geography as the outcome and condition of the territorialization process, in its triple articulation: constitutive, configurative and ontological.
Nella drammatica situazione del Vicino Oriente, è quanto mai urgente pensare che da quelle parti non solo si distrugge, non solo si creano le condizioni per un futuro inconciliabile tra popoli, culture, sentimenti, ma si può progettare e costruire. Come nel Piano di Tel Aviv, ci rammenta Annarita Lamberti, geografa italiana studiosa da tempo di quelle lande che la “territorial trap” ha trasformato in un inferno.
Dante, Celestino and the Forgiveness: from the Comedy to a destination branding. – Despite references to Celestino V on the Divine Comedy are not clear, the lives of Dante Alighieri and the Pope are certainly intertwined. Dante’s expectations on a spiritual renewal of the Roman Church, disappointed by Celestino’s resignation, seem to find acknowledgment today in a series of actions devoted to promoting his main bequest, the Forgiveness, a new territorial brand that is also serving the purpose to help the territory of L’Aquila recover from the 2009 earthquake, especially in trying to fostering a tourism development around Celestino’s figure.
Geographers and cartographers from Sicily between the 16th and 19th centuries. – The study aims to analyze the development of geo-cartographic culture in Sicily between the 16th and 19th centuries in relation to the evolution of geographical studies in Europe induced by the progress of scientific knowledge and the discovery of new territories, the result of great geographical explorations.
After a brief examination of the affirmation of Geography between the Renaissance and the modern age in the various European countries and in Italy, the study will proceed in the delineation of the development of geo-cartographic culture in Sicily through the examination of the production of Sicilian geographers and cartographers, certainly minors and often misunderstood, active on the island between the 16th and 19th centuries, trying to grasp the most significant aspects in relation to the various events which, over time, have conditioned the island’s culture.
They are often exponents of the local aristocracy and of the clerical class open to culture and relationships with scholars from other countries who, acknowledging scientific progress, devoted themselves to geographical studies and elaborated cartographic surveys no less significant than those produced outside the Isola, certainly stimulated by the desire to know the peculiarities of the island in different historical moments, but sometimes by the need to study and graphically represent the changes induced on the land structure by natural events, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and plagues, or by episodes of war that exploded between the various political forces which tended to impose their power on the island.
Requalification of peripheries with an industrial background: the case-study of Mirafiori in Turin. – The paper intends to develop a reflection, starting from the case of the Mirafiori neighbourhood in Turin, on the role that the peripheries can adopt as a laboratory of transversal innovation in the field of urban design, policy, governance, active citizenship and overall the global themes of Agenda 2030 (United Nations, 2015). The Mirafiori neighbourhood can be highlighted as an emblematic case, since it is an industrial suburb closely connected with the former FIAT (now Stellantis) industrial plant. Over the years, the neighbourhood has suffered a socio-demographic and identity crisis, and over time numerous projects have been launched to address these crises. Participation in European projects insisting on the neighbourhood allows us to be privileged observers and actors for: the re-designing and re-qualification of Mirafiori Sud through the realisation of Nature-based Solutions, useful to strengthen and increase the connection of the food system, a tool for social inclusion and territorial development, as well as to increase the envi-ronmental value of the already existing natural elements; to address activities with a Place-based Education approach, useful in the redesigning of spaces. The analysis of projects settled in Mirafiori is needed in order to assess the possibility of constructing new urban centralities starting from marginal places.
From transhumant to sedentary and “return”: the case of small pastoral activities in the Gulf of Augusta. – The processes of territorialisation and de-territorialisation that have taken place in the Gulf of Augusta are the result of an ‘oil culture’ that has long favoured economic growth and employment to the detriment of the territorial context and the original productive uses. It thus happens that, within the district formed by the four municipalities of Au-gusta, Melilli, Priolo Gargallo and Syracuse, Sicily, very different forms of economic activity coexist, some inherited from a late industrialism based on the petrochemical industry, others on more ancient agricultural and breeding practices. In this case study, the focus of the research was the observation of a small group of transhumant sheep and goat breeders, originating from an area north of Etna but who, for economic reasons, have become settled in areas that are close to industrial activities and, for the same reasons, transhumate in the small territory of the province of Syracuse. However, dairy products are sold to Etna’s dairies, potentially creating an information gap with the place of production. Between the chemical industry and agriculture, between different livestock farms, the area lives with forced coexistence that can hardly ever be considered an added value for one another, and the reason for this is easy to guess. The aim of the research is to understand these cohabitations and what drove the farmers to leave their territory of origin and settle in the Priolo Gargallo area with its controversial dynamics. To do this, documentation techniques typical of geography and visual research and interview techniques used in anthropological research were used.
Bounce-back or new development paths? Some reflections on the concept of generative resilience in the post-pandemic phase. - Bounce-back or new development paths? Some reflections on the concept of generative resilience in the post-pandemic phase. – The concept of resilience, derived from scientific-technological disciplines, has been increasingly used in regional and geographic sciences as an interpretative tool, at territorial level, for analyzing the evolution of crisis situations. In particular, in the period of emergency after the pandemic, the term was widely used in the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan, in particular to identify those investments and actions that can promote recovery dynamics after shock and orient places towards new development trajectories. Starting from a theoretical study on the notion of resilience, this work explores the different factors that can influence the ability of systems to react to shocks and to activate new generative practices. Particular attention is given to two components that can affect the dynamics of resilience, especially in peripheral areas: the role of local actors and different forms of agency; the potential connected to socio-technological transformation and digitalization processes.
Landascape of Decay. Landscape of the Camorra: Characters, Perceptions and Storytelling. – For a reading of the landscapes of the Camorra, the peculiarities of a territorial nature should be analyzed: economic, urban planning, social, criminal and narrational of these particolar landscape scenarios of degradation. By practicing a critical analysis of the relationships that are established between organized crime and the landscape. In its physical forms and in those of individual and community life. The Camorra landscape is produced by a system of community relations achieved by a range of widespread illegal attitudes and behaviors, converging in actions of laceration of the civil fabric. The perception of this set of negative values is a fundamental component of the generation and perpetuation of this landscape. The individuals and communities of those territories have the perennial cogency of an "underlying" landscape present to their sensorial and cultural perception, based on disvalues distorting every action and behavior, therefore every feeling of them. The territory, its use and its governance, is strongly characterized by uses, practices, meanings and a particular storytelling. Made up of values charged with social and criminal negativity, but also fully perceived by the communities. Communities are forced to undergo this particular territorial connotation, which becomes fundamental in the emergence of this landscape of organized crime.
The Queen’s Bodies: Transcalarity, Transmedia storytelling, Media events. – On 8 September 2022, Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and also head of the British Commonwealth of Nations, passed away at the age of 96, after 70 years of reign. The funeral took place 11 days later, and constituted a mighty “media event”, involving some 4.5 / 5 billion spectators, for a ceremony lasting over 13 hours. In this context, the “queen’s bodies” are articulated in a composition that we can perhaps indicate as “binary duplicity”. On the one hand, following the classic path of Kantorowicz (1957), we observe the double body: physical and mystical. On the other hand, the corporal emblem rests on a double scalar reference: the nation and the empire. This essay, precisely, illustrates and interprets the model of the binary duplicity of the “queen’s body”, with the main purpose of: i) explore transcalarity as a geographical form of transmediality; ii) reflect on the role of the territorialization process in the constitution, development and outcome of media events.
NRRP and Inland Areas. A Reflection on Inclusion and Cohesion Strategies in tge Grecanica Subregion. – The work aims to analyse the possible role that the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) may have for the Inner Grecanica Area (Calabria Region), in the margins of the work plan implemented by the SNAI (National Strategy for Inner Areas). The objective of this contribution is therefore twofold. On the one hand, to map the main results of the local development plan of the SNAI in the Grecanici territories; on the other hand, to verify the current needs of the area in question within the framework of Missions 4 and 5 of the PNRR, with particular regard to the components related to: i) the strengthening of the supply of educational services linked to the re-appropriation of the Grecanici language and culture; ii) social infrastructures; iii) special interventions for territorial cohesion. Through semi-structured interviews administered to institutional actors and to the component of cultural associations, social promotion, foundations, and non-profit organisations of the local community, an attempt will be made to identify social, educational and cultural developments and marginalities in the Grecanica Area and thus to verify whether they can find a response from the reforms envisaged by the PNRR. By means of GIS mapping, the scientific community and those who are working in the sector will be provided with a picture of the Grecanica area, following the policies launched by the SNAI, from which to reflect on the “reforms” envisaged by the PNRR for the Region of Calabria.
