81952 - GEOGRAPHIES OF GLOBAL CHALLENGES (1) (LM)

Anno Accademico 2019/2020

  • Docente: Elisa Magnani
  • Crediti formativi: 6
  • SSD: M-GGR/01
  • Lingua di insegnamento: Inglese
  • Modalità didattica: Convenzionale - Lezioni in presenza
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Laurea Magistrale in Scienze storiche e orientalistiche (cod. 8845)

    Valido anche per Laurea Magistrale in Sviluppo locale e globale (cod. 9200)

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

At the end of the course students will show understanding of some of the global challenges the population of the planet has been facing since the second half of the XX century. Among these, the critical relation with the natural resources and with the concept of development and, above all, climate change, with its connections to territorial development, ecological risk, food security and the consumption of natural resources At the end of the course, the students will have acquired the theoretical and empirical tools to critically analyse the global strategies of climate resilience and cooperation and the relation between climate change and tourism. They will also have acquired the ability to work in groups and develop class discussions. They will be able to communicate both in experts and non experts groups the global dynamics connected to climate change, globalization, poverty, development and tourism.

Contenuti

The course focuses on one of the major challenges of our age “THE defining challenge of our age” as recognised by Ban Ki-moon, at the CMP 3, in Bali, in 2007.

Climate change offers the opportunity for a multidisciplinary analysis and, during the course, we will try to discuss together about the many topics connected to the phenomenon, using mainly a geographical approach which means with a focus on territorial impacts, policies and responses.

Along the lessons we will concentrate on three main aspects of the phenomenon:

  • PART 1 (WEEK 1 and 2) will introduce climate change as a global phenomenon, with its natural and anthropogenic root causes, positioning it inside the wider perspective of environmental degradation and pollution and analysing the global debate between climate change activists and deniers. In this respect we will carry out several activities, such as group work, presentation and class discussion.
  • PART 2 (Weeks 3) will analyse the Kyoto Protocol and the Post Kyoto adaptation and mitigation strategies, with a focus on the policy-making process but also trying to include it into a theoretical framework of adaptation
  • PART 3 (Weeks 4-5) Climate change and mobility: the connections between climate change and environmental crisis with migration and tourism. During this part the course will require a wide participation of the students, who will be invited to take part to group readings and discussions, using cooperative learning methodologies.

 

Testi/Bibliografia

PROGRAMME FOR STUDENTS NOT ATTENDING THE CLASSES

The evaluation for students not attending the classes consists both on the production of a short essay (70%) and an oral exam (30%).

The essay, not exceeding 15.000 characters, will have to deal with a topic chosen from the books and/or the article(s), possibly integrating other bibliography. It will have to be submitted by email to the professor not later than 10 days before the exam.

The oral exam will assess the student’s preparation on the selected texts and discuss the student's essay.

 

To prepare for the exam (both the essay and the oral evaluation) students must read: 

1 book chosen between the two following (to understand the ecological and political basis of the phenomenon):

  • Chivers D. The No-nonsense Guide to Climate Change: The Science, the Solutions, the Way Forward, New Internationalist, 2 edition, 2011.
  • Godrej D., No Nonsense Guide to Climate Change, New Internationalist, 2001/2006.

1 book chosen among those in the following list (to analyse a specific aspect of the phenomenon):

Climate change and migration

  • Ionesco D., Mokhnacheva D., Gemenne E., The atlas of environmental migration, IOM, Earthsan from Routledge, London and New York, 2017
  • Piguet E., Pecoud A., de Guchteneire P., Migration and climate change, Unesco Publishing, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012.

Climate change and tourism

  • Becken S., Hay J.E., Tourism and Climate Change: Risks and Opportunities, Channel View Publications, Clevedon, 2007 (Chapters 1-2-3-4-5-10 + 2 more chapters chosen from 6-7-8-9).

Climate change debate

  • Hoffman A., How culture shapes the climate change debate, Stanford briefs, Stanford, 2015.
  • Klein N., This changes everything, Penguin Books, 2014.
  • Pelling M., Adaptation to Climate Change. From resilience to transformation, Routledge, London, 2010.
  • Stoknes P.E., What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming: Toward a New Psychology of Climate Action, Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction (USA), 2015.
  • Tokar B., Eiglad E., Toward Climate Justice: Perspectives on the Climate Crisis and Social Change, New Compass Press, 2014.

