J reading 2 2014 by AIIG

Associate Editors: Cristiano Giorda (Italy), Cristiano Pesaresi (Italy), Joseph Stoltman (USA), Sirpa Tani (Finland)

J - READING

Scientific Committee: Eyüp Artvinli (Turkey), Caterina Barilaro (Italy), Giuliano Bellezza (Italy), Tine Béneker (Netherlands), Andrea Bissanti (Italy), Gabriel Bladh (Sweden), Carlo Blasi (Italy), Laura Cassi (Italy), Raffaele Cattedra (Italy), Claudio Cerreti (Italy), Giorgio Chiosso (Italy), Sergio Conti (Italy), Egidio Dansero (Italy), Martin R. Degg (UK), Giuseppe Dematteis (Italy), Karl Donert (UK), Pierpaolo Faggi (Italy), Franco Farinelli (Italy), Maurizio Fea (Italy), Maria Fiori (Italy), Hartwig Haubrich (Germany), Vladimir Kolosov (Russian Federation), John Lidstone (Australia), Svetlana Malkhazova (Russian Federation), Jerry Mitchell (USA), Josè Enrique Novoa-Jerez (Chile), Daniela Pasquinelli d’Allegra (Italy), Petros Petsimeris (France), Bruno Ratti (Italy), Roberto Scandone (Italy), Giuseppe Scanu (Italy), Lidia Scarpelli (Italy), Rana P.B. Singh (India), Claudio Smiraglia (Italy), Michael Solem (USA), Hiroshi Tanabe (Japan), Angelo Turco (Italy), Joop van der Schee (Netherlands), Isa Varraso (Italy), Bruno Vecchio (Italy), Tanga Pierre Zoungrana (Burkina Faso). Secretary of coordination: Marco Maggioli (Italy) and Massimiliano Tabusi (Italy)

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND DIDACTICS IN

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND DIDACTICS IN GEOGRAPHY

GEOGRAPHY

Editorial Board: Riccardo Morri (Chief), Sandra Leonardi (Assistant Chief), Miriam Marta (Assistant Chief), Victoria Bailes, Daniela De Vecchis, Assunta Giglio, Daniele Ietri, Matteo Puttilli

Dipartimento di Scienze documentarie, linguistico - filologiche e geografiche

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Sponsoring Organizations:

UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI TORINO Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Educazione

Association of European Geographic Societies

With the support of:

978886812440_100_TFB

J - READING

Vol. 2, Year 3, December, 2014

Editor in Chief: Gino De Vecchis (Italy)

2014

GEOGRAPHY JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND DIDACTICS IN

ITALIAN ASSOCIATION OF GEOGRAPHY TEACHERS (ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA INSEGNANTI DI GEOGRAFIA)

ISSN online 2281-5694 ISSN print 2281-4310

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), Vol. 2, Year 3, December, 2014

J-Reading is an open online magazine and therefore access is free. It is however possible to make a subscription to receive the paper format

Copyright ÂŠ 2014 Edizioni Nuova Cultura - Roma ISSN online 2281-5694 ISSN print 2281-4310 ISBN 9788868124403 DOI 10.4458/4403

Contents Gino De Vecchis

The fight for geography in the italian schools (2010-2014): an updating Cristiano Pesaresi, Mara Lombardi

GIS4RISKS project. Synergic use of GIS applications for analysing volcanic and seismic risks in the pre and post event Roberto Scandone, Lisetta Giacomelli

Vesuvius, Pompei, Herculaneum: a lesson in natural history Matteo Puttilli

Towards a multimedia approach in geographical research and education. Reflections from the web-research “Al centro di Tunisi – Au centre de Tunis” Simone Betti, Alessandro Ceccarelli

Is family farming educational? The Australian experience

5 9

33 43

THE LANGUAGE OF IMAGES (Edited by Elisa Bignante and Marco Maggioli) Rickie Sanders, Bogdan Jankowski

Exploring Urban Geography in Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities

MAPPING SOCIETIES (Edited by Edoardo Boria) Russell Foster

“Now we need to make Italians”. Semiotics and Semantics in Teaching Cartography

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES AND (PRACTICAL) CONSIDERATIONS Maria Paradiso

Between Krakow 2014 and Moscow 2015

103

TEACHINGS FROM THE PAST Halford Mackinder

Geography as a Pivotal Subject in Education with comments by Davide Papotti

Re-reading Geography as a Pivotal Subject in Education by H. Mackinder

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Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 3, Dec., 2014, pp. 5-8 DOI: 10.4458/4403-01

The fight for geography in the italian schools (2010-2014): an updating Gino De Vecchisa a

Dipartimento di Scienze documentarie, linguistico-filologiche e geografiche, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy Email: gino.devecchis@uniroma1.it

1. Introduction As stated in the editorial of Number 0 (December 2012), J-Reading magazine goes ahead with its aim of contributing to the construction of a bridge between didactics and research, which is strategic for the development of the subject. However at the same time it is committed to encouraging and valorising the exchange among the researchers of the various scientific contexts and teachers at all school levels working in the different countries of the world, thus facilitating that sense of belonging and “scientific globalisation” of the subject, which is increasingly important in a world characterised by continuously evolving and rapidly increasing real and digital mobility. Setting out to gain its place in an international dimension, each magazine represents an invitation to establish points of contact and to build together in order to collaborate and support common objectives. In the case of J-Reading the privileged area is – as mentioned – the research-didactics relationship, so as to offer the clear awareness of the value of a precious combination able to consolidate the relations between the school world and the university one, which must not be separated by too deep a division. Copyright© Nuova Cultura

In this international perspective there is the possibility of working together seriously, both at a theoretical and research level and also at the practical one of daily teaching activity. For example: what is the situation regarding the teaching of geography (at the various school levels) in the different countries of the world? How much attention is paid by the international bodies – like for instance the European Union or UNESCO – to geographical education? What are the educational and didactic objectives pursued? What are the relationships of geography with the other subjects? And furthermore: what is the image of geography in the public opinion and how is it perceived and conveyed by the mass media? These are just some of the questions among the many possible ones that deserve to be seriously compared at international level. A great deal of information circulates by means of different channels and documents, but a lot of it is not properly diffused, so much so that the educational panorama is continuously evolving, also owing to the changes taking place everywhere in the political, social and institutional frameworks.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Gino De Vecchis