Informal Work: Proposing a Dialogue between Development Studies and Labour Geography. The Case of East and Southeast Asia. – The paper brings into dialogue selected streams of critical analysis on the ILO concept of informal labour – especially from the fields of political economy and development studies – with some major insights on labour and its transformations from labour geography. Focusing on the case of East and Southeast Asia, and resorting to the multiscalar notion of “labour regime”, the pa-per details crucial actors and devices that underlie specific ways of organ-izing work, its exploitation – and its informalization – in key export industries such as garment and electronics. More specifically, informalization processes are analyzed at the intersection between international capital mobility, the state and labor organizations, and in relation to the capacity of international capital to exploit pre-existing context-specific differentials, especially along the gender and rural-urban axes. Overall, the paper discloses key labour dynamics characterizing pivotal areas of the so-called “global factory”, while more generally highlighting the co-constitutive role that spatial, territorial and scalar configurations play in the processes of labour informalisation.
A un anno dall’approvazione formale da parte della Commissione eu-ropea (20 giugno 2021) del Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza (PNRR) predisposto dall’Italia con il preciso obiettivo, come dichiarato nella premessa dal Presidente del Consiglio Mario Draghi, di far ripartire l’Italia fortemente colpita dalla crisi causata dalla pandemia di Covid-19, e di dar vita a «una più ampia e ambiziosa strategia per l’ammodernamento del Paese», aggiornando «le strategie nazionali in tema di sviluppo e mobi-lità sostenibile; ambiente e clima; idrogeno; automotive; filiera della sa-lute», lo scenario e gli obiettivi previsti stanno subendo dei significativi ripensamenti e aggiustamenti alla luce degli impatti derivanti anche dal conflitto russo-ucraino.
Tourism and territory in NRRP
Potential Impacts of NRRP Investments in Italian Mono-functional or Desertified Realities: Threats and Opportunities. – The contribution aims to reflect on the impact of PNRR plans and programs with particular attention to the sustainability of rural and mountain tourist regions, highlighting territorial criticalities and suggesting greater emphasis on the concept of adaptation and the possible role for activities related to education for the territory. The PNRR provides for a € 6.68 billion loan in the “tourism and culture” sector, which will make it possible to develop innovative actions to implement local development through the new ecological transition criterion. Much emphasis is placed on the digital transition and physical measures of renewal. Many realities of those compatible with these funds fall within rural and mountain areas, often characterized by negative situations up to conditions of real demographic and economic desertification. The poor economic and social sustainability of many peripheral and mono-functional territories, investigated by recent studies in the field, seems to link the transformation of these areas to actions of economic adaptation and diversification linked to climate change, with respect to which climate maps suggest an increase of the impacts in the coming decades. An investment in these areas, perhaps aimed at restoring or physical-functional de-velopment actions, runs the risk of producing little benefits if it is not accompanied by new forms of social, economic and even demographic attractiveness. The systemic vision can make it possible to operate in a more suitable way to the specific local territorial system, while the development of educational paths to the territory open to stakeholders active in the field can increase the possibility of investment success through the sharing and production of open local knowledge to the reproduction and renewal of territorial values as a project for the future of the subjects who live there and who work there.
"Tourism, communities, territories. Frontiers of sustainability"
The Italian Small Islands in the PNRR Missions. A vision of the future. – The paper aims to understand the possible effects of the PNRR on the Italian Small Islands. The relationship between insiders and external actors, as well as the relationship of interdependence with the mainland, highlight the Italian Small Islands as a promising “laboratory” for investigation, not only as case studies but also as a complex and articulated spatial and territorial context in which some of the general dynamics tend to be emphasised. The peripheral dimension of the Italian Small Islands (Turco, 1980) has meant that since the Second World War they have been included among the “underdeveloped areas” and subject to the interventions of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno. Within this scenario, the smaller islands were the subject of specific funding or actions, in some cases emphasising their dependence on the mainland. This dependence has also been recorded in the policies of the National Strategy for Internal Areas (SNAI), which classifies island municipalities as peripheral or ultraperipheral, without however taking into account deeper local dynamics that effectively cancel out these conditions of peripheralisation. The PNRR proposes some missions explicitly addressed to small island territories, such as the achievement of a circular economy, forms of development that dialogue between tourism and sustainability, but also more general actions aimed, for example, at the mitigation of territorial gaps. The paper seeks to connect PNRR, tourism development and the challenge of Small Islands’ seasonal geographies.
The Youth of the Inner Areas and the Italian NRRP. – The Italian NRRP provides considerable financial resources to promote a green transition and a digital transformation of people and territories. Young people living in the inner areas of Italy have an opportunity to overcome marginality and become key actors of development, making of diversity an asset rather than a source of inequality and epistemic injustice. Based on these premises, the research illustrates the youth policies and the strategies for inner areas within the framework of the Italian NRRP, then focuses on the peculiarities of young people living in inner areas. The analysis highlights the need to create new jobs in peripheral territories, to make migration an opportunity rather than a necessity. Specifically, it is important to approach the issue of employment in inner areas with the lens of youth policies, that is, by developing bottom-up approaches to discover latent and untapped potential to be used to achieve sustainability.
The complicate role of violence in the interminable dissolution of multi-national territorial states. A comparison of Yugoslavia, the Soviet Empire and contempo-rary Russia. – The collapse in different ways of some multinational states at the end of the twentieth century (empires or micro-empires and apparent federations) prompted questions about the role that violence played in their disintegration. While some states have experienced peaceful separations (Czechoslovakia), others, such as the former Yugoslavia and only to a small extent the Soviet Union, have sought to violently hinder political-territorial disintegration, escalating violence and repres-sion to the extent of democides, genocides, ethnic cleansing, mass slaughter, and population displacement. This paper, developing personal reflections of the author and at the same time using a factual and theoretical analysis, aims to compare three case studies of disintegration (Yugoslavia, the Soviet Empire and contemporary Russia), seeking to identify the main factors (ideal and material) that stimulated, or conversely restrained, the use of violence in the course of disintegration. Indeed, these very factors may provide insight into whether those processes of disintegration have come to a halt or still underlie a long ongoing disintegrative phenomenon that former imperial centers are striving to stop with violence. While the degree of the latter may be limited and “settling” in the former Yugoslavia, contemporary Russia's attempt to restrain the long post-imperial disintegration for years has been involving a shift to open violence - that could affect even the internal dimension - along the lines of what occurred in Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The Protection and the Development of Mountain Areas in the Perspective of the Italian National Plan of Recovery and Resilience. – In Italy, implementing the cohesion and territorial development strategies displayed by the National Plan of Recovery and Resilience (PNRR) is complex because of its increasing socio-economic divides. In particular, the mountain areas – traditionally left on the margins of the national development strategies – ask for careful consideration. The traumatic experience of the pandemic, the lockdowns and the ecological transition challenge have awakened the political and media attention to these vital but fragile territories that produce natural resources and ecosystem services for the benefit of the whole community. The contribution discusses whether the NRRP contains adequate invest-ment indications and priority of intervention for the protection, long-term development and functional integration of mountain areas with the rest of the national territory. Concerning the methodology, the paper develops a qualitative analysis of the evaluation reports on the NRRP published by some leading mountain associations (UNCEM, ASVIS, INU, CAIRE) and the communication of a specific NRRP call (call “Villages” on Action 2.1 Village Attractiveness) employed to communicate and promote some calls.
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.
Aviation, airports and territory. – Transport geography deals with the movement of freight, people and information, seeking to link the spatial constraints and attributes with the origin, destination, extent, nature and purpose of movements
Within this view, the paper analyses the cross-relationships between territories and transport, identifying how transports influence territories.
In this paper, particular attention is paid to aviation, an element that contributes to shaping interactions in geographical spaces.
Methodologically, the first part highlights the development and charac-teristics of air transport, emphasizing the relationship between transport and economic systems.
Then the analysis focuses on the topic of accessibility and airport struc-tures, outlining the distinctive features that characterize transport, i.e. di- stances and territories, since the purpose of transport is to overcome space, which is limited by human and physical constraints such as dis-tance, time, administrative divisions and territory.
Gender Violence: Legislation and Dynamics. the case of the Messinese –The study is aimed at analyzing the spread of gender violence in our country, often linked to problems of urban and social marginality, examining its size and characteristics. After a brief examination of the interventions adopted by international organizations to combat the phenomenon, the current legislation in Italy regarding family relations and the civil consequences deriving from crimes against the family and gender is analyzed. By examining the statistical surveys conducted by Istat on the phenomenon and on the basis of the studies prepared on the subject by the Ministry of the Interior, the methods and spatial dimension with which gender violence has occurred in Italy in recent years are then analyzed. The survey then focuses on a specific spatial area, that the province of Messina, in order to understand the peculiarities and trends of this phenomenon with respect to the national context, trying to highlight any connections with the local socioeconomic dynamics and to identify a possible relationship between territorial criticality and the explosion of these criminal episodes.

