GEOGRAPHY
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2021/2022
- Teacher
- GIANLUCA CASAGRANDE
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Secondo Semestre
- SSD
- M-GGR/01
Training objectives
- The course intends to provide students with a strong basic preparation on the fundamentals of Human Geography. A theoretical introduction will be followed by a discussion of main aspects of human presence and activity on the planet. Interactions between humankind and the environment, as well as among human groups will also be presented, with reference to the most important issues involving geographical systems, groups and cultures, at several different scales.
Prerequisites
- There are no mandatory prerequisites. A basic familiarity with the use of WebGIS (e.g. GoogleEarth™ or similar) and a traditional paper-based atlas might be helpful.
Course programme
- -General aspects: the two “Grammars of Geography”.
-Cartography, conceptualization, use, regulation and symbolization of geographical space.
-Material factors and landscape evolution. Immaterial factors and symbolization as “invisible reasons” for shaping geographical space.
-Landscape and environments as evolutionary artificial contexts.
-Technical tools of Geography.
-Ecosystems.
-Resources and Energy.
-Environmental issues.
-Cultural geography, globalization and development.
-Geography and economic sectors.
-Flows, networks, nodes and systems.
-Settlements and cities.
-Political geography and Geopolitics. Didactic methods
- Pre-recorded lectures and interactive online meetings. The purpose of each session will be to highlight and discuss general criteria for interpretation of main geographical phenomena and to discuss the topics presented in the reference texts.
Learning assessment procedures
- There will be one final exam, in aural form. The student will be required to answer 4-5 questions in order to demonstrate:
-Competence acquired from the textbooks
-Mastering of concepts and general criteria for interpreting geographical phenomena.
Non-Italian speaking students may request to take the exam in English.
The exams will be conducted online, by the Google Meet platform. On the day of the exam, at about 8.30 in the morning, all students registered for the exam will receive an e.mail containing the link for the Google Meet exam session. Reference texts
- English speaking students are allowed to prepare for the exam by choosing between one of the two following textbooks:
-Alyson L. Greiner, Giuseppe Dematteis, Carla Lanza, Geografia Umana, Terza edizione a cura di Alberto Vanolo, UTET, 2019.
-Carl T. Dahlman and William H. Renwick, Introduction to Geography. People, Places and the Environment, Pearson, 2015.
The following reading is mandatory for both Italian and English speaking students.
Adalberto Vallega, Le Grammatiche della Geografia, Patron, 2004.
Prerequisites: students are supposed to have already acquired a basic working knowledge a WebGIS platform and with the use of a traditional paper-based atlas.