2. The starting point What happened recently in Italy bears witness to the change that is possible within the context of a fruitful international collaboration. With the 2010-2011 school year the reform of the Upper Secondary School was introduced, introduced by the Minister Mariastella Gelmini and characterised moreover by considerable economic saving, resulting in the heavy reduction of the number of hours of teaching, weighing decisively on the whole new organisation. Even though already being in a disadvantaged position, geography paid a high price in this reform. It underwent an alarming scaling down in the secondary schools, with the association of geography with ancient history in the first two years, to which an overall three hours per week were granted, instead of the four hours that history and geography together had before. Furthermore, geography was eliminated from the timetable of all the professional Institutes and from all the technical Institutes in the technological sector. In this latter sector there was the extremely alarming elimination of geography from a number of courses in which it had consolidated traditions. This was the case of the Nautical Institute (today called Transport and Logistics), in which the teaching of the subject was fundamental for the training of seagoing personnel, who must have a deep knowledge of the physical-political environment in which they find themselves working. And again in the technological sector was its surprising absence in both the Agrarian economy, Agro-foodstuffs and Agro-industry course, and in that of Constructions, environment and territory. And yet environment and territory are key concepts in geographical language and thought. In the Administration, Finance and Marketing course, the economic sector underwent a downscaling as it was only present in the first biennium, while in the previous version it was also included in the second one, even though there was a partial recovery owing to an increase in the hours per week which went from two to three. The tourism course was the only one to have an optimal number of hours of the subject.

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The answer of the geographers and the Italian Association of Geography Teachers The ministerial decree exacerbated the malcontent of the teachers resulting in a strong reaction on the part of the Italian Association of Geography Teachers, who is January 2010 made an appeal for an adequate inclusion of geography which was endorsed by all the other Italian geographical associations. Below is the text that teachers were invited to sign. SCHOOLS WITHOUT GEOGRAPHY Doing geography at school means educating citizens of Italy and the world to be aware, independent, critical and responsible, to know how to live their lives within their environment, and how to change it in a creative and sustainable way, with an eye to the future. In the new curricula envisaged for high schools and technical and professionals schools, geography as a subject is destined to be heavily penalised or to disappear entirely. We the undersigned believe that to deprive ourselves of the knowledge systems supplied by geography, in a society that is increasingly globalised and complex, means depriving students of knowledge that is absolutely essential if they are to face the challenges of the world. This challenge was not without risks as it had no support or backing from lobbies but it recorded endorsements that went beyond the best of forecasts. It was signed by a number of rectors, head teachers, teachers and scholars, journalists. Associations also expressed their commitment including the Touring Club Italiano, UNICEF-Italia and the WWF. The huge interest aroused in the public opinion was also surprising and a clear sign of the widespread awareness of how important geography is in order to understand the world in which we live. There was a firm desire to take the appeal outside Italy; with this in mind the colleagues of the Italian Geographical Associations have been making every possible effort in international organisms, first of all the International Geographical Union and the EUGEO. Over 2,000 endorsements arrived in just a few days Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Gino De Vecchis

coming from almost seventy countries, distributed everywhere over the different continents. In Europe however, besides the United States of America (committed both with the American Geographical Society and the Association of American Geographers) and Brazil, the largest number of adhesions was recorded. A record number of signatures came in particular from the United Kingdom, thanks also to the contribution of the Royal Geographical Society, which rallied by writing to Minister Gelmini herself. Important backing for the initiative arrived also from the Associação de Professores de Geografia (Portugal), the Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles (Spain) and from the National Association of Geographers (India). Among the associations giving their support to the appeal are lastly the Saudi Geographical Society, the Hungarian Geographical Society and the Finnish National Board of Education etc. Most of the foreign signatories (over 70%) was made up of school teachers and university researchers and lecturers. The contribution by students was also significant. The overall answer, both at national and international level, with about 30,000 endorsements in less than one month, was a demonstration of to what extent geography is considered fundamental in contemporary culture. Worthy of note was also the impact that the appeal had in the mass media. And therefore, even if the appeal launched in support of the subject did not have important immediate results (with respect at least to the timetable structure of the reform mentioned above), nonetheless it had a huge and in many ways unexpected success owing to the quality and quantity of consensus, achieving an important action of awareness with an important spin off also at ministerial level.

3. A positive result This success, greatly due to the international dimension achieved by the appeal, had a first confirmation in favour of the teaching of geography by Decree Law No. 104 of 12.09.2013 (“Urgent measures with regard to education, university and research”) by the Minister Maria

Chiara Carrozza, which reintroduced the teaching of general and economic geography with an extra hour in the first biennium of the Technical and Professional Institutes. The introduction of the hour of “General and economic Geography” into all the bienniums of the Technical and Professional Institutes came into force in the 2014-2015 school year, with the ministerial decree of 5.9.2014 which set down the guidelines of the basic knowledge to be learned. In short it covers: the formation, evolution and perception of natural and anthropic landscapes; the processes and factors of change of the contemporary world (economic globalisation, demographic, energy, geopolitical aspects, resources and sustainable development); the organisation of the territory, local development, territorial patrimony. Undoubtedly this measure did not resolve the problems of the teaching of geography in Italy, but in a certain way it can be considered as an affirmation of the strategic value of the teaching of geography for the development of skills linked to the management and protection of the territory, environmental risks, the valorisation of cultural heritage, globalisation and interculture and gives the student the necessary skills to interpret maps, graphs, tables, to analyse an area using methods, instruments and concepts of geography and to grasp the processes of change of the contemporary world.

4. For a global geography without boundaries The case of Italy with its mobilisation in favour of the teaching of geography has not been the first one that developed outside the boundaries of the single state. Nonetheless what happened (the various ministerial measures and the process whereby so many signatures in support of this came from abroad) represented a very significant event. This was an event that highlighted both the importance of an international geographical “solidarity”, and a conscious need-desire to get together to stress the importance of the role of geography in the global society, where the frontiers (complex, porous, changing spaces) must be revisited, above all within their cultural limits.