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

Fast mapping of the avalanche tracks on the Southern side of Malacoste (Gran Sasso Range, Abruzzi) for a better knowledge of environmental risk. – This note shows the results of a research, conducted in the Gran Sasso area, on the risk of avalanches and related territorial consequences. The study is based on a geological and geographic approach and uses techniques of fast mapping and field research. It was possible to identify the traces of 85 events that occurred between 2007 and 2017, which are many more than those officially registered. This made it possible to specify, at least for the type of wet-snow avalanches, the areas most subject to the phenomenon and highlighted the environmental risks and possible dangers for the visitors in the area. Therefore, it provided useful indications for a more prudent management of risk and better territorial planning.

“The loom and the plot. Networks of community and territorial action in Sardinia” by Carlo Perelli

The role of policies for the activation of human capital and territorial mobility in con-trasting skilled youth emigration. – This study aims to investigate the role of local human capital activation policies and the value of territorial mobili-ty to contrast the phenomenon of qualified youth emigration. A phe-nomenon that has regained momentum in Italy in the last decade.
This study examines complex initiatives implemented by Italian regions and local authorities (especially Torno Subito by the Lazio Region and other programmes such as Ritorno al futuro by the Puglia Region and Master and Back by the Sardinia Region) that can serve as a model for national and European policy makers. Programmes that can help to counter skilled emigration and support the "right to stay" of a generation of skilled young people who, more than others, suffer from job insecuri-ty and a growing risk of marginalisation.

