1,720,959 research outputs found
Science and legend: Vesuvio's wines
Full text linkThis article is dedicated to the Campania region (South West Italy), a complex region both
for environmental and cultural components: in particular, our attention is focused on the volcano,
which, by representing its contradictions, becomes its icon. Through an examination of the
relationships between the land settings and the geological history of the places, we move on to
consider the link between the territory and one of its most symbolic products: on the slopes of
Vesuvius, are cultivated those vineyards composing the so-called Lacryma Christi, a wine of ancient
history, whose name is a reflection of legends and myths, deeply linked to tradition. Trying to
explain the origins of the various elaborations of reality, characterized by resorting to the
supernatural, the following pages want to offer a path that allows the observation of social and
natural reality from multiple perspectives
Environmental knowledge, risk prevention, renaissance suggestions in the time of COVID-19
Full text linkIn recent months, humanity, is experiencing a set of situations that have completely
changed the existing balances, worldwide. The pandemic from COVID-19 brings the collective
memory back to the terrible Spanish flu, thought to have infected a third of the world's population
and killed at least 50 million people, between January 1918 and December 1920.
Approximately one hundred years later, the whole society is facing with a virus—per se weak,
but extremely agile in contagion—and the most delicate problem is, once again, how to manage the
emergency, how to mitigate the consequences of damage, and how to get the normal living
conditions again. One of the consequences of the pandemic, is obviously a widespread economic
crisis.
One of the most relevant resources of the Italian country is the Landscape, an unquestionable
attraction, due to its geological origin and development.
This work proposes a vision on the situation we are living, aiming at suggesting one of the
possible ways to escape some of the virus’s damages, by implementing a balanced
fruition/administration/management of the territorial resources
PPGIS applied to environmental communication and hazards for a community-based approach: a dualism in the Southern Italy "calanchi" landscape
Full text linkThe need of protection of the territory is a priority for the society, which is an integral part
of it (unfortunately, this coincidence is often forgotten): the new environmental issues require the
development of innovative management strategies and of appropriate knowledge and models. The
balanced use of resources, essential for the survival and well-being of society, can be optimised
through the promotion of the territory. The identification and the sustainable development of local
resources can only be achieved by directing development policies towards a path of integration
between ecological needs, protection of the landscape and socio-economic and cultural needs. The
landscape, read as a result of the interaction between human and natural processes, is a rich heritage
to safeguard, enhance and promote. The key requirement underlying each cultural and environmental
enhancement project is the knowledge of the territory in its manifold aspects; knowledge that can be
properly synthesised through cartographic representation: maps are tools to make data easily
accessible and meaningful. In this contribution, after having carried out a review of the literature on
GIS technologies and having provided some work examples, we analyse some proposals about the
application of PPGIS on communication of environmental promotion initiatives; PPGIS, in fact, are
effective in risk communication and information and in the consequent prevention of disasters. The
mediated and participatory use of PPGIS technologies, furthermore, allows a community-based
approach, fundamental for reducing the disaster risk
Earth Sciences divulgation, geoheritage and landscape approach: the project of the Geologiro d’Italia
No full textLandscape is an expression of geology and, at the same time, is the object of human perceptions, therefore it could become a “medium” to communicate Earth Sciences to society. By integrating different information about the geo-morphological arrangement of a region, it is possible to reach a complete knowledge of the territory: a multi-scale Landscape approach is adopted in modern geological applied research. Modern technology offers new powerful tools: GIS are able to synthesize, manage and represent a large amount of data; thanks to GIS it’s not difficult to reach an evaluation of the state of the studied landscapes, referring to the dual risk/resource which characterizes Italy. Territorial and environmental problems require the constant presence of geologists, in all contexts. Knowledge is the key tool: diffusion of scientific heritage, using topics that are accessible to the public, may represent one of the new goals for geologists. The popularization of the geo-environmental heritage walks on the same paths of tourism. Special attention should be devoted to an original link between landscapes, geology and sports, such as road cycling events (e. g. the “Giro d’Italia”); each “GeoloGiro” stage can be described in terms of geo-morphological arrangement, starting from a landscape analysis: the landscape components represent, at the same time, the elements characterizing the competition trough the territory. The described approach offers new fields for new actions, in order to reach the common aim of territorial safety and a shared well-being
Territorial knowledge and cartographic evolution
Full text linkThe role of geological and geotematic mapping has recently come to the forefront in spatial/environmental management. This paper aims to present some cases of boundary extension in the use of contemporary cartographic tools (GIS and WEBGIS). The potential of digital maps and associated databases offers a wide range of applications, responding to the urgent need to make available to users (practitioners in the technical sectors, planners and society as a whole) the most important concepts to concretely achieve better land management, active risk prevention and sustainable resource enhancement. The application of geomorphological maps to issues closer to society can effectively create its approach to more properly technical-scientific issues, fostering a shared awareness, useful in protecting and enhancing the fragile Italian territory. The described experiences focus on GIS, which confirms its effectiveness both for social involvement in environmental issues, and in territorial/environmental management
Cruise Tourism, Risk Perception and Public Narratives in Syracuse, Italy
No full textIn the last few years, the interest in risk-related issues has grown in all social sciences, confirming that individual and collective behaviors and intervention policies are connected to certain perceptions of disasters. Communities are often the starting point as well as the recipients of such studies. In the tourism industry, the issue of safety and risk plays a fundamental role in the dynamics of hospitality and opens up many inquiries. Indeed, one of the risks connected to tourism is the environmental one: the sustainability of tourist flows in destinations or, even better, in host communities is often what determines the success or failure of certain types of tourism. The aim of this chapter is to investigate the ways in which a community, as a destination, perceives specific forms of risk linked to a type of tourism, here specifically the cruise tourism. Therefore, the case of Syracuse, Italy is taken into account, where (precisely near the historic center of Ortigia) in 2020, two cruise ships remained idle for four months, for a long technical stopover. The presence of the ships caused a controversy within the community, among those who considered the ships a potential danger for the environmental pollution and disfigurement of the landscape; and those who, on the other hand, saw opportunities for economic development even in the long term. This study, from a cultural geographical perspective, considered the public narratives produced by some local online newspapers, by analyzing a selection of significant articles about this controversy. The primary goal is to observe the ways in which those narratives are organized, as their “forms” show the (re)production of complex cultural dynamics
Foreword
No full textSince the year 2000, at the very beginning of the new century, chemist P. J. Crutzen and biologist E. F. Stoermer proposed the term “Anthropocene” to designate the “new” epoch in which we live, international cultural studies, i.e., all disciplines concerned with human culture, have been well aware that a confrontation with the natural sciences is now unavoidable. Sciences seemingly far removed from the so- called “humanities,” such as geology, climatology, physics, and chemistry. Within a few years the writings of a historian like Dipesh Chakrabarty, who was able to make a connection between climatic events and capitalist economy, would have made this confrontation even more inescapable
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
- …
