The cultural turn in geography

>> CONTENTS & Introduction

International Geographical Union

University of Trieste

Gorizia Campus

Degree Course in International Relations and Diplomacy
Chair of Political Geography
Ph.D. School in Geopolitics, Geostrategy, Geoeconomy

THE CULTURAL TURN IN GEOGRAPHY

Proceedings of the Conference, 18-20th of September 2003
Gorizia Campus


edited by
Paul Claval
Maria Paola Pagnini
Maurizio Scaini

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 5 of 39
  • Publication
    SYMBIOSIS AND CLASHES AMONG CULTURES IN AN APPROACH BETWEEN GEOGRAPHY AND ANTHROPOLOGY
    (2006-07-19T15:08:04Z)
    Claval, Paul
    ;
    Pagnini, Maria Paola
    ;
    Scaini, Maurizio
      1174  822
  • Publication
    A CULTURAL TURNING POINT. A RESEARCH PROJECT FOR EDUCATIONAL COURSEWARE
    (2006-07-19T15:06:29Z)
    Claval, Paul
    ;
    Pagnini, Maria Paola
    ;
    Scaini, Maurizio
      1001  2907
  • Publication
    “MEZZOGIORNO, MERIDIONALISTI, MERIDIONALITÀ, MERIDIOS”
    (2006-07-19T15:04:55Z)
    Claval, Paul
    ;
    Pagnini, Maria Paola
    ;
    Scaini, Maurizio
    During a talk that followed the programme of this conference, Prof. Maria Paola Pagnini convinced me with her irresistible intellectual fervour that the location and the subject of the meeting were definitively going to attract Neapolitan geographers who wanted to discuss old and new data about the so-called questione meridionale from the point of view of cultural geography. That was an inspirational suggestion. It opened interesting hypothesis, as tackling the issues of space and society in Southern Italy in problematic and constructive terms. These issues have been at the core of national policies for years, though over the last decade they have turned a remote memory to many Italian political and social actors. We are now confronting the subject again, in the far Italian North-East, in close proximity to those movements that have shifted national interests, both culturally and politically. As geographers, here we have the opportunity to interweave the battered texture of the geography of the gap with new threads; new colours and new materials could give the whole picture all the nuances and colour varieties that can represent completely the complex reality of Southern Italy. A brighter colour will be brought in by a mix of new and old insights, and interdisciplinary contaminations which have built up the corpus of cultural geography through the contribution of foreign and Italian authors, to our distinguished colleague Claval's systemization, and more recently to Vallega's. The captivating idea beyond this work is defining the state of Southern Italy territory and society not specifically through the analysis of statistics and cartographies, but through the interpretation of individual tracks (according one of the suggestions of the conference's manifesto). In sight of the meeting in Gorizia, many older and younger geographers of the Neapolitan "geographical school" were captivated by this idea. However, as far as I am concerned, I did not take long to realize that committing myself to reflect on subjects such as Mezzogiorno, the concern and the commitment for the issues of Southern Italy (meridionalismo), and the spirit of Southern Italy (meridionalità) within an essay for a conference, was a rather optimistic and conceited attempt. Such a work implies the need to question the issue of Southern identity, comparing older and newer data, paying attention to how stereotypes can distort perspectives, revising some cultural approaches that have formed the different currents of meridionalista thought and controlled the birth of theories and practices for political actions in Southern Italy. Such reflections brought me through different readings of the Southern land, from mythology (the Garden of the Hesperides), to the natural syntax (a geologic disaster), and through the different socio-historical analysis, from Salvemini's "pessimism of reason", to the invocation for a revival in the hands of Dorso's "a hundred iron men", to the bitter observations of the global diffusion of organised crime. A fact proved evidently true: this paper will not treat exhaustively the subject despite my commitment following Maria Paola Pagnini cheering words. This paper will be the representation of some reflections that have been suggested also by a more recent bibliography, in a series of insets on the subject and the theme of the conference. I do hope my work will be a hint for future research and study.
      1377  1383
  • Publication
    PERMEABILITY AND MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH IN GEOGRAPHY
    (2006-07-19T14:58:47Z)