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.

The Circular Economy Model in the City and the Territory

Functions and benefits of green infrastructure: from contrast to climate change to the tourist positioning of cities. – Cities, in addition to being the main protagonists of global competition, represent those territorial contexts in which the effects of climate change become more evident. Among the sustainable urban planning tools supporting them are green infrastructures that can provide useful solutions capable of strengthening their resilience, transforming them into more pleasant and liveable environments. In light of these considerations, the contribution addresses the role played by green infrastructures also for the purposes of a more effective tourist positioning of cities in compliance with the sustainable development goals.

 

Environmental sustainability among socio-economic variables of influence and geographical determinisms. An analysis of the Italian scenario at nuts-3 level. – The process of awareness of the value of environmental sustainability is currently changing, also due to the the media lever that has catalyzed its dynamics both individually and collectively ones. At a European level, particularly, with the von der Leyen presidency, the orientations based on a vision linked to the Green Deal seem to have strengthened even more, according to which Europe must aim to become the first continent with zero climate impact by 2050, at the same time stimulating the economy, improving people’s health and quality of life, taking care of nature and in the absence of geographical differentials. The real effectiveness of these actions, however, will only materialize where integrated approaches will be adopted able to improve other variables directly related to the propensity for environmental sustainability. The present contribution, through a multivariate regressive analysis, a clustering methodology and the related cartographic representation, therefore tries to understand which are, in the Italian scenario (Nuts 3 scale), these socio-economic variables of possible influence, in order to clarify the territorial differentials that can be detected in the domain of sustainability.

Biofuels and bioplastics between opportunities and opportunisms in a regional experience. – Global and European strategies on renewable energies increasingly highlight the need for a paradigm shift in socio-spatial relations in agriculture. The territoriality of the renewable energy supply chains re-proposes the top-down characteristics of the fossil fuels era, deferring the support to coherent initiatives linking energy and territorial systems. The contribution explores European biomass strategies and their effects on a territorial level in Sardinia. The EU and Italian government strategies aiming at consolidating bioenergy and bioplastic production, both in terms of regulatory regulation and financial incentives for production, are reviewed. Starting from the agriculture and biomass energy production literature and based on a series of interviews carried out between 2018 and 2020 with local stakeholders, the effects of policies are investigated. The energy production process from biomass in Sardinia and the internal and external variables connected to it are examined.

 

Landscape and Territory

“Public geographies. The reasons of the territory in ten social itineraries” by Angelo Turco

Ai confini

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 territorial principle" by Alberto Magnaghi

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.

The territorial needs, the UN 2030 Agenda and the university degree curricula. – In the complex frame of current changes and challenges, the paper aims at presenting the strategies and actions that the University of Piemonte Orientale is addressing to improve its training offer on the sustainability and environmental themes. Interdisciplinarity, territorial involvement, experiential learning are considered key factors to allow the shifting processes and projects towards sustainability on various levels, from civil society to the industrial context, from high schools to the non-profit and third sector.

The hydrogeological risk in Calabria in the relocation of Cavallerizzo (Northern Calabria, Italy). – In Italy, there are many areas in hydrogeological instability and many others show clear signs that, added to neglect, poor maintenance, absence of maintenance works and unsustainable territorialization processes, turn into critical issues. Risk mitigation interventions vary depending on the exposure, but even more so on the availability of resources and the perception of risk by the communities involved. About one third of the population lives in these areas with a high hydro-geological risk, which see the relocation of settlements with the consequent abandonment of unstable historical centers among the most complex and controversial interventions. The case study concerns the relocation of the Cavallerizzo di Cerzeto hamlet in Calabria, affected by a deep gravitational movement in the area of more recent urbanization and chosen as it was rebuilt with the urban structure and neighborhood relations of the old village as a settlement for the minority ethnic-linguistic arbëreshe. 

The wind farm as a symbolic landscape. – Wind energy has had a remarkable development in Italy in recent years, despite severe criticism on the environmental and social impact of the plants. In particular, numerous studies and research have been conducted on the subject of the visual impact of wind turbines, mostly giving space to those who consider them a territorial realization that disfigures the landscape. The widespread construction of what today in Italy are commonly called wind parks must however lead us to consider that just as many are those who see in the plants not so much an element of visual disturbance but, on the contrary, an element of the landscape with an acceptable aesthetic value, and in some cases even positive. The research focuses on two wind farms – Monte d’Aria in Marche and Cinque Stelle in Liguria – close to established Italian tourist regions with the primary aim of giving a voice to those who, residents or tourists, consider them symbol and flag of a new, correct approach of society towards the natural environment.

The management of marine and coastal protected areas in Tunisia. – This contribution will examine the marine environment protection policies which have resulted from the international to endeavours undertaken by Tunisia in the last decade of the twentieth century, thus leading to the recovery of coastal wetlands, the establishment of sensitive coastal zones and Marine and Coastal Protected Areas (AMCP). In particular, when focusing on the latter, it was highlighted that, although specific legislation was issued (2009) following the acknowledgement of international guidelines on a participated management of such areas, the delay with which the implementing decrees (2014) were enacted and the strong existing contradictions within a country that only in recent years has initiated a process of territorial decentralization - a fundamental step for the democratization of the country - have hindered the civil society participation in the management of AMCPs.

Thermal and SPA tourism in Italy: evolution, impacts and future perspectives. – Thermalism is a complex and articulated sector that in Italy over the years has changed its positioning. This study aims to identify the SPA tourism evolution and its contribution to the development of local economies, as well as how it can generates and increase a value proposition for the local sys-tems in the post pandemic. The data confirm the assumption of the importance of the SPA tourism in the sustainable development of the local economies that have specific resources. Furthermore, this contribution aims to state the objectives, which need to be achieved to reinvest, and regenerate territories devoted to SPA tourism in order to benefit from the possibility of reconstructing new models as a unique opportunity offered by the pandemic for this tourism sector, which represents an important resource in social and economic terms.

