Digital Education, Geography and Multidisciplinarity: Themes, Methods and Critical Issues

In the last few years education has been strongly marked by the digital paradigm: captivating resources, new teaching tools, methodologies and unprecedented interactions between teachers and students have become part of the scientific debate on new teaching/learning processes. This has had positive effects on teachers leading them to new stimuli and new ways of boosting creativity in their didactic approach. The pandemic period has acted as a catalyst of this digital progress in the education field and has also provided the foundation for a scientific reflection on this matter as can be seen in many international congresses and research programs. The visual nature of Geography, both in terms of study and research of the landscape and with reference to cartographic production and analysis, seems to be more involved in this change. Moreover, the propensity of Geography to multidisciplinarity – subject which can be seen as a synthesis of various disciplines including social sciences – implies an in-depth reflection on several levels. This is why when analyzing digital education in reference to Geography it is necessary to take into account themes, methods and critical issues that are at the heart of an ongoing teaching/learning process. In this Special Issue we intend to explore links between the teaching/learning of Geography (at any school/university level) and the digital world, even in a multidisciplinary perspective, including both the critical issues and the advantages in terms of sustainability and greater awareness of geographical phenomena also in relation with cultural dynamics (e.g. migrations, urban transformations, development, geopolitics, tourism)

Special Issue: Sustainability and risk perception: multidisciplinary approaches

Leonardo Mercatanti and Gaetano Sabato were guest editors of a special issue of the peer-​reviewed journal AIMS Geoscience "Sustainability and risk perception: multidisciplinary approaches". Within the scientific discourse of Geography and Social Sciences, the concepts of “sustainability” and “risk perception” often represent two complementary issues of the same dynamic. One mutually implies the other in different and complex ways and yet they are often dealt as two separate matters. Approaching the latter together as part of the same dialectical process, however allows us to gain a better insight on their interaction. For example, if we consider that risk perception implies forms of power and social relationships then the perception of volcanic risk could suggest sustainable security policies. Or, again, how risk perception could be connected to sustainable habits i.e. in the case of waste management, the real danger of unsustainability can positively affect more responsible behaviours and even encourage recycling. And once more, how some consumers’ behaviours are caused by specific risk perceptions i.e. the fear of pauperizing private and public resources leads to group purchases trends. This Special Issue of AIMS Geosciences aims to focus on some issues related to the topic of Sustainability and Risk perception. We think that a multi- and inter-disciplinary approach is really useful to try answering questions such as: how do these two poles interact? How do they influence (and/or affect) each other reciprocally? What kind of correlation exists between them? For this purpose, we encourage scholars of different disciplines and/or various fields of study to contribute with theoretical reflections, experiences and case studies

Sustainability and risk perception: multidisciplinary approaches

Editorial to the special issue "Sustainability and risk perception: multidisciplinary approaches

The Centre-Periphery Dialectics in Eastern Sicily Retail System. An Exploratory Research

This paper aims at scrutinizing from an historical perspective the deep trans-formations shaped by retail spaces and new consumption patterns challenging long-entrenched dichotomies, such as the centre-periphery one. In particular, the exploratory research explores the territorial reconfiguration of the main Eastern Sicily metropol-itan areas, Catania and Messina, from the lens of the retail geography, namely after the diffusion of new suburban retail formats which have completely upset deeply-rooted relations between urban core and suburban rings

Palermo tra aspirazioni Euro-Mediterranee e processi innovativi

Lo scopo di questo lavoro \ue8 quello di fornire una panoramica dei cambiamenti culturali, sociali ed economici che si sono verificati a Palermo a partire dal 90 ', fornedo per quanto possibile un quadro di riferimento per il pensiero, il dibattito e l'azione politica nelle grandi aree metropolitane del Mezzogiorno mediterraneo che come Plaermo rappresenatano un punto di contatto culturale e un luogo per nuove opportunit\ue0, non solo commerciali, ma anche sociali e turistiche. Una reinterpretazione del sistema di innovazione in Sicilia che si configura come una rete di tipo policentrica, i cui nodi sono rappresentati dalla citt\ue0 di Palermo, Catania e Messina. In questo contesto, a Palermo, dove il settore dei servizi \ue8 ancora il pi\uf9 importante settore produttivo, si pu\uf2 notare un recente processo di "metamorfosi" che le recenti politiche di sviluppo regionale hanno tentato di favorire grazie ad ingenti investimenti in innovazione e ricerca

Global threats in the Anthropocene: from COVID-19 to the future

The COVID-19 pandemic offers food for thought and an opportunity for humanities and science scholars who research our global condition to collaborate. The 21st century society is facing an unprecedented challenge right now: what can we learn from this challenge? Will everything really return to what we used to define as ‘normal’ at the end of the emergency? Probably not. Structural changes from political, economic, social, and environmental perspectives are already occuring, and impacting the fields of health, education, commerce, governance and travel. Concepts of social space are being redefined and rethought at various scales. Our society, unprepared for a global health emergency of this scale, has been engaged only partially in practices of mitigation and sustainability and we now realize the fragility of our planetary existence. This volume collects 14 original chapters which analyse the new scenarios that could lie ahead in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis in an interdisciplinary context

Territory and memory: The Landing of the Allies in Sicily in 1943

The concept of memory (memorial site) has gained crucial importance in recent years for the identification of places (areas) and in the affirmation of local identities. The memorial sites are areas where usually tragic events have occurred and resulted in a cultural change. In these places there are still signs of these historical events and/or tangible and intangible indications created by the society such as: monuments, obelisks, marble inscriptions, others. Sicily represents an ideal area for studying memorial sites; not only because of the number of dominations in the past centuries, but also for the significance of all places where the mafia has taken its root. These elements have caused several changes in the culture and in the landscape. Sicily is the land where \u201cOperation Husky\u201d began, in the summer of 1943. This agreement between the Americans and the British aimed at occupying Sicily, Italy after World War II. Seventy years after this operation the territory is still marked by testimonies of those tragic events. The bombing devastated buildings, which we can still acknowledge for their cultural significance. These memorial areas represent a strong testimony of the past. There are cemeteries, protecting bodies many of which are unknown; there are bunkers and other military garrisons well preserved throughout the territory. These signs must be rediscovered, to be replicated because of the contemporary geopolitical situation. As a result, in this paper we propose to identify the area of eastern Sicily suitable for a tourist itinerary in the cultural memory of the war of 1943. The idea is to encourage tourism that gives rise to real emotions and thoughts