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

1) Understanding social, economic, and cultural mechanisms affecting the dialectics development/underdevelopment within the spatial dimension.

2) Critical attitude towards the reality and its spatial representation, especially about the dichotomic models

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 related theoretical explanations;
3) the relationships between urban and  regional theories/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 categories learned in class, identifying the territorial dynamics drivers as the first elements of assessment for defining consistent territorial policies.

3) Capability to approach the subject in a critical manner

Students should be requested to do in-depths about specific topics 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 clearly and maturely. Further personal in-depths will be discussed in devoted seminars, in which students should publicly show their communication abilities.

5) Learning ability

Students should be able to interpret the economic processes unfolding within the territorial dimension, taking into consideration 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, on the basis of readings previously assigned. 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.

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https://elearning.unito.it/scienzedellanatura/course/view.php?id=2592.

For non-attending students:

Per i non frequentanti:

Non-attending students shall do an oral examination. In case of emergency due to the Convid-19 pandemic, the exam will be done on the Webex platform, using the following link:

Further information can be provided by e-mail to the addresses list available on ESSE3. For this reason, the registered students who don't want to do the exam must cancel their subscription at least three days before.

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

The assessment criteria will be 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 public speaking.

The concepts of 'city' and 'region' have longtime played a central role in the geographical discourses, especially with the analysis of economic development and political structures of the society.
In conventional analytical schemes, each geographical region is 'contained' in a pertinent territorial scale, including 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 the re-scaling and urbanization processes engendered by 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 'post-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.
Focusing on the emergence of a development paradigm known as 'New Regionalism' and its critique, we introduce theories and experiences of local and regional planning.

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