The Covid-19 emergency and the repositioning of tourism in the internal areas: first reflections on Irpinia. – The Covid-19 emergency, with lockdown, travel restrictions, fear of contagion, need for distancing, have changed the times and ways of taking holidays. This work aims to be a moment of reflection on territorial and tourism policies implemented as a response to the pandemic in for internal area. Through a focus on Irpinia, it wants to understand how much these investment opportunities are capable of transforming in lasting impacts for local communities, with propulsive and sustainable effects over time, and if they are able to support the trend of proximity tourism and to encourage a social and economic recovery of notably weak areas.

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.

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.

Recensione a 

Valentina Albanese, Teresa Graziano, Place, cyberplace e le nuove geografie della comunicazione. Come cambiano i territori per effetto delle narrazioni online, Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2020.

Redefine tourism model. Reflection: critical issues emerged during Covid-19. – The new emergency we are facing with current spread of coronavirus imposes restrictions in everyday life and mobility across different territories and countries; we are globally compelled to face mutual problems, regardless of unilateral positions and this is giving strength to globalization just when a crisis of the globalized world model seemed to be consolidat-ing. Even modern tourism in the pre-pandemic economic and political situation was building a path of progressive quantitative growth and showing positive signs even in the most difficult moments of the recent international economic crisis. However, global tourism is now displaying an overall weakness as never happened in the pasts and it is starting featuring negative data and forecasts showing how this emergency is affecting a substantial portion of the Italian economy, which has reached 13,2% of GDP in 2018 with subsequent significant meaning also in terms of employment. Although it is difficult to foresee future tourism developments, this paper wants to suggest a reflection on the possible scenarios that could be configured out in the medium term, starting from considerations on the role that the national corporate system in tourism has played within the Italian supply chain.
Urban solidarity networks as antidote for global epidemics. – The Covid-19 emergency leads us to reflect upon the issues related to the unpredicta-bility and exceptionality of the phenomenon, introducing new reforms that are in stark contrast with the practices of local contexts. In this sce-nario the city can become the place where the “metabolization” of crisis phenomena takes place through widespread forms of adaptation. The study aims to analyze the practices that are being experimented in this period in order to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. We speak of tactics aimed at building networks of urban solidarity, guaranteeing subsistence services to citizens and promoting practices of mutualism and collaboration aimed at codifying new forms of social capital. Through solidarity networks examples, the research highlights how forms of active territoriality can contribute to the resilience of the urban system in times of crisis.
Spatial and temporal dimension of the pandemic covid-19: from the territorial repre-sentation to the governance processes. – The Covid-19 has been increasing interesting and now it results widely argue. This theme is territorial and geographical studies are such important to the role of Italian territorial or-ganization to stem it. The methodology refers to the analysis of spatial and temporal dimensions unfolds along the effects of the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy on a regional and sub-regional scale with respect to the trend and the current scenario; according to a methodology specific to a position paper, taking into account the situation in the making, the contribution addresses the question of territorial organization and governance with reference to the state and local management of government processes triggered by the crisis and, in particular, the role played by public health. The acknowledgment of evolution and diffusion of Covid-19 is a necessary condition, but it is no sufficient too, despite the recognition of the government best level and the group of authorities. The last question of this topic is about a new proposal to individuate the best institution and the features: the role for the authorities and territorial for the dimension.

 

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.

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.
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.
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.

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.

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.

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

Landscape as vocation: an exploration of the development strategies of some Italian inner areas. – Going beyond a limiting approach of the protection of landscape as constraining, this might be interpreted as an asset for development. Building on this background, this contribution, analyzing the local development strategies produced by some of the project areas included in the Italian National Strategy for Inner Areas, investigates to what extent landscape is interpreted as a driver for development, or as vocation, in places where its preservation and protection are a matter of paramount importance.

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.

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.

Banks and Brexit. The “revenge” of territorial issues – The exit of United Kingdom from European Union will cause deep changes that will involve companies, investments and the entire productive structure of Great Britain. UK, indeed, will lose his position of comparative advantage because of belonging to European market. The aim of this work is to outline how the banking and financial sector will be affected by Brexit especially in light of the choices of economic operators and the reasons that are driving many financial groups to move to other EU countries. We will demonstrate that these choices will have a huge impact in the overall picture of redesigning the new European financial geography.

Towards a Configurative Geography of the Gilets Jaunes: Weak Values and the New Social Pacts. – This article will focus on the territorial dimension of the Gilets Jaunes, taking as their geographic formation par excellence that of the roundabout. A community, political, emotional space of solidarity. But also a political space, in its own way original and surprising. Why do the “jaunes” create topoi? Why is their geography configurative and emotional, one which cannot be simply mapped? What in the last resort, do the GJ want by occupying the limelight so persistently? Why do they do so and what are they aiming at?

The (human) face of the Earth

Rome’s Local Public Transport System: How to Trigger a Resilient Transformation Toward Sustainability? – The research presented in this paper contributes to the ongoing debate on the public vs private ownership by re-examining the case of Rome’s local public transport (LPT) system. After having illustrated the main reasons that led Rome’s citizens to ask for a referendum, the research provides a brief historical overview of Rome’s LPT system and discusses the main stylized facts presented in the institutional literature surveyed. Finally, the summary statistics are built using publicly available data. The results of the analysis highlight how ATAC’s inefficiency is only partially endogenous, as the “imported” territorial inefficiency is not negligible. This issue deserves more attention as, even if liberalization might enter a new golden age, the existence of structural inefficiencies might reduce the margins needed to incentivize private providers to enter the market, at least in those production segments more related to public interests.

Financial Systems between conflictuality and territorial coexistence. Islamic Finance and the United Kingdom case. – Recent years are characterized by the increasing spread of Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) in the Western countries. This could be explained, on the one hand, because the Islamic communities are even more numerous, becoming an important interlocutor and an opportunity for the western economies. On the other hand, Islamic finance Islamic finance has several ethical characteristics that could identify them as a more stable financial model.
The present contribution aims to address the particular issue of Islamic finance, looking at the global diffusion of the phenomenon, in order to understand its differences and conflicts with the traditional financial model.
To this end, it will be treated the case study of the United Kindom where the phenomenon seems to have had more success than in other countries.

