GLOBAL ASIAN STUDIES 1: POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

Academic year
2018/2019 Syllabus of previous years
Official course title
GLOBAL ASIAN STUDIES 1: POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
Course code
ECC016 (AF:294347 AR:162018)
Modality
ECTS credits
6
Degree level
Istituto d`eccellenza
Educational sector code
M-GGR/02
Period
Annual
Course year
1
Where
VENEZIA
Moodle
Go to Moodle page
The aim is to give a basic knowledge of the concepts and the keywords of Political Geography (relations between territory-human groups-state, nation-state, borders, sovereignty), seen with a critical approach and how they are interpreted by the Asian states. The main themes of the economic part are the process of globalization, the North/South relations and its consequences, the demographic and migration dynamics and the role of the Asian countries. With the same approach are going to be analyzed the links between goods production and markets, the economic relevance of ITC and the mass-media system.
Having a basic idea of the Asian geography, with its both environmental and morphological deep differences, is the necessary starting point for a better knowledge of the human groups who live in it; it could be the basic texture for the more in depth and following knowledge of the different historical-cultural areas of the continent
A generic knowledge of the location of the states in Asia and their names
(ppt) Political Geography – historical development of the conceptual keys related to the state considered as the unique actor of Geopolitics, conceptual frames of the relations among states, geographical areas of political and cultural “closeness”, the current challenge to the state borders by economic globalization and by non-state actors (with examples and figures/maps taken from newspapers articles)
(ppt) Economic Geography – scheme of the “western” industrial economic model, the different theoretical models of the socio-economic organization, the structure of the world globalized economics, production sectors and financial sectors and their location in the world (with examples and figures/maps taken from newspapers articles)
The articulated frame of the big historical-cultural areas in Asia (specific characteristics, past and recent relations, processes in action). The big areas: Asian Russia and the ex-Soviet central Asian countries, Near and Middle East (Af-Pak, Iran-Gulf-Saudi Arabia, Syrian conflict and surrounding countries, Israel/Palestine), Indian sub-continent, South-East Asia, Eastern Asia (China, Korean peninsula, Japan, with specific analysis of each sub-area)
Individual final thesis (about 8-12 pages as a generic reference), even if the in depth analysis is the result of a group work, about a chosen topic or about an agreed upon topic.
The writing process of the final thesis will be accompanied by the teacher
Participated lessons, in the sense that the teacher will stimulate the participation of and the discussion by the students on the introduced topics, also with the aim to identify specific themes/topics to be analyzed individually and/or by small groups, also during the lesson-time, finalized to the writing of the final individual thesis. The vision of different kind of maps (by power point and Google-Earth) will be a tool for a preparatory general knowledge of the continent
The different territorial, cultural and geopolitical current situations are going to be analyzed through the vision of video docs, parts of movies, photos, other audio-visual sources, followed by a discussion with and within the group; the teacher will distribute detailed articles (in Italian and English)
Qualified experts will be invited for lectures on specific topics
English
Political and Economic Geography (30h): Key concepts of economic and political Geography; Globalization and world-system evolution; Globalization and regionalism in Asia; Critical approach to Asian cultural islands.
written
Definitive programme.