00455 - Geography (M-Z)

Academic Year 2019/2020

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Humanities (cod. 8850)

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide a solid knowledge of key-concepts, origin, development of Human Geography and of Cartography as a field of study. Students will be able to analyse social phaenomena in spatial perspective, according to the methodology of political, economic, urban geography and of cartography. Students will be able to analyse critically atlases, literary and historical sources to study territory and to achieve geographical information in the digital environment.

Course contents

The course is organised in two distinct parts.

The first part will introduce the key concepts and approaches in Human Geography: space, place, landscape, maps, regions, and the territorial nation state. We will also reflect on the spaces of globalisation and on the geographies of migration, tourism, consumption, heritage, together with the methodologies adopted by geographers in their fieldwork.

In the second part we will analyse a series of geographical practices that have a direct impact on our lives. In particular, by using multiple empirical case, we will look at the ways in which geography affects our everyday spatial practices, including our choice on where to go on holiday, or where to buy a house, as well as how we form our opinion on international politics, on the environmental and economic crises, on our search for identity and our relationship with others and otherness.

Readings/Bibliography

ATTENDING STUDENTS

To prepare for their exam, attending students are required to study the material discussed in class and the following four readings:

1) C. Minca, A. Colombino, Breve Manuale di Geografia Umana, CEDAM, 2012

2) Minca C., Bialasiewicz L., Spazio e politica. Riflessioni di geografia critica, Padova, Cedam, 2004 (limited to: “Introduzione”, “parte I” e “parte II”, included in pp. 1-134)

3) Readings made available during the lectures

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

To prepare for their exam, students who did not attend the lectures in class are required to study the following four readings: 

1) C. Minca, A. Colombino, Breve Manuale di Geografia Umana, CEDAM, 2012

2) Minca C., Bialasiewicz L., Spazio e politica. Riflessioni di geografia critica, Padova, Cedam, 2004 (“Introduzione”, “parte I” e “parte II" - pp. 1-134)

3) F. Farinelli F., L’invenzione della Terra, Palermo, Sellerio, 2016

4) P. Matvejevic, Breviario mediterraneo, Garzanti, 2006

5) Additional readings (only this in Italian) made available on IOL.

Teaching methods

The course is largely based on frontal teaching/lectures. During the first class the lecturer will provide detailed instructions on how the course is organised, the content, the readings and the exam.

Students who intend to take the exam as 'attending students' are expected to attend no less than 75% of the lectures.

Assessment methods

The assessment consists of a written exam with open questions.

There are different sets of question for attending and non attending students. 

Attending students will be asked questions focussed on the materials discussed in class and on the relevant list of readings.

Non-attending students will be asked questions focussed on topics and subjects treated in the textbook and the other readings.  

The assessment will consider:

1) the level of knowledge and critical understanding of the content addressed in the questions;

2) the strength of the argument and the capacity to identify links between the main topics discussed in the responses;

3) the use of the appropriate terminology.

The students who receive an insufficient mark are requested to take the exam again.  

The results will be communicated to the students via email.

Teaching tools

Powerpoint presentations, websites, video clips, readings and relevant documents from the media.

Office hours

See the website of Claudio Minca

SDGs

No poverty Gender equality Reduced inequalities Sustainable cities

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.