 

Semantic Web and Sentiment Analysis to Investigate the Territorial Image. Updates on the Salento Case. – Starting from the deep difference between cyberspace and cyberplace, this paper is developed in the second field of space: the cyberplace. In its recent conceptualization it is intended as the connection between offline and online actions. It is therefore the interstitial place that is generated by the encounter between virtual space and real space. The cyberplace reflects all the stages of the journey of a smart tourister and therefore becomes a container of numerous information relating to the tourist experience and destination in the tourist gaze 3.0, as Urry recalls. Online, from the tourist's gaze, new territorial narratives are spreading that arouse different reactions from the habitual users of the tourist destination who polarize in the opposite behaviors of strengthening the sense of identity or denial of the tourist narrative and reaction. The proposed empirical case is an update of the study conducted four years ago on the perception and online narration of the tourist destination Salento. The methodology used for the qualitative analysis of the semantic web, used in the first study updated, is the Sentiment Analysis which, after several experiments, proves to be increasingly useful for the study of the cyberplace and of the geographical narratives that spread in a-material squares (Fayyad, Piatetsky-Shapiro, & Smyth, 1996; García, Gaines, Linaza, 2012; Grabner, Zanker, Fliedl, Fuchs, 2012; Hippner, Rentzmann, 2006; Kasper, Vela, 2011; Liu, 2011; Pang, Lee, 2008; Hu, Liu, 2004). Thanks to the proprietary App2Check sentiment analysis software, it is possible to understand the stories that spread on the Net and, above all, to investigate which new (though changeable and short-lived) feelings, images and identities are developing in Salento.

Migrate from Europe to Syria: From Foreign Fighter to Returner. – The theme dealt with in this paper concerns the migration flows of european foreign fighters to territories controlled by jihadist organizations in Syria and repatriations. Ffs were analyzed both with reference to the recruitment phase and in relation to the quantification of flows and the identification of the geographic arteries undertaken to reach Syria. Also through the direct testimony of the ffs it was possible to outline the profile of men, women and children and their role within the Islamic State. This also made it possible to analyze the relationships between IS, Syria and Turkey with reference to illicit trafficking and to analyze the relationship between the shari’a finance and jihadist groups. Finally, the flows of returnees were examined with reference to their quantification and to the problems related to their reintegration in Europe.

Geography of the sacred: mystical literature as a source of knowledge. – The paper addresses the question whether mystical visions can offer a contribution to the knowledge of territories with regard to historical geography. The attention is limited to Christian mysticism, on which a rich literature is available, accompanied by in-depth critical analysis.
In several cases the authors provide us with significant details about the environment that is the background to episodes of sacred history, that is the geography of the Holy Land at the beginning of the 1st century. Without discussing the theological problems, the paper investigates the writings from two mystics almost a century apart, the German Anne Catherine Emmerick, a blessed nun of the 19th century and the Italian Maria Valtorta (died in 1961). These are examined in order to ascertain the validity of the geographical information contained therein and their originality with respect to the knowledge to their time.

Breathing the Atmosphere of the Past. The “Strada dello stracchino e della pietra”. – Since many decades the cultural heritage has a very important role in the construction and development of territories. It can be tangible and intangible and it is a factor of the territorial production. Among them several cultural expressions, one of the most important is the typical magri-food production. In this article the attention is focused on the traditional production of stracchino and to its related civilization, which has produced tangible signs in the territories which today represent the authenticity of the territorial development. This is strictly connected to the new and modern forms of tourism, which compose the frame of a “total leisure experience”, such as the one of the valleys studied in this case study.

Tourism in Malta archipelago: between the mass phenomenon and new sustainability hypotheses. – The territorial repercussions linked to the tourist practice can characterized as a source of stress for the destination, such as to undermine its territorial integrity. Therefore, forecast the effects are of fundamental importance to better understand the future developments of the phenomenon in order to prepare new and sustainable development strategies. Starting from the analysis of the latest tourism trends, the paper intends to focus attention on the characteristics that the phenomenon has taken in the Maltese archipelago. More specifically, will analyze the various forms that tourism has taken over the last decades, from the mass phenomenon to new hypothesis of sustainable models, and how they are sufficient or not to ensure the integrity of material and immaterial heritage on which the tourist appeal of the affected area is based.

Smart: Opportunities and Risks for Urban Development and Challenges for the African Continent. – In recent decades there has been a proliferation of studies, research and approaches to the “smart” theme, viewed with interest as the “new” frontier of sustainability, which seeks to combine technological development with territorial development, social inclusion with environmental protection. This seems very stimulating for the develop-ment of the poorest regions of the Earth, which, following political instability, or economic difficulties, or structural and infrastructural back-wardness, are lagging behind the richest and most stable regions, although in recent years they are witnessing a very fast GDP growth rate. Starting from some definitions of “city”, I will examine the concept of “smart city” and will try to identify the approaches that best respond not only to objective needs for the development of a territory, but also to its qualitative characteristics, in so that “smart” urban and territorial planning projects represent a real and effective instrument of integrated and lasting development, also in urban and rural Africa.

New Synergies Between Territories and Enterprises: The Benefit Corporation as Potential Actors of Sustainable Development. – Recently, in Italy, have been introduced the Benefit Corporation (BC), ie a new legal form once a formal recognition of those companies intending to pursue a different business model: the “for benefit”. These companies, in fact, are placed in a limbo between non-profit and for-profit, associating profit targets with requirements of transparency and accountability to a wider number of stakeholders such as employees and citizens, reaching the interest for the natural environment and the territory. The challenge launched by the BC is that to get a rapprochement between doing business and society that goes beyond a simple and residual integration of social concerns, introducing into the reasons of being of the company's one or more purposes turned to the common benefit. In this sense, the classical concept of corporate social responsibility undergoes a transformation and becomes more strong.
This study has two objectives, firstly to clarify the nature, the struc-ture and the geographic distribution of those enterprises, on the other hand it aims to check as this modern way of understanding the business may affect on the territory and the extent to which the context where the companies are placed can to contribute on their functioning. To achieve the ultimate goal will be analyzed recent experiences in the Italian system, taking into account some of the existing realities.

