GEOGRAPHY OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

The course focuses on the main concepts relating to geo-environmental, social and economic issues affecting the relationships between the western countries and the developing societies, in order to improve students' expertise in analyzing and explaining territorial complexity.
This course is a 6 cfu didactic module, with common learning outcomes that can be shared with the students from others Courses (FM2 and FM8).
The purpose of the course is to deal with the effects of global warming on both soil protection and fresh water management, enhancing the tight relationships among environmental resources, ecology and social development. Particular attention will be devoted to impacts of hydraulic colonisation and major economic strategies on developing countries, focusing on some case studies in Latin America, South East Asia, Middle East and Western Africa (Guinea Bissau).

The instructional goal of the course is that of developing knowledge about:
- the relevance of the socio-economic and environmental frameworks as relevant aspects in the explanation of the climate change impacts.
- the concept of "Hydraulic Hybris" with its manifold aspects, focusing on the effects of creation/governance of new waterscapes in the developing countries.

The achievement of specific practical and applied skills will concern:
- the assessment of relationships between economic power, resources exploitation and international policies in post colonial waterscapes.
- the understanding of the role of native technics as potential alternatives to hard western engineering.
- the proper use of global database to collect information in order to develop autonomously a written paper.

Basic knowledge of concepts and terms of human geography and elemental information on global climatic zones.
Students are besides required a basic knowledge of the concept of "Globalization" and an elemental know-how on digital tools for remote sensing, such as Google Earth, Maps etc.

Geography of developing countries and the increasing gap between North and South will be considered. Some case studies concerning alternative agriculture in the tropical areas will be analyzed. Environmental impacts of global warming, with special regards to Middle East and South East Asia will be considered as well. A special attention will be devoted to the diffusion of western water engineering schemes in the developing countries, with the aim to investigate both economic advantages and social impacts. Finally, ecotourism potentialities will be considered in small islands (eg. the Guinea Bissau case study).

Students attending classes:

- Lecture notes

- Silvia Pérez-Vitoria, Manifesto per un XXI secolo contadino, Milano, Jaca Book, 2016.

- Further lecture notes will be available on line (look at Argomento 2, 4, 5 e 6).

Students not attending classes:

- Silvia Pérez-Vitoria, Manifesto per un XXI secolo contadino, Milano, Jaca Book, 2016.

- Further lecture notes will be available on line (look at Argomento 2, 4, 5 e 6).

- Vandana Shiva, Ritorno alla terra. La fine dell'eco-imperialismo, Roma, Fazi, 2009

The exam consists of a written proof with 8 open-ended questions concerning the abovementioned program. 90 minutes will be the timing of the written test.

Professor will use lecture-style presentation and learning outcomes will be enhanced accessing to further texts in the Moodle Platform.
It will be relevant to attend at least one fieldtrip, in order to face with specific case studies.

Italian

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development