    Claval, Paul
    ;
    Pagnini, Maria Paola
    ;
    Scaini, Maurizio
      797  4362
  • Publication
    A GEOPOLITICAL AND GEO-STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVE OF POST-NATIONAL POLITICS IN THE EU AND ITS BORDERS: EUROPEANISATION AS A CULTURAL PHENOMENON IN TRANSCAUCASIA
    (2006-07-19T14:53:36Z)
    Claval, Paul
    ;
    Pagnini, Maria Paola
    ;
    Scaini, Maurizio
    How realistic is it to speak of a post-national politics in Europe today, and how authentic are the post-national demos and ethos in today’s EU? Then, whether and how can it be projected towards Transcaucasia? The global uncertain security environment and the vital necessity to meet transnational and asymmetric challenges and threats, make the answers to the above-mentioned questions truly crucial for the effectiveness of the EU policies given their particular decision-making mechanisms. Furthermore, uncertainty over the use and potential of CFSP and ESDP in the process of an appeasement of one of its most dangerous peripheries – Transcaucasia persists. The EU is shaped by rather revolutionary transformations: the May 1st enlargement and the Constitutional Treaty. The latter is posing not-so-easy-to-overcome problems. In the light of these difficulties and of a bitter division over the war in Iraq, considerations of a European Union beyond the nation-state seems to carry with it a breath of idealism rather than realism. The cynicism of Robert Kagan’s vision of Europe as a de-territorialised “post-modern paradise” unable to match the raw territorial might of American power (Kagan, 2003) is rising some affirmative echoes even in the EU. However, things are changing, and in order to succeed in its growing ambition and selfconfidence as a security actor, the EU, has to address issues determining its very nature, the nature of its actual and potential borders and the peculiarities of its neighbours. Today, the EU is an inter-state system acting through a multi-level and networked governance (L. Hooghe and G. Marks, 1996) operating above and below the state, rather than a post-national stability guaranteeing and security projecting grouping. We also have to acknowledge, that a proliferation of interest groups annihilating the traditional distinctions between public and private interest, as a core feature of these emergent governance practices is growing. Whereby, the technocratic allocation of “values” seems to become the primary target for policy-making (Kohler-Koch and Eising, 1999) at an internal level. On the other hand, in Europe, the nation was never mapped fully, nor absolutely onto the state, even at the apogee of modernity, and the very possibility of integration policies in modern western societies has been practicable by “forgetting” the contingent and always partial nature of such a “fit” (Anderson, 1995). For this very reason, an attempt to craft policies independent of nation-state territoriality highlights the natural status of Europe as a community of shared destiny, pointing out the dynamic nature of its future external boundaries. In this perspective the definition of borders by Ratzel as “scars of the history” (Ratzel, 1897), which necessitate to be overcome can still be useful. Since the primary aim of this article is the geopolitical and geo-strategic analysis of the shifting nature of the EU borders, the importance of Gottmann’s circulation/iconography relations (Gottmann, 1952) in the core state ideology and societal trends of its neighbours, and particularly those in Transcaucasia, it is necessary to focalise on different theoretical models, as well as, empirical initiatives, that are or should be carried out by the European Union. While state borders remain the main crossing lines within geopolitics, regional groupings are also seeking for frontier characteristics. A need of understanding the function and identity of such frontiers is emerging. The nature of the European borders is a multifaceted one. In fact, it combines issues linked to migration flows, refugee, asylum and citizenship norms, European integration models and last but not least, security concerns. We can identify an ongoing debate about the EU frontiers from the perspective of the EU as an emerging geopolitical and cultural gravitational model in 442 the world arena. There is a comparison between the EU and a Westphalian state, which is expected to have fixed borders delimiting its territory and a single sovereign centre. In contrast, according to some observers, the EU evokes a post-Westphalian and post-modern political and territorial model, which is moving away from a strong emphasis on bounded territory (Axford and Huggins, 1999).
      1443  2948