FINANCIAL-POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

The course is part of the "Europe-East Asia", "Mediterranean" and "Translatlantic" tracks. It aims to provide students with the main conceptual and methodological tools of economic and political geography. The fundamental objective of the course is to provide knowledge related to the main geo-economic and geopolitical dynamics, useful for understanding the importance of the geographic perspective in the study of International Relations.

1) Knowledge and understanding
To acquire the basic concepts of economic and political geography and the related reference terminology.
To understand the main spatial and territorial dimensions of the actions of states and international organizations.TKnow the main concepts and tools of geopolitical analysis.
To acquire the main concepts and tools of geopolitical analysis.

2) Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
To acquire the capability to use the basic concepts of economic and political geography and its language to interpret the evolution of contemporary geo-economic systems.
To understand how to use the concepts and tools of geopolitics to interpret the evolution of the international relations system in a synchronic perspective.

3) Ability to judge
To develop the capability to formulate and argue simple interpretative hypotheses regarding the evolution of possible geo-economic scenarios
To develop the ability to select the most reliable sources, to constructively criticize reports and papers relevant to the study path.

4) Communication skills
The student must be able to synthesize the acquired knowledge in an efficient and coherent way.

Basic principles of economics and of international political economics.

1. Key concepts of political geography and geopolitics.
2. Geography, environment and development theory: modernization, dependence, theory of the world-system, critical approaches to development, sustainable development.
3. The politics of climate change.
4. Scenarios and geopolitical changes.

1. J. Painter, A. Jeffrey, Geografia Politica, UTET, 2011 (chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9).
2. E. Bignante, F. Celata, A. Vanolo, Geografie dello sviluppo. Una prospettiva critica e globale, UTET, 2014 (chapters 2, 3)
3. A. Giddens, La politica del cambiamento climatico, il Saggiatore, 2015 (chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9)
4. I. Talia, V. Amato, Scenari e mutamenti geopolitici. Competizione ed egemonia nei grandi spazi, Bologna, Pàtron, 2015, Part I (chapters 1-3).
5. Presentations available in the Moodle platform.

For all students (attendin and not-attending ones) the exam consists of a written test, with open questions on the topics of the course. The test lasts 50 minutes and it is aimed at verifying the acquisition by students of the basic concepts of economic-political geography and geopolitics, as well as their ability to contextualise these concepts with respect to the study of International Relations.
5 questions require a synthetic answer, aimed at verifying the effectiveness of the student's study. Each answer is worth a maximum of 4 points (out of 30).
A question instead requires the elaboration of a more articulate text, aimed at assessing the student's ability to link together and critically contextualize the main contents acquired in the course. The answer to this question is worth 10 points.

The course is organized with frontal-lectures. In each lesson the final part is destined for discussion with the students, according to modalities consistent with the number of the class.

Italian

I consider thesis' proposal on the following issues: sustainable development and green economy; climate change and national/international policies; geopolitics of natural resources and conflicts; geopolitics of the sea. Geographical areas of interest: Mediterranean region, East Asia, South East Asia, Arctic, Antarctica.

written

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