Political Ecology

Knowledge and understanding:

Basic knowledge of the debate and the main interpretative streams in political ecology.

Knowledge of the main global socio-ecological and socio-political issues.

Basic knowledge of the broad outlines of economic and ecological crises.

Knowledge of survey methods and theories on human settlement, environmental inequalities, socio-environmental conflicts.

Knowledge of the debate on colonialism and its historical consequences, postcolonial and decolonial theories.

Knowledge of the debate on patriarchal socio-cultural systems and movements that have emerged in recent years.

Use of the basic tools of geographical analysis for understanding or studying global cultural processes.

Ability to Apply Knowledge and Ability to Understand:

Ability to connect the debate of the discipline to the different issues of major cultural areas.

Ability to analyse major processes such as migration and ecological transition by adopting the methods and debate of the discipline.

Identify the main issues to be dealt with also in relation to their territorial development.

Ability to apply theoretical debate to case studies and current issues.

Communication skills:

Correctly describe the processes and phenomena covered and refer to their socio-territorial development.

To be able to give examples and link different issues in an analytical discourse on the major processes at work.

Learning skills:

Demonstrate a good knowledge of resarch methods for geographical information through the most popular scientific and technical information tools (e.g. databases and online repositories, as well as commonly used geographical information tools)

The course will be divided into thematic lecture groups, during which there will be lectures, didactic games and student forums.

Political ecology become in recent years a field of interdisciplinary confrontation in which a radical critique of the forms of organisation of the experience of modernity is being developed in the search for alternatives to the global ecological crisis. The course will present an overview of the debate that has characterised the emergence of political ecology, regional political ecology, urban political ecology and Latin American political ecology in recent years. Particular attention will be given to the spaces of theoretical elaboration that have arisen from the confrontation between different political experiences and intellectual reflections in various areas of the planet, taking into consideration the climate justice and feminist movements. A part of the course will be devoted to an analysis of global ecological crisis and the reworking of colonial and patriarchal models of power in recent years. Finally, an italian case study will be faced.

Pellizzoni L. (a cura di), Introduzione all’ecologia politica, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2023 (tot. pagine 380).

Armiero M., La tragedia del Vajont. Ecologia politica di un disastro, Torino, Einaudi, 2023 (tot. pagine 105).