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The big international geographical associations, starting with the International Geographical Union, are committed on this front from which important results can be achieved. In any case the magazine, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography, is available as an amplifier (also through its website http://www.jreading.org) to the various initiatives taking place

in schools and universities for the benefit of the global community of geographers and above all of geography itself. For this reason it welcomes articles from any country that describe ongoing or accomplished attacks on geography, as well as the actions, reactions or “fights” that have been deployed, whereby to share information and good practice.

Figure 1. At school with no geography? The reform of the second cycle of higher education offered the opportunity to answer a number of questions: what is the role of geography in schools and society? What is the image of geography in the public opinion and how is it perceived and conveyed by the mass media? At the very time of this reform, which penalised the teaching of the subject of geography, the Italian Association of Geography Teachers along with the other brother associations, launched an appeal: “At school with no geography?”. This challenge was not without risks as it had no support or backing from lobbies but it recorded endorsements that went beyond the best of forecasts. The book, bearing the title of the appeal, is a record of what happened but above all a reasoning aimed at the future shared by scholars of different background, in the awareness of the potential of a fundamental subject for the education of today’s young people. The book is unanimous as it gathers together the contribution of all those who in answering the appeal (in Italy and abroad), expressed their evaluations and comments, thanks also to the use of mass media and the web. In this way an extraordinary opportunity was created to reflect on and diffuse a new and more appropriate image of geography.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 3, Dec., 2014, pp. 9-32 DOI: 10.4458/4403-02

GIS4RISKS project. Synergic use of GIS applications for analysing volcanic and seismic risks in the pre and post event Cristiano Pesaresia, Mara Lombardib a

Dipartimento di Scienze documentarie, linguistico-filologiche e geografiche, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy b Dipartimento di Ingegneria chimica, materiali, ambiente, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy Email: cristiano.pesaresi@uniroma1.it Received: October 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Accepted: November 2014

Abstract Recent studies have provided important input and methodologies to analyse geodynamic hazards and risks in areas exposed to seismic and volcanic events but the link between the geophysics and engineering aspects and the humanistic and economic parameters are often weak. Thus, the GIS4RISKS project sets out to underline and make operative the possible interactions between different fields of research for a socially useful analysis, with the support of GIS and other geospatial technologies which promote the dialogue and the synergy between studies that conducted together can notably increase their impact on actual knowledge. In particular, the attention is focused on the Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Aquila and Naples Provinces (Italy), because they are very interesting study areas to evaluate the added values provided by GIS and geotechnologies in the pre and post event phases. Starting from these representative study areas, the GIS4RISKS project is aimed at elaborating interdisciplinary models and applications which can provide support for meticulous and innovative analysis of multiple variables, also giving remarkable input regarding the educational level and the raising of awareness of the population subject to risk. Keywords: GIS, Seismic and Volcanic Risks, Pre and Post Event, Disaster Resilience, Interdisciplinary Approach

1. Introduction Different studies, in scientific areas like geophysics and engineering, have provided analytical methodologies to evaluate geodynamic hazards in areas particularly subject to seismic and volcanic events. On the other hand,

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some humanistic and economic research has proposed parameters which can be preparatory for an evaluation of people and buildings potentially exposed to risk. Nevertheless, there is a lack of studies able to combine different methodologies in a rigorous approach aimed at achieving relevant developments in terms of risk evaluation and management and civil protection,

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giving the right importance to anthropic parameters in the scientific risk formulas. For example, recent research has examined many studies focused on the Vesuvius and Phlegraean areas, showing that the main aspects considered are often physical, and those concerning the eruptive behavior and hazard, while the socialdemographic parameters seem secondary (Pesaresi and Marta, 2014, p. 40). Thus, the main aim of the GIS4RISKS project is to promote and enhance the synergic interactions between potentially collaborative fields of research for a socially useful integrated analysis. On the other hand, the need has been felt for a long time to “amalgamate” the technical-physics sphere with the anthropicsocial one in unitary and detailed research and an intervention strategy that is fundamental for an adequate analysis and consequential organization of seismic-volcanic areas, which have often recorded impetuous modifications due to chaotic and uncontrolled saturation of the spaces (Famoso, 1988, pp. 8, 5). Using GIS and sophisticated geospatial technologies, as a key support to different theoretical and operative knowledge, in a combined optic we set out to test geographical, geophysics, engineering and interdisciplinary models with the aim to provide innovative applications useful to deal with geodynamic events and risks. In fact, the potential advantages which can be obtained are considerable – in natural hazard risk modelling – by the development of a fusion among the philosophy of risk management, the interdisciplinary approach and the strength of GIS as a neuralgic tool (Zerger, 2002, p. 287)1. Therefore, focussing the attention on the Naples and L’Aquila Provinces (respectively in the Campania and Abruzzo Region, Italy), as 1

Already twenty-five years ago it was underlined the necessity to understand the importance “to develop stable long-term international programs needed to address the global problem of volcanic hazards mitigation on a systematic rather than an ad hoc basis. While refinements in methodology and new technologies will be needed to improve hazards assessments and eruption forecasts, significant gains are more likely to be obtained in the near term by wider application of existing technology to high-risk […] volcanoes in densely populated regions” (Tilling, 1989, p. 263).

testing study areas, we intend to define and validate methodological approaches which can be exported to other territorial contexts with similar conditions of vulnerability2 and risk exposure3, obtaining a considerable positive impact for public safety. Particularly, the name GIS4RISKS, which identifies a “multidisciplinary project” just financed by the Sapienza University of Rome (in the category “research projects with high innovation level”), is related to the aim to consider seismic and volcanic risks in order to define a strict reference framework useful both in the pre and post event phases. We intend to elaborate interpretative models, GIS and geospatial applications which can provide precious inputs for the detailed and integrated analysis of multiple variables, also considering the anthropic parameters, the historical and cultural heritage and the construction period of housing, which are usually neglected, and creating web applications useful in terms of disaster resilience and the spreading of risk awareness.