“The Land of my Dreams”: Ideas of Sustainable Tourism between Research and Participation in the Territory of the Gran Sasso-Laga National Park – The Project “The land of my dreams” is part of the activities of the Cartolab laboratory’s research activities (Department of Human Sciences, University of L’Aquila) and of the initiatives planned by the National Park for the elaboration of the Economic and Social multi-year Plan. In the framework of a participatory research-action, the aim of the Project is to study the social and territorial potential of the National Park, in terms of social capital, expectations, hopes and “dreams” of its inhabitants. In the current post-disaster situation in which a large part of the Park’s territory is involved, through the research and participation actions planned by the Project, it is possible to give shape to the hope of rebuilding one’s own life, one’s own community, one’s own land starting from those traces of future that obstinately and stubbornly persist. To this purpose, one of the topics on which the second phase of the Project, concerning the formulation of choices and decisions, focuses its attention is tourism as it represents one of the most recurring themes in the narratives about the future of the 428 people interviewed.
Cultural heritage and urban regeneration. Roma Capitale suburbs Announcement for the launch of a culture driven development. – The management and the rethinking of urban spaces, old and new, central and peripheral, in use or in assignment, is an essential and unavoidable challenge for the competitiveness of any urban systems. This implies a profound change of policy and relations between the actors and the stakeholders that act in it. In this challenge, the culture is a new, and so far underestimated, competitive advantage, able to act as a catalyst to encourage and stimulate creative and innovative processes of territorial development, starting from available local resources. In fact, in the current globalizing scenario, each territory must continually generate local revitalization processes, in order to remain economically competitive and culturally attractive. In this context, urban areas characterized by inadequate spaces and public services, in which there are abandoned structures with particular emphasis on those connoted by landscape features and historical architecture of a certain level, may represent flywheels and natural incubators with a cultural background from which starting to redefine the overall structure of any local systems. The recovery projects proposed for three areas of the northwest area of the city of Rome, falling in the suburbs Announcement recently presented by the municipality, fit in attempts to develop urban resilience proposals according to an approach of culture driven development.

Il proposito di regolare il corso del fiume Adige nella contea austriaca del Tirolo risale alla seconda metà del XVIII secolo. Diversi progetti si susseguirono nel corso del tempo e i lavori furono finalmente conclusi entro la fine del XIX secolo.
Nello stesso periodo molti altri fiumi europei - come il Reno in Germania - furono interessati da progetti similari. Le aree paludose non erano soggette a misure catastali, eludendo la tassazione. La loro presenza, poi, ostacolava i movimenti delle truppe e rendeva difficile la costruzione di fortificazioni stabili, perciò pregiudicando l’ordine disciplinato che era necessario per stabilire un moderno stato territoriale. Sin dal Rinascimento lo sviluppo delle tecniche cartografiche assieme al progresso delle inchieste statistiche permise l’attuazione di un nuovo ordine territoriale. Mappe e dati statistici non erano soltanto il mezzo per la realizzazione dei progetti ma divennero lo strumento archetipico di una radicale trasformazione del territorio. Strade e canali rettilinei, terre bonificate divennero la manifestazione materiale delle linee disegnate sulle carte. Non fu un caso che la rettificazione dell’Adige si legò alla costruzione della Brennerbahn, il collegamento ferroviario fra Verona e Innsbruck.
Lo stesso processo riguardò i confini proprietari, amministrativi e politici: lo stato territoriale moderno, infatti, concepì allo stesso modo le grandi opere di bonifica, l’appropriazione del suolo e la determinazione dei confini. Questo articolo esamina i diversi progetti di sistemazione dell’Adige con la relativa cartografia che, nel corso di un secolo, trasfor-marono radicalmente la geografia della Val d’Adige.

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.

In the past decades geographers and cartographers have been witnessed the inspiring and multilayered scientific discovery of the second text and power-rhetoric transmitted by maps. Although maps‟ basic function is to help the orientation, this is sometimes challenged due to social, historic, and most of all political rea-sons. This is especially true in contested geographical spaces where con-trasting parties are interested in not only justifying their standpoint but at the same time denying or silencing the opponent‟s similar wish. Based on examples from Cyprus and Karabakh, we present how the power-rhetoric, territorial and political claims influence mapping and how maps justify these claims by applying various cartographic tools and manipula-tions. By analyzing various tourist and road maps, present study shows how the parallel existing narratives are displayed on maps, resulting in exclusionary cartographies. Furthermore, present study argues that maps depicting territorial conflict zones are sometimes influenced and deteri-orated in such a grade that it questions the primer function of a map, namely to help the orientation.
Regional development policies and spatial planning in Campania. Some reflections. – The article reconstructs just under half a century of studies, proposals and programs of the so-called policy of rebalancing, which is a set of policy decisions and actions, including successes and failures often, which marked the public intervention for development of the Campania‟s region in the establishment of the first regional government in 1971 until today. The first part is devoted to a comparison between the vision that the various planning documents give of regional planning regional and geographical reading of these same processes in their territorial dimension, proposing also part of the literature on the geography of urban development of the southern regions and, in particular, of Campania. The second part tries to give indications on the nature and causes of the regional gap and on which roads can be traveled to attempt, if not overcome, at least a reduction in the logic of policy of re-balancing.

Religious Fundamentalisms, Space and Territory: an Emblematic Case. – The article, starting from a brief review of religious fundamentalisms, focuses on the Salafist form and, in particular, on the peculiar significance given to territory by the so called "Islamic State" of Iraq and Syria. Major emphasis is given to the difference between the concept of "State", as a specific territory clearly defined by boundaries, and the Islamic concepts of umma and dawla (the Arabic word approximately translating "State"), which refer to non-territorial entities in continuous expansion and change. It is indeed the existence of boundaries, and specifically those established by the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, which appear as one of the main "enemies" of Al-Baghdadi's New Caliphate. The article also review the problem of the so called "foreign fighters" who, coming from a diasporic and, therefore, non-territorial dimension, seem particularly appropriate to the objectives of a political entity whose main characteristics are territorial indefiniteness and opposition to boundaries.

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.

