Ateneo - UPO

HUMAN GEOGRAPHY BASICS

The teaching will be organized in two Teaching units:
- Geography A
- Human Geography

ATTENDING STUDENTS:
Teaching unit “Geografia A” for attending students:
- E-learning lessons and documents uploaded on "DIR" digital teaching platform.
- Gino De Vecchis, Edoardo Boria, Manuale di geografia, Roma, Carocci editore, 2022 (chapters from 3 to 6 included).
Teaching unit “Human Geography” for attending students:
- E-learning lessons and documents uploaded on "DIR" digital teaching platform.
- Greiner A.L., Dematteis G., Lanza C., Geografia umana. Un approccio visuale, Quarta edizione a cura di A. Vanolo, Torino, UTET Università; 2023 (chapters 5 and 11).

NON ATTENDING STUDENTS
The student who intends to take the exam as NOT attending will bring the following program:
Teaching unit “Geografia A” for NON attending students
1) Gino De Vecchis, Edoardo Boria, Manuale di geografia, Roma, Carocci editore, 2022 (chapters from 1 to 8 included)
2) Angela Asole, Gabriella Arena, Cosimo Palagiano, Cartografia e territorio nei secoli, Roma, Carocci editore, 2020.
Teaching unit “Human Geography” for NON attending students
1) Gino De Vecchis, Edoardo Boria, Manuale di geografia, Roma, Carocci editore, 2022 (chapters from 9 to 15 included)
2) Aime M., Papotti D. (edited by), Piccolo lessico della diversità, Treviso, Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche, 2018.

The student will be able to distinguish and recognize the main characteristics of the social and economic organization of the earth surface; he/she will also be able to use the basic geographical concepts to orient himself/herself in the interpretation of the territory. The student will also be able to learn cognitive maps to understand the role of humanity in shaping the organization of the territory, starting from the near dimension of everyday places and later addressing far case studies, with a specific attention towards the construction of the concepts of “elsewhere” and “other”.
The course aims to enable the student to analyze the main characteristics and dynamics of the territory and, in the most advanced cases, to produce new solutions and use the theoretical knowledge acquired appropriately. The measurement of the mentioned objectives will be possible during the examination.

Basic geographical knowledge at the high-school level.

Lectures (in class lessons and itinerant in Vercelli region), slides, powerpoint presentations, materials and link on case studies and discussions in class and in the DIR platform.

This course (organized in two Teaching unit “Geography A” and “Human Geography”) gives 12 credits in the M - GGR / 01 sector. These credits are essential for access to teaching in secondary school.

Written test consisting of two parts, one for each Teaching unit. Each part consists in six open questions (1-hour examination). The skills in identifying and describing the main characteristics of the local and global territorial dynamics are tested through the open questions, in which students have to identify and understand the role of humanity in shaping the organization of the territory, starting from the near dimension of everyday places and later addressing far case studies, with a specific attention towards the construction of the concepts of “elsewhere” and “other”. The skills in expressing judges and comments are tested through the answers to the open questions. Students are requested to comment and compare different phenomena in written production. The skills in studying in a proper way are tested through the answers to the given questions. Students should show their competence in linking different issues together and demonstrate that they have read and studied the lecture notes (student attending lessons) or the suggested bibliography (student not attending lessons).

The course will be organized in two Teaching unit:
- Geography A
- Human Geography
Geography A: Starting from an overview of the historical development of geography and cartography and the nineteenth- and twentieth-century international geographical thought, the course will analyze the man-environment relationship, with the related environmental problems. The second part of the course will focus on the analysis of the influence that the cultural factors, the socio-historical factors and the political-economic factors have on the territorial asset.
Human Geography: Human geography in today’s world; cultural geography and globalization; territories, “geographies”, citizenship; urban geography and political geography; the other and the elsewhere; tourism and authenticity.

The course aims at introducing the students to main concepts of human geography.
The first Teaching unit of the course “Geography A” aims to offer an understanding of the evolution of the geographical thought and the main types of territorial organization.

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
- Knowledge of the historical development of the international geographical thought (nineteenth and first part of the twentieth-century);
- Knowledge of the man-environment relationship, with the related environmental problems;
- Knowledge of the influence that the cultural, socio-historical and political-economic factors have on the territorial asset.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
- Ability to understand the connections between texts and geographical contexts, using the critical and methodological tools appropriate to the analysis;
- Ability to use the appropriate lexicon to communicate - clearly and effectively - knowledge, information and opinions related to the topics dealt with.

The second Teaching unit of the course “Human Geography” aims to offer an understanding of the contemporary world geography and the main differences among cities and countryside.

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
- Knowledge of cultural geography and globalisation;
- Knowledge of the main differences between territories, “geographies”, citizenship;
- Knowledge of cities and countryside;
- Knowledge of the other and the elsewhere, tourism and authenticity ;
- Critical understanding of the topics studied.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
- Ability to understand the connections between texts and geographical contexts, using the critical and methodological tools appropriate to the analysis;
- Ability to use the appropriate lexicon to communicate - clearly and effectively - knowledge, information and opinions related to the topics dealt with.