2. The framework of the project and its main aims In the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation of Horizon 20204, into the pillar “Societal Challenges”, there is a section called “Secure societies – Protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens” where it is underlined that the first aim is “to enhance the resilience of our society against 2

For example, the “2009 L’Aquila earthquake has highlighted the vulnerability of such historic centres, both in Italy and across much of the Mediterranean region, and provides a valid argument for the establishment of major retrofitting programmes in order to avoid far worse seismic disasters in future” above all in case of seismic events with a major magnitude (Papanikolaou et al., 2009, p. 26). 3 For this purposes it is need to define formulas, parameters and devices which can be replicated adopting them to local factors. 4 “Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe’s global competitiveness” (http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/what-horizon-2020). Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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natural and man-made disasters, ranging from the development of new crisis management tools to communication interoperability, and to develop novel solutions for the protection of critical infrastructure”5. Effectively, the: “Risk decision-making in natural hazards often requires spatial selection using a plethora of risk factors” (Chen et al., 2001, p. 396). Moreover, these aspects are also related to the concept of “social vulnerability” which “refers to the capacity of a human community exposed during the impact of a natural hazard event […] to resist, cope with, and recover from that impact” and which can influence the risk perception (Armaş, 2008, p. 397). “It is a multidimensional construct” where a lot of social-demographic, economic and infrastructural and settlement variables play an important role (Cutter and Finch, 2008)6.

developed for critical infrastructures (supply of basic services like water, food, energy, transport, housing/shelter, communications, finance, health), but also for the wider public to integrate and address human and social dynamics in crises and disaster situations, including the role of the population, the media, rescuers (staff, volunteers and ad-hoc volunteers)”7. Geodynamic events occupy a central position because they often cause many victims and considerable damage, with connected problems of resilience, and can generate social and economic disasters, also causing the loss of a valuable cultural heritage. In this viewpoint, the two study areas of the GIS4RISKS project, the L’Aquila and Naples Provinces, respectively for the seismic and volcanic risk, are particularly representative in Italy.

In the pillar “Societal Challenges” of Horizon 2020 several topics underline the importance of promoting a tangible progress in the approach to natural disasters according to different aspects.

In fact: -

For example, the topic “Crisis management topic 7: Crises and disaster resilience – operationalizing resilience concepts” states: “To increase Europe’s resilience to crises and disasters is a topic of highest political concern in the EU and its Member States and Associated Countries. This concerns both man-made threats […] and natural hazards such as e.g. floods, storms, earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis. […]. Resilience concepts namely need to be 5

http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020 -section/secure-societies-%E2%80%93-protecting-freedom-and-security-europe-and-its-citizens. In this perspective, a recent study – which has focussed the attention on volcanic hazards and vulnerabilities of exposed elements – has reviewed disruptions and damages recorded by critical infrastructures due to four volcanic phenomena (tephra fall, pyroclastic density currents, lava flows and lahars) during eruptions in the last 100 years. Many important data and information have been done regarding critical infrastructures (for example transportation routes, communications, specific components, energy sector infrastructure, water supply and wastewater networks) showing the importance to conduct researches finalized to the protection of critical infrastructures (Wilson et al., 2014). 6 For specific insights concerning “social vulnerability”, related indicators and connected factors see: Dwyer et al., 2004. Copyright© Nuova Cultura

the Naples Province is “unique” in the Italian scenario, because according to the data of the last Census (2011) it continues to be strongly the Italian Province with the highest population density (2,591 inhabitants/km2)8 and the cases of Casavatore (12,224 inhabitants/km2), Portici (12,110), San Giorgio a Cremano (11,089), Melito di Napoli (9,688) and Naples (8,082) are emblematic of this. Moreover, on the basis of the 2009 land use data of the Campania Region, the amount of artificial surfaces in the Naples Province is 33%9, while this value is about 7% in Italy. Hence the “explosive” anthropic and building presence (Gasparini, 2005; Giacomelli and Pesaresi, 2005, pp. 62-70; La Foresta, 2005; Pesaresi and Scandone, 2013, pp. 228-234; Petrosino et al., 2004), a typical chaotic sprawl (Pesaresi

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/1072-drs-07-2014. html. 8 After the Naples Province, we find the following Provinces: Monza e della Brianza (2,072 inhabitants/km2), Milan (1,928), Trieste (1,095), Rome (745) and Varese (728). 9 As emblematically affirmed by Dobran (2006): “Vesuvius is today surrounded by a sea of humanity” (p. 26) which is “hostage” of the volcano (p. 6). Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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and Marta, 2014) and the saturation of the spaces (D’Aponte, 2005; Leone, 2005, 2013) are here peculiar aspects, in places where these elements considerably increase the exposure to volcanic risk and where instead specific and finalized planning would be required. On the other hand, the Naples Province, and above all the coastal zone, in the grip of the SommaVesuvius volcanic complex and the Campi Flegrei volcanic field (Phlegraean Fields), denote one of the most delicate, articulated and potentially dramatic situations connected to volcanic risk in the world since the consequences of an explosive eruption – from one of these apparatuses – would be impressive; -

the L’Aquila Province is worthy of note because on 6 April 2009 it was heavily hit by an earthquake (Ml=5.8; Mw=6.3) which caused more than 300 victims and extensive damage. It brought about a situation which continues to be dramatic in terms of resilience and disaster management (Forino, 2012), since the restarting of many economic activities and a kind of daily normality (Calafiore, 2012; Pesaresi, 2012), the recovery of the pre-existing houses (Casagrande and Pesaresi, 2012) and the complete restoration and re-opening to the visitors of important historical and cultural structures continue to be delayed (Leonardi, 2012; Reggiani, 2011, 2012, pp. 113-168)10. Consequently, the sense of identity and belonging is weakened due to distrust and resignation. “The

Moreover, from a geographical and economic point of view, due to the width of the area involved and affected (57 municipalities according to Decrees No. 3 and No. 11 of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers issued on 16 April and 17 July 2009), it was stated that: “The 2009 earthquake, as well as the loss of lives and the destruction of material goods, risks irremediably compromising the already quite fragile and contradictory relationship existing between the coastal towns of Abruzzi, […], and the Apennines, exposing it to the risk of a progressive loss of competitiveness in the twilight zone mapping out the uncertain future of the administrative centre of the region” (Lolli, 2011, p. 83). Copyright© Nuova Cultura

