61192 - Geography of the Mediterranean

Learning outcomes

The course aims at making theoretical and methodological tools of geography available to students. Such tools are essential to identify and enhance properly the cultural resources that are the Faculty of Preservation of the Cultural Heritage's main focus.

In fact, the twofold character, territorialised and global, of such resources needs an approach harmonizing their historic, spatial, and technological features.  At the end of the course, student has basic knowledge and critical skills, put into historical perspective, about the main geographical models of representation concerning the relationship among environment, landscape, and urban civilization, particularly concerning Mediterranean and Eurasia.

Course contents

WARNING:

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS NEEDING A CUSTOMIZED SYLLABUS ARE EXPECTED TO CONTACT THE PROFESSOR AT LEAST ONE MONTH BEFORE THE EXAM.

TOPICS

1. Course's introduction. Prerequisites. Concepts and methods.
2. Biological and cultural evolution. The agricultural revolution and the Mediterranean connectivity. Features of Mediterranean networks. The «milieus» and the networks. Water and Mediterranean landscapes.
3. Maps and spatial information. Structure and function of mapping. The Marshall's stick charts  and the Bedolina map. Mediterranean and the genesis of the Europe's representation. Miletus and Anaximander's map. The canon.
4. Roman Empire and its route system. The sense of boundary. Citizenship and identity. Christendom and the notion of 'patria' (homeland). Barbarians and heathens. Slavic and islamic spaces.
   
5. The world system of 13th century. The new urban civilization and the secularization of culture. The Italian Communes. Siena and Lorenzetti's world map.
   
6. Project and Modern Age. Modernity and the cleavage between knowledge and practices. More's Utopia. Waldseemüller's map.
7. Cantino's map and coloniale spaces. Columbian exchange and the transformation of environments. Space and time of modernity in Ortelius' Atlas.
8. «Characters» and ethnicity: the Völkertafel. The thematic maps and the notion of «race».
   
9. Cartographic production of nation-state. The case studies of France, Netherlands, England.
   
10. National landscapes.
    
11. Standardization of space and time. Nineteeenth century's city and the modernization of everyday life.
    
12. The models of Paris and London. The novelties of nineteenth century's city. The modernization of Italian cities.
    
13. The building of stereotypes, the geographical canon and the Mediterranean.
14. Mediterranean as a cultural notion. Mediterranean and the notion of «civilization». The Mediterraneans.
15. The Mediterranean between decolonization and post-colonization. The Mediterranean within the international relations' system between 20th and 21st century.
16. The decline of culture and information as 'land factors'. Deterritorialization and deculturation: the case study of the 'return of religion'.

Readings/Bibliography

L. L. Cavalli Sforza, L'evoluzione della cultura, Turin: Codice edizioni, 2010; M. Neve,  Courseware available here <https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32775365/iBooks/Geografia%20del%20Mediterraneo.ibooks> (iPhone/iPad) or here <https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32775365/Geogr_Med%20%285%29/Geogr_Med%20-%20Mario%20Neve.pdf> (pdf); M. Neve, Course book (downloadable from the teaching materials' link); A. M. Medici, Mediterraneo planetario, in R. Barbanti, L. Boi, M. Neve (a cura di), Paesaggi della complessità, Milano: Mimesis, 2011,  pp. 351-393.

WARNING: THE COURSEWARE IS NOT MEANT AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR EXAM TEXTS, BUT ONLY AS A SUPPORT FOR SYNTHESIS AND REFERENCE. THE STUDY OF ONLY THE COURSEWARE IS INSUFFICIENT TO TAKE THE EXAM.   

Supplemental reading, just if you want to deepen the topics:  E. Holenstein, Atlante di filosofia. Luoghi e percorsi del pensiero, Turin: Einaudi, 2009; AA.VV., Le frontiere della geografia, Turin: Utet, 2009.

D. Harvey, L'enigma del capitale, Milan: Feltrinelli, 2011; A. Colombo, La disunità del mondo, Milan: Feltrinelli, 2010.

Teaching methods

Course will be taught through a mixture of formal lectures, discussion classes and web-based discussion. Its aim will be to facilitate interaction between the lecturer and students and to stimulate debate among students.

Class attendance is critical to take advantage of a way of learning not feasible through homework, and it turns out to be crucial in order for the student to adequately satisfy exam requirements.

Assessment methods

The exam consists of an oral examination on the entire syllabus. The aim of the interview is to assess the methodological and critical skills acquired by the student. Given the importance of class attendance for an appropriate training process it will be two grading scales and two separate programs: for attending and non-attending students.

 

Attending students

Attendance and participation count for 15% of the final grade.

In particular, it will be assessed the ability of the student to participate actively in class, also using multimedia and collaborative tools provided within the course; such capacity, if combined with the achievement of a coherent framework of the topics developed during the lessons , the application of critical sense and suitable means of expression will be considered and evaluated with the maximum grading = A (27-30 con lode).

Attendance, if joint to a predominantly mnemonic acquisition of course's contents and discontinuous language and logical skills will be assessed in a grading range from good (B = 24-26) to satisfactory (C = 21-23).

Attendance, with a minimum level of knowledge of the course contents, combined with training gaps or inadequate language and logical skills, it will get as grade ‘barely passing' (D = 18-20).

The absence of a minimum level of knowledge of the course contents, combined with inadequate language and logical skills and training gaps, it will produce a fail (E) grading, even in spite of an assiduous attendance.

 

Non-attending students

Non-attending students will be assessed primarily on the ability to use literature and multimedia tools made available, in order to properly expose the contents of the course. This ability, when combined with the achievement of a coherent framework of the course's themes, the application of critical sense, and suitable means of expression will be considered and evaluated with the maximum grading = A (27-30 con lode).

A predominantly mnemonic acquisition of course's contents along with discontinuous language and logical skills will be assessed in a grading range from good (B = 24-26) to satisfactory (C = 21-23).

A minimum level of knowledge of the course contents, combined with training gaps or inadequate language and logical skills, it will get as grade ‘barely passing' (D = 18-20).

The absence of a minimum level of knowledge of the course contents, combined with inadequate language and logical skills and training gaps, it will produce a fail (E) grading. 

Teaching tools

Multimedia, cloud sharing, podcasts.

Links to further information

http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mario_Neve/

Office hours

See the website of Mario Angelo Neve