Qualche considerazione su concentrazione spaziale e segregazione degli immigrati a Napoli. – Il contributo si propone di evidenziare – con riferimento alla distribuzione spaziale delle principali comunità straniere residenti e attraverso l'elaborazione di taluni indicatori di segregazione – la complessità di forme della polarizzazione sociale e della segregazione residenziale, e, più specificamente, la loro struttura ed organizzazione spaziale in un contesto urbano particolare quale quello napoletano. Importante polo di attrazione per gli immigrati, catalizzatore degli stranieri che decidono di stabilirsi in Campania, Napoli offre ampie possibilità di lavoro sommerso, assicura una rete di rapporti all'interno delle varie comunità, garantisce la presenza di centri di accoglienza e servizi. Qui, d'altra parte, proprio l'esistenza di un tessuto socioeconomico fortemente segnato dall'irregolarità e dall'informalità e, insieme, il richiamo delle reti comunitarie sembrano caratterizzare particolarmente le dinamiche di territorializzazione del fenomeno migratorio.

Mountains, cities inland areas in Italy: a challenge for a public policies. – From the analysis of the national project about "inland areas" started by Fabrizio Barca in 2012, ex minister of the Territorial Cohesion, we will want to know the importance of the different meaning of the terms "inland areas" and "mountains" because very frequently we flatten the differences between the two. It is not only two reality that not coincide geographically, are also two concept really different.

The first part of this article will be dedicated to define this characters and their relevance for cohesion policies. The second part will consider the relations of interdependence of the cities with their hinterland mountains as a possible subject of political relations based on a reciprocity artificial ecosystem.

Rural development and territorial well-being. – The paper analyzes the issue of the relationship between rural development and well-being. Taking into account the multifunctional dimension assumed by rural development over the last few years, the topic of the landscape play a central role. In fact, it is a common good which concerns the settled communities and those who use it. The theme of the rural landscape so connects to the themes of participation and democracy.

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.

Territoriality, rurality and rural-urban relationship. – Analyzing currents changes in Brazilian countryside becomes mandatory. Besides performing traditional roles – being a reference of activities permanence, providing urban areas with workforce and raw materials, and consuming urban goods –, rural areas are becoming more and more a place of activities other than farming ones. Industrial activity and tourism service activities exemplify it. In addition to making nature features stand out, tourism linked activities point out the change tendency.

This paper seeks to present some of these changes in Rio do Janeiro's countryside, where, besides cattle raising, numerous non-farming activities are taking place, especially tourism.

Mauritius island has been nearly uninhabited until XVIth Century, when firstly Portuguese, then Dutch, French and Eng-lish powers took possession of it. The island’s population growth was due to two main causes: in the first moment to the commerce, then to the exploitation of resources, with important environmental transforma-tions.Until the independence was declared in 1968, the main economic source was the cultivation of sugar cane, for which African slaves, and then In-dian and Chinese workers was used.Starting from the independence period the economic structure of the is-land has changed, with a significant diversification of the productive ac-tivities. Beach tourism is now a vital economic sector of the island, but it hasn’t changed the population distribution of the island, mainly concen-trated in the internal areas.The aim of this article is to analyze the evolution of the populating dy-namics of the island and the economic trends and finally observe their territorial and environmental impacts.
The European Mediterranean region. Management and valorization of landscape transformations. – If on the one hand, many Mediterranean landscapes show the signs of an upset of ecological equilibrium and of a loss of identity-making peculiarities, on the other hand we see a renewed social demand, centered on the cultural, social and environmental values of each landscape, which induces to a reconsideration of politics as well. Hence, we have an increasing of regulative documents, agreements, projects and measures about all the different territorial scales. The main objective of this work is to analyze some of these planning proposals and programmatic documents which have been produced in Europe, to discover sustainable ways of territorial regeneration. The leading thread of this paper consists in investigating the meaning and value assumed by some instruments within a territorial planning directed towards innovation and collaborative planning.

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.

In the course of the time, the concept of «uncertainty» has been investigated from different points of view. The aim of this article is to provide an interpretational key of present territorial process – first of all starting off by the example of Rome town in the real estate market, to make a comparison with other Italian cities – basing on the idea of «geography of uncertainty». Such a conceptual formulation will be associated with uneven developments and oscillatory movements of modern occidental economy.
Carmen Bizzarri Dinamiche spaziali e cambiamenti socio-economici del turismo urbano in Italia   Abstract Nel turismo una delle innovazioni, che in questi ultimi decenni ha assunto grande rilievo,  è la pratica del “turismo urbano”. Questo contributo intende individuare le caratteristiche e gli effetti di questa innovazione, che ha avviato profonde trasformazioni nelle città. Il nuovo“turismo urbano è quella forma di turismo che cerca di dare al turista quella good experience derivante,  oltre che dalla visita dei monumenti, di musei o dei beni culturali, anche dal godimento della città nella sua interezza, dalle attività ludiche e di intrattenimento a quelle più strettamente legate alla identità culturale di quel tessuto urbano. L'innovazione è data dalla presenza di una serie di attività e di servizi, che sono sempre più diversificate e livellate a seconda delle peculiarità e delle esigenze del turista. Queste nuove attrazioni mettono in gioco, peraltro, nuove realtà localizzative  in quanto si insediano nelle periferie delle città, diffondendo il turismo anche tra i cittadini ivi residenti. Il centro delle città diventa così più vivibile: tuttavia nelle periferie le attività turistiche possono comportare anche svantaggi notevoli, soprattutto ai residenti. L'analisi geografica ed economica, che qui viene adottata, vuole evidenziare come questa nuova pratica di turismo urbano può comportare notevoli mutamenti  territoriali spesso inosservati ai responsabili dell'assetto del territorio.  

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.

La Via degli Abruzzi: old routes to new territories. – The contribution aims to consider the Via degli Abruzzi, if supported, as a picture and as an input for the assertion of original territoriality from the extraordinary values that has accumulated and articulated over time, will work as a specific brand of network. A project of renewed fruition of the Via of Abbruzzi, to promote attractiveness of the region, through magnifying glass bet on the  territory of Aquila as a critic subject that  still living events of deterritorialization far from being resolved, also the bearer of the instances of some territories in difficulty, not only local or regional.

With the de-territorialization process, it necessary to consider the role that the contemporary city must cover, towards a rediscovery of its traditional link with the country. In this new dimension that the city expresses, it is maturing therefore the awareness to act according to sustainability, for an exploitation and a management of territory. The objective is to analyze the new eco-sustainability projects to individualize the potentialities of local transformation that characterize the context of the Roman area.

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.