L’Aquila earthquake of 6 April 2009 was a classic example of a medium-power seismic event. However, given the high vulnerability of building stock in the mountains of Abruzzo, it had a disproportionately large human impact” (Alexander, 2010, p. 326)11. And similar affirmations take on particular relevance since the considerable modifications recorded over the centuries by the town of L’Aquila, in terms of urban and structural planning, are strictly related to the seismic events and related effects (Centofanti and Brusaporci, 2011; Properzi, 2011) so that L’Aquila has been defined the “city of earthquakes” (Fiorani, 2011). Methodologies and tools operating in a synergic way aimed at social utility are therefore strongly required and particular attention must be paid to: - the geophysical mechanisms; - the demographic and social-economic aspects which can increase the levels of risk and the demographic thresholds which should be reached to reduce these levels; - the “census sections”, in multiscale analysis, which can make it possible to have particularly detailed “photographs” of the local situations, identifying conditions of a potentially high dramatic nature; - the vulnerability of buildings and infrastructural system; - the historical and cultural heritage; - the orders of priority among the municipalities subject to risks; - the scientific and cognitive story maps useful in terms of disaster resilience, for the spreading of risk awareness and for creating an effective multimedia framework. In order to achieve relevant developments, the importance of interdisciplinary methodologies and coordinated approaches is evident since there is the need to promote and enhance the synergic interactions between geophysical and engineering research with geographical-anthropological and social-demographic analysis. 11 The damage caused by earthquakes usually show the deficiencies and problems of infrastructures and buildings of “an Italy that is socially ill before being geologically ill” (Famoso, 1988, p. 7).

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Cristiano Pesaresi, Mara Lombardi

First of all it is important to: - introduce specific anthropic and socialeconomic data in appropriate risk formulas; - use refined criteria to estimate the historical and cultural relevance of the various historical centers exposed to destruction; - consider, in addition to construction materials, the construction period of housing during the vulnerability evaluations. These are only some examples of aspects that are generally omitted or scarcely considered in the scientific studies which could support the emergency planning. The development of GIS applications and the coordinated use of sophisticated geospatial technologies and drones is an essential element to converge the different knowledge towards innovative applications useful to tackle geodynamic risks. In fact in the last ten years many studies have been conducted both for seismic (Baiocchi et al., 2012a, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c; Casagrande and Pesaresi, 2012; Hashemi and Alesheikh, 2011; Papadimitriou et al., 2008; Pesaresi et al., 2013; Rivas-Medina et al., 2013) and volcanic research (Alberico et al., 2004, 2011, 2012; Bellucci Sessa et al., 2008; Esposti Ongaro et al., 2008; Fea et al., 2013; Pesaresi et al., 2008; Petrosino et al., 2004; Zuccaro et al., 2008). Also being based on the input of international literature in specific research fields, the interdisciplinary use of GIS will make it possible to aspire to innovative research aimed at filling the gaps as a result of studies in singular sectors. Important geographical aspects, with different levels of detail, will be provided by the analysis of satellite imagery12 and images, in both visible and thermal light, obtained with specific overflights on the localities damaged by recent earthquakes (Figures 1 and 2) and on those exposed to volcanic risk (Figures 3 and 4). 12

As recently underlined, in the case of earthquakes: “Remote sensing techniques play an important role in obtaining building damage information because of their non-contact, low cost, wide field of view, and fast response capacities. Now that more and diverse types of remote sensing data become available, various methods are designed […] for building damage assessment” (Dong and Shan, 2013, p. 85). Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Furthermore, the project sets out to catch the attention of public administrators on a highly neuralgic issue, often not adequately considered and managed, and to provide keys of interpretation to the population, both for seismic and volcanic risks, which require a greater raising of awareness and the right behavior to follow in case of emergency. One of the aims is in fact to constitute a network whereby the progress recorded in terms of prevention, risk evaluation and reduction, facing emergencies, resiliencies will be shared to define a rigorous framework of models and methodologies. In this viewpoint, valid support will be also given by the new potentialities of ArcGIS Online which enabling us to produce and share scientific and highly communicative elaborations having a relevant impact in terms of raising awareness.

3. A synthesis of the progress of knowledge from the geographical point of view As far as concerns the progress of knowledge from the geographical point of view, it can be useful to underline the different aspects which can be pursued in the case of volcanic and seismic analysis. For example, with regard to the volcanic risk in the Naples Province, in a pre event condition, the main results can be used to: - define a classification of the municipalities subject to major risk and provide specific values in ascending order, taking up the approach used by Pesaresi and Scandone in 2013; - update and extend the model of “social risk” introduced by Pesaresi et al. in 2008; - identify, by simulations, the demographic thresholds which would permit the reduction of the risk level; - evaluate the historical and cultural importance of the historical centers and their connected loss in case of events; - elaborate scientific story maps to show – also through the overlay between historic and actual cartography – transformations over the centuries and in the last decades, critical areas and scenarios of eruptions, promoting a widespread risk awareness.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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Figures 1 and 2. Above, a general view of the town of L’Aquila undergoing works of propping up and reinforcing buildings and provisional patching and waterproof covering of the roofs (blue, red or black) in March 2012. Below, a view of L’Aquila with “piazza del Duomo” in the center. Considerable damage (i.e. in the red oval) and conspicuous work of undergirding and securing (i.e. in the white circumference) of the churches, provisional patching and waterproof covering of the roofs (black or blue or red) and several cranes were evident in March 2012 at this geographical scale and other details become more clear with progressive zooms. Photos: Geographical Unit (Department of Documentary, Linguistic-Philological and Geographical Sciences) of the Sapienza University of Rome (in collaboration with GREAL, European University of Rome).

