Corso di Laurea Magistrale Interateneo in Geografia e Scienze Territoriali (LM-80)

1) Understanding social, economic and cultural mechanisms affecting the dialectics development/underdevelopment

2) Critical attitude towards the reality and its spatial representation

3) Transversal skills in the field of scientific communication.

1) Knowledge and understanding ability.

Students should acquire the key-concepts of the regional geographical analysis:
1) the different definitions of the 'urban' and'region';
2) the regional imbalances and the relate theoretical explanations;
3) the relationships betweenurban and  regional theories and representations and the intervention tools for the socio-economic development;
4) the 'artificial' nature of territorial boundaries and the role of regions as both spaces for policies and actors of policies.

2) Capability to apply knowledge and understanding

Students should be able to interpret the development/underdevelopment processes applying the conceptual cathegories learned in class, identifying the territorial dynamics drivers as first elements of assessment for defining consistent territorial policies. They should also be able to draw maps using open-source GIS.

3) Capability to approach the subject in a critical manner

Students should be requested to do in-depths about specific topics, in order to assess their capability of autonomous elaboration.

4) Communication abilities

Students should manage the technical language and be able to present the core elements of the discipline in a clear and mature manner. Further personal in-depths will be discussed in devoted seminars, in which students should publicly shown their communication abilities.

5) Learning ability

Students should be able to intepret economic processes unfolding within the territorial dimension, connecting each other the different institutional, social and material factors affecting the levels of development.

Lessons are organised by homogeneous thematic modules; each module will be followed by a recap seminar that students are obliged to attend to, on the base of readings previously assigned. The attendance to the seminars will be assessed and be part of the final grade. In case of emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemics return, the seminars shall be replaced by individual essays submitted by the students in the due course, according to the scheduling communicated at the beginning of the course

Following the health emergency due to COVID 19, teaching will be provided at distance via the Webex platform. 

In order to get the teaching materials and to take part in the related activities on Moodle platform, please subscribe to the following URL:
https://elearning.unito.it/diter/course/view.php?id=29

Classes will be delivered at my WeBex virtual room:
https://unito.webex.com/meet/carlo.salone

Students will be assessed through the participation in seminars recapitulating the different modules or according to the submitted essays (see the above box), with ad hoc bibliographic resources.

The assessment criteria will bee the following:

1) knowledge and understanding of the main theories of urban and regional development;

2) application of theoretical concepts to specific contexts and situations;

3) critical approach to the analysis of urban and regional processes and policies;

4) ability and effectiveness in the public speaking.

The concepts of 'city' and 'region' have longtime played a central role in the geographical discourses , especially
in the geographical analysis of economic development and political structures of the society.
In conventional analytical schemes, each geographical region is 'contained' in a pertinent territorial scale which includes other geographically 'smaller' scales- e.g. the urban one - and it is 'contained' in superior scales - national and global ones. The complex integration between local and global, induced by the enlargement of economic relationships, markets integration and intercultural dynamism, undermines this mechanical vision of the relationships between territorial structures and scales.
After providing the students with some basic definitions concerning the different kinds of 'urban' and 'region' and the main keys for analysing of the re-scaling and urbanization processes engendered by the globalization, the course will focus on the ties among regional structures, development/underdevelopment processes, the 'regional Renaissance' and the planetary urbanisation occurred since the Nineties of the last century and the recent resurgence of the economic and political competition between regions and 'pots-national' states. Furthermore, we illustrate some elements of the recent debate on the territorial vs relational approach in urban and regional geography, with an insight into the socio-spatial factors that have contributed to the spread of the recent Covid-19 pandemic outbreak.
These different perspectives, focused on the emergence of a development paradigm known as 'New Regionalism' and the critique to it, allow to introduce theories and experiences of local and regional planning.

Conti, S., Giaccaria, P., Rossi, U., & Salone, C. (2014). Geografia economica e politica. Milano: Pearson Italia.

Pike, A., Rodríguez-Pose, A., & Tomaney, J. (2010). Handbook of local and regional development. London and New York: Routledge.

Further readings shall be assigned during the course