1 article chosen among those in the following list (to critically contextualize the phenomenon):

  • Leonardi E., "Bringing class analysis back in: assessing the transformation of the value-nature nexus to strengthen the connection between degrowth and environmental justice", Ecological Economics, 159, 2019, pp. 83-90- DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.09.012 
  • Leonardi E., "Carbon trading dogma: Theoretical assumptions and practical implications of global carbon
    markets", Ephemera: theory & politics in organization,  volume 17(1), 2017, pp. 61-87
  • Leonardi E., "For a Critique of Neoliberal Green Economy. A Foucauldian Perspective on Ecological Crisis and Biomimicry",  Soft Power Revista euro-americana de teoría e historia de la política y del derecho, Volumen 5, número 1, enero-junio, 2017, pp. 169-185. DOI: 1017450/170110

 

PROGRAMME FOR STUDENTS ATTENDING THE CLASSES

Students attending the classes will be required to participate to at least 70% of all lessons, actively taking part to the many class activities, seminars and presentations.

As a consequence of their active involvement during the classes, their programme will be as follows:

  1. Participation to the class discussions and activities proposed by the professor (40% of final evaluation).
  2. Oral exam aimed at assessing the personal preparation on:
  • the topics discussed in class (30%) both in respect to the power point presentations shown by the professor during the classes and the class activities
  • the study of 1 book (30%) among those in the following list:

Climate change and migration

  • Ionesco D., Mokhnacheva D., Gemenne E., The atlas of environmental migration, IOM, Earthsan from Routledge, London and New York, 2017
  • Piguet E., Pecoud A., de Guchteneire P., Migration and climate change, Unesco Publishing, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012.

Climate change and tourism

  • Becken S., Hay J.E., Tourism and Climate Change: Risks and Opportunities, Channel View Publications, Clevedon, 2007 (Chapters 1-2-3-4-5-10 + 2 more chapters chosen from 6-7-8-9).

Climate change debate

  • Hoffman A., How culture shapes the climate change debate, Stanford briefs, Stanford, 2015.
  • Klein N., This changes everything, Penguin Books, 2014.
  • Pelling M., Adaptation to Climate Change. From resilience to transformation, Routledge, London, 2010.
  • Stoknes P.E., What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming: Toward a New Psychology of Climate Action, Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction (USA), 2015.
  • Tokar B., Eiglad E., Toward Climate Justice: Perspectives on the Climate Crisis and Social Change, New Compass Press, 2014.

Other books may be selected in accordance with the professor.

Metodi didattici

In presence lessons, supported by the use of power point presentations, videos and movies, together with class activities based on participative methodologies.

Students will thus be strongly invited to share a participative attitude during the lessons, by participating to class/group discussions, seminars and other cooperative activities.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

The programme is differentiated between attending and non attending students, as follows:

STUDENTS ATTENDING THE CLASSES

Attending students have to study the programme presented above, which consists in:

  1. Participation to 70% of lessons and to the class discussions and activities (40%) proposed by the professor.
  2. Oral exam aimed at assessing the personal preparation on:
  • the topics discussed in class (30%) both in respect to the power point presentations shown by the professor during the classes and the presentations made by the other students
  • the study of 1 book (30%) among those in the list.

The programme will be fully described during the first lesson and published in details on the power point "Presentation of the course".

Assessment methods:

For students attending the classes the assessment is an oral exam that will aim at testing their comprehension of the geographical, economical, social and cultural phenomena described during the lessons both by the teacher and the other students' presentations and discussed together. Participation to the discussion is a key element to evaluate the students, and with it personal reflection on the issues studied. Moreover, students will be evaluated on their communication skills and on the use of a correct terminology.

 

STUDENTS NON ATTENDING THE CLASSES

Non attending students have to study the programme described above, which consists both in an oral exam (30%) aimed at evaluating their preparation on the 2 books, and in the production of a short essay (70%).

Assessment methods:

For students not attending the classes, the exam will aim at testing their comprehension of the geographical, economical, social and cultural phenomena studied, and during the exam they will be invited to propose a personal reflection on the issues studied. Moreover, they will be evaluated on their communication skills and on the use of correct terminology.

In order to sit the exam students will have to register for on the AlmaEsami website.

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

All Power Point presentations and other materials for attending studens will be available among the "teaching materials" ("materiali didattici") downloadable from this website, whose access is restricted to students from the University of Bologna.

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Elisa Magnani

SDGs

Acqua pulita e servizi igienico-sanitari Energia pulita e accessibile Città e comunità sostenibili Lotta contro il cambiamento climatico

L'insegnamento contribuisce al perseguimento degli Obiettivi di Sviluppo Sostenibile dell'Agenda 2030 dell'ONU.