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Figures 3 and 4. Above, the municipality of Monte di Procida, in the Phlegraean area, and its delicate position among geomorphological, anthropic and road aspects. Below, the municipality of Pozzuoli, in the Phlegraean area, where the population density, the presence of important economic activities and notable archeological sites determine very high conditions of volcanic risk (October 2012). Photos: Geographical Unit of the Sapienza University of Rome (in collaboration with GREAL). CopyrightÂŠ Nuova Cultura

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Cristiano Pesaresi, Mara Lombardi

Figures 5 and 6. Some examples of images – of the end of 1800 and beginning of 1900 – focused on the Naples Province (above the Pompeii excavations and the Somma-Vesuvius complex; below a lava flow in Boscotrecase emitted by Vesuvius), which can be used to elaborate GIS applications and story maps with a high documentary, emotional and historical-geographical value. Photos: Archive of Geographical Unit (Department of Documentary, Linguistic-Philological and Geographical Sciences) of the Sapienza University of Rome.

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Figures 7 and 8. Other examples of images – of the end of 1800 and beginning of 1900 – focused on the Naples Province (above Naples and behind the coastal zone near the Vesuvius with a considerably lower anthropization than now; below Pozzuoli). Photos: Archive of Geographical Unit of the Sapienza University of Rome.

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In this perspective another added value can also be provided by the enhancement of the photographic archives and “photographic plates”, as for example the archive of the Geographical Unit of the Department of Documentary, LinguisticPhilological and Geographical Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, which can make it possible to have precious information and visualise the modifications recorded in terms of morphology, urbanised surfaces and sprawling housing, the damage produced by past phenomena and the faces of people who suddenly lost their houses, and progress in the findings of archaeological elements and areas etc. (Figures 5-8). These iconographic materials – dating back to about the second half of 1800 and the first decades of 1900 – can be “harmonized” and carefully selected to elaborate GIS applications with a high documentary, emotional and historical-geographical value. Instead, regarding the situation in the L’Aquila Province some years after the seismic event, the main progress can be used to: - identify the housing structures affected by major collapse according to the construction period and technical parameters, also investigating to see whether there is a particular construction period characterised by weak and badly-made houses and evaluating if it is a local factor or a general tendency that can be found also in other territorial contexts; - define an integrated framework of the weak elements which can contribute to the collapse of buildings; - realise a cognitive story map based on the micro-histories of everyday life to devise strategies useful for the disaster resilience. In fact, in the post event phases, it can be very important “to draw up a map of social needs and create a cognitive mapping which would reveal the complex nature of the actual situation” (Simonicca et al., 2012, p. 115) and the production of specific elaborations – which can also show the changes recorded at territorial level – can be highly representative and show the different needs in the various municipalities involved.

4. A synthesis of the progress of knowledge from the engineering point of view The progress of knowledge from the engineering applications aims to highlight the different aspects which can be achieved in case of volcanic and seismic analysis for the purpose of risk management (Guarascio et al., 2009a). This approach analyses the seismic and volcanic events to define a set of quantitative indicators that will be implemented in a GIS platform. The innovative idea is to set up an integrated and interdisciplinary dataset for territorial safety design and the attention will move to the system as a whole. In a seismic event, like for example the seismic risk in the L’Aquila Province, the risk that affects the single buildings is not only its intrinsic characteristic, but the result of the relationships between the various components. Both for volcanoes and earthquakes the main goals of the safety engineering are to: - focus on the territorial dimension of the seismic or volcanic event; - connect the seismic or volcanic event to a multiscale, dynamic and complex database; - make a preliminary vulnerability analysis (societal, urban, infrastructural evaluation) (Dolce et al., 2006); - define territorial quantitative indicators of societal (fatalities), urban (buildings) and infrastructural (road, rail, port…) risks; - implement these quantitative indicators in a GIS platform able to produce detailed and multitemporal elaborations. In fact, data processing, useful to define risk maps, is the disaster management instrument that allows the organization of the post seismic or volcanic emergency and the drawing up of rescue services priorities. So, during 2002 a methodology for assessing the vulnerability (Baiocchi et al., 2012b) of an urban center was developed as part of an effectiveness collaboration between the Italian Civil Protection Department and the University of L’Aquila. The urban territory is the complex of physical and functional connections of specific elements and not a simple sum. The main goal of

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a preliminary vulnerability analysis is to evaluate the multiple factors simultaneously. The hazard maps related to seismic vulnerability of buildings in the territory (locally) aim to define the emergency evacuation plan for natural disasters (Beolchini, 2003). The assessment of rescue is primary in the seismic or volcanic emergencies. In order to define the emergency priorities, a logistic model is necessary that subdivides the area into irregular polygons containing a constant number of buildings. The risk maps, useful to risk assessment, aim to characterize the connections of hazard (in terms of vulnerability index) and damage (in terms of expected number of fatalities) in order to organize the emergency evacuation plan for natural disasters in the best possible conditions.

5. Methodological considerations from the engineering point of view Relevant progress, which can be followed by the GIS4RISKS project, is related to the safety design applied to natural hazard and risk. For this purpose the correct knowledge and methodology are required in order to plan the evacuation procedures and to highlight possible critical situations of the emergency plans (Guarascio et al., 2007; D’Ayala et al., 2002). In effect the physical and geodynamical phenomena, which predict natural disaster, are very difficult to identify and to describe in an a priori analysis. The design engineer should have skills which cover geodynamics, geophysics and structural engineering. The formalization of a risk assessment procedure is a necessary tool to educate the specialists. 5.1 Mosaic Model For a rational management of the emergency it is appropriate to divide the area subject to risk in sub-areas (tiles), in order to associate synthetic indicators to each, evaluated from the risk analysis. This conveys useful information to the rescue team already in the first hours of the event.

This spatial subdivision can be achieved through the application of the so-called Mosaic Model that divides the entire area into “tiles”, drawn as irregular polygons and delimited by the urban road network. Indeed, each is defined as a function of the main access roads that allow the rescue teams to rapidly reach the buildings of single tile. Each tile is defined by a variable extension depending on the type of area in terms of economic development and geomorphology (commercial area, rural area). The tile includes a limited number of buildings, which can generally vary from 10 to 20, circumscribed by access roads which make it possible to reach the same area. The single tile is generally composed of a building having similar structural properties (spatial autocorrelation). This evidence is intrinsically linked to the dynamics of urban and regional development, denoted by specific construction techniques. For each tile various data can be attached, such as spatial data, seismic or volcanic hazard, population exposure, vulnerability etc. 5.2 Evaluation of tile vulnerability The evaluation of the expected damage to a seismic or volcanic event is related to the subareas, which may represent the basic element on which to make estimates of the damage after the disaster, in order to define the priority of emergency operations and to organize the rescue. It is therefore necessary to select the data for each tile associated with a sub-area. In the case of an earthquake, if you know the probability of collapse and the resulting damage, associated with each urban aggregate, it is possible, through the use of the binomial distribution, to determine the probability of the simultaneous collapse of a fixed number of buildings compared with those of the tile, if the selected buildings (centroid of the cluster) are isolated and typical of the design characteristics related to the tile. Assuming that a single tile can be represented by n buildings, you can assess the probability of the collapse of m buildings (m ≤ n) by Event Tree Analysis (ETA), to know the derived scenarios (2n). Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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Figure 9. Application of the vulnerability model to test it in a case study area: the Province of Reggio Calabria.

Mosaic Unit: Tile 2A 1,00E+00 1,00E-02

F(D)=P(Dâ&#x2030;¤Di)

1,00E-04

D=8

1,00E-06

F(8)

1,00E-08

F(9)

1,00E-10 1,00E-12 1,00E-14

Figure 10. Back-Cumulated Distribution of threshold of damage equal to eight collapsed buildings (Di = 8).

The probabilities associated with the branches are generated by the product of the probabilities of collapse or non collapse of each building considered on the Event Tree, i.e. the product of the probabilities corresponding to the branches of the generic path (if the collapse/noncollapse of each building results in an event independently of the other). Consequently, it is possible to estimate the probability for each tile corresponding to the scenarios of the same damage (number of collapses). CopyrightÂŠ Nuova Cultura

An application of the above was carried out for the Province of Reggio Calabria (Calabria Region, Italy)13, which can be assumed as the 13

The choice of the Province of Reggio Calabria as case study to test the Mosaic Model is related to the complexity of the urbanized territory, which is highly representative of the conditions present on the overall territory of Italy. Moreover, the Province of Reggio Calabria is particularly appropriate, as case study to test the Mosaic Model, for its very high values of seismic hazard and risk. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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case study to test the model and which can provide useful methodological and operative input for further analysis in the selected study areas (Figure 9). The area was subdivided into a limited number of tiles and for each of them the vulnerability of ten buildings representative of the area was evaluated, using the simplified data sheet. Then the Back-Cumulated Distribution (BCD) of damage was evaluated. The BCD is the indicator of cumulative risk, defined as the probability of a damage level equal to or greater than a given threshold Di of the random variable D. The area under the BCD is equivalent (numerically) to the expected value of damage E[D] associated with a defined Initiating Event (IE). For example, in Figure 10 the blue area represents the BCD of threshold of damage equal to eight collapsed buildings (Di = 8) in the tile. Therefore, the BCD of each tile was compared with the extreme performance obtained by the “optimistic and pessimistic” binomial probability distributions, respectively calculated by assigning to the buildings of the tile the minimum or maximum probability of collapse (Figure 11). Thus if K tests, repeated and independent and related to the “dichotomous” outcome collapse/not collapse, are performed (ten in the case study equal to the number of buildings considered for each tile), if the probability of collapse d is known (the probability of non collapse is equal to q = 1–d), then the probability of simultaneous collapse of K buildings can be estimated by binomial probability distribution:

(1)

area of the compliance plan, where the BCD described above is placed, is identified as shown in Figure 12. The bi-logarithmic plan, adopted for the BCD, could be the tool to verify the acceptability of risk, in analogy with the safety design of the complex systems. For example, for the compliance of the safety of road tunnels two curves (thresholds of acceptability and unacceptability) are introduced. The equation of acceptability criteria is:

(2) The area under the straight green line identifies a zone characterized by acceptable risk; the area over the straight red line a zone characterized by unacceptable risk; the area between two straight lines identifies the ALARP (As Low As Reasonably Practicable) zone, characterized by the need for safety improvement. The above criteria define the Safety Functions as a comparison of areas under the respective curves that have the described meaning; – Safety Factor (SF): FSUN = R/B FSAC = V/B – Safety Margin (MS): MSUN = R – B MSAC = V – B where: R = area under unacceptability criterion (UN); V = area under acceptability criterion (AC); B = area under BCD (10 buildings).

If the analysis is applied to the minimum and maximum probability of collapse (identified on each tile) and the BCD is calculated, the sub-

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Mosaic Unit: Tile 2A D = Number of buildings

1,00E+00

1,00E-01

1,00E-02

1,00E-03

1,00E-04

F(D) = P(D>Di)

1,00E-05

1,00E-06

1,00E-07

1,00E-08

1,00E-09

1,00E-10

1,00E-11

Back Cumulated Distribution (10 buildings) Pessimistic BCD Optimistic BCD

1,00E-12

Figure 11. Extreme positions of the Back-Cumulated Distribution on the minimum and maximum probability of collapse. The variability range was evaluated on a Mosaic Unit (Tile 2A) of selected areas.

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MOSAIC UNIT: Tile 2A 1

D = number of buildings 10

1,00E+00

1,00E-01

1,00E-02

1,00E-03

F(D) = P(D>Di)

1,00E-04

1,00E-05

1,00E-06

Back Cumulated Distribution (10 buildings) 1,00E-07

Unacceptability Limit Acceptability Limit

1,00E-08

1,00E-09

1,00E-10

1,00E-11

1,00E-12

Figure 12. Test of compliance on the acceptability plan [Safety Criteria of road tunnels ex Legs. Decree No. 264/2006: Unacceptability limit (straight red line) and acceptability limit (straight green line)].

Therefore, on Tile 2A the following values are calculated (Table 1): UN

SF SM

4.32 10 - 0.75

-2

AC 4.32 10-4 - 0.78

If the procedure for each tile is repeated, the SF and SM are calculated and represented on the Geographic Information System (GIS) to map the area according to the risk of the building heritage (collapsed/not collapsed buildings). In Figure 13 the synthesis of safety evaluation is shown.

Table 1. Safety Function Value and Safety Margin Value of the case study area of Reggio Calabria Province (Tile 2A).

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Figure 13. Mapping of Safety Function (left) and Safety Margin (right).

5.3 Tile file In the perspective of the GIS4RISKS project, given the numerous assessments of vulnerability and risk that can be made for a single tile, it is useful to make a file for each, enclosing the following tools and key information. -

Vulnerability Card: information relating to indicators of vulnerability; Exposure Card: exposure conditions of the population as a function of different time periods; Hazard Card: evaluation of Initiating Event and evolution of the hazard flow (Event Tree Analysis); Damage Card: definition of consequences analysis; Risk Card: estimate of safety indicators (BCD).

The information in the tile file enables us to establish a hierarchy of the tiles with the aim to optimize the rescue. Often there is no intervention protocol adopted by the rescue services during the emergency, that in detail identifies the priority areas. The processing allows the emergency management on a “large geographical scale”, contrary to the requirements currently to be found in the programs. The information details

make it possible to manage the early phases of the emergency in order to prioritise the rescue procedures that require complex planning. Through regular exercises, the application of the Mosaic Model on a scale as an urban district makes a preliminary management to quantify the resources needed to deal with the disaster. The emergency management must be accompanied by a conscious approach to risk and the “risk communication” appears a key variable which requires specific strategies since for the population it is difficult to correctly understand and quantify the expected damage during the evaluation phase.

6. Educational considerations Further remarkable progress, which can be reached with the GIS4RISKS project, concerns just the educational level. In fact, environmental education, in the case of natural hazard and risk, requires the correct information and involvement of the population, to promote the success of the evacuation procedures and to make up for any lack of emergency plans (Scandone and Giacomelli, 2012, p. 32). The phenomena which characterise geodynamic events are very difficult to categorize and the precursor signs can be difficult to interpret in the case of volcanic Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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eruption and practically almost unpredictable if referred to seismic events. Moreover, we have to consider that feelings and attachment to their own residential area is a factor of statistical significance for the people’s danger perception, since a “strong affective bond offers a feeling of safety and leads to neglect and even total denial of the danger” (Armaş, 2006, p. 1233). Similar aspects are particularly to the point, for example, in the case of the Naples Province because the attachment to the land is deep-rooted in the centuries14. In previous studies, people living in the Vesuvius area demonstrated “low levels of perceived ability to protect themselves from the effects of an eruption. These Vesuvius residents also demonstrated low levels of awareness concerning evacuation plans, and low levels of confidence in the success of such plans” (Davis et al., 2005, p. 1). Moreover, another piece of research, regarding the volcanic risk perception of young people in the urban areas of Vesuvius, has stated that the general preparedness of respondents and the inadequate risk education underline the necessity of a relevant effort to improve communication strategies finalized to facilitate eventual evacuations. “Therefore, it is important to take advantage of the present period of quiescence at Vesuvius to improve the accuracy of risk perception of youth in local communities” (Carlino et al., 2008, p. 229). In the meantime, a further study, conducted in the Vesuvius area, “demonstrated a widespread lack of knowledge about the emergency plan, a lack of confidence in the plan’s success and in public officials and low feelings of self-efficacy. 14

“Since time immemorial Man has been engaged in a continuous fight with Vesuvius, seeking to control and counter the destructive forces of the volcano, which have often been exceptionally violent. On various occasions the Giant has threatened and submerged inhabited centres and farmland, claimed numerous victims, and has defeated the patient farming work of many generations of peasants. But before its devastating fury, the losses of the Vesuvian population have but been temporary, as after each eruption[…], they have always returned to the place of the disaster and successfully begun to conquer it again” (Formica, 1966, p. 30).

People want to be more deeply involved in public discussions with scientists and civil protection officials on emergency planning and individual preparedness measures. It is clear from the results that a major educationinformation effort is still needed to improve the public’s knowledge, confidence and selfefficacy, thereby improving their collective and individual capability to positively face a future volcanic emergency” (Barberi et al., 2008, p. 244)15. On the other hand, a contribution with regard to the volcanic risk perception in the Campi Flegrei area has recently showed that many people involved affirmed having not received specific information regarding the possible effects of an eruption, which moreover could be highly explosive. The results of the study underline that many residents in the Campi Flegrei area have not enough information about local volcanic hazards and that local authorities and public administrators, in collaboration with the scientific community, should encourage targeted programmes finalized to better educate the population on volcanic risks and possible eruption phenomena (Ricci et al., 2013). It is equally important to foster a correct raising of awareness and education concerning seismic events and the probability of an earthquake occurring in specific areas. Thus: “Addressing middle- and high-school students in their classroom about earthquakes, about structural engineering, and the design necessary to ensure safety during earthquakes is a very effective way to propagate knowledge about earthquake engineering into our society. Students of all ages, elementary, middle and high school benefit from knowing what happens 15

Moreover, we have to remember that – according to a study based on direct interviews and questionnaires aimed at investigating how the threat from Vesuvius is perceived – some problems, for example regarding communication and understanding specific terminology, are also between decision makers and scientists, since “the answers […] revealed divergent and unrealistic opinions that, innocuous in normal circumstances, have the potential to exacerbate conditions during an emergency” (Solana et al., 2008, p. 311). Obviously, similar problems would tend to accentuate the difficulties in the “dialogue” with the population and clearly indicative of the need for general education programmes. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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in earthquakes, what to expect in the future, and also from learning about this interesting engineering job where they can design buildings to ensure the publics safety” (Mendoza et al., 2008, p. 1). At the same time, a geographical education about seismic risk is fundamental to better know the conduct to adopt, to know the exposure according to the province of residence, to increase risk awareness and to visualise through maps, photos and aerial images the changes recorded in some areas before and after an earthquake16. For example, a study regarding the perception and communication of seismic risk in the case of 6 April 2009, the L’Aquila earthquake has shown “that despite the long list of historical earthquakes that struck the [Abruzzo] region and the swarm of foreshocks occurring up to four months before the main shock of 6 April, the residents of L’Aquila had a rather low earthquake risk perception and an unjustified confidence in the seismic safety of their houses” (Marincioni et al., 2012, p. 159). Another piece of research, aimed at discussing “how to approach the problem of the social mitigation of seismic risk, in order to reduce damage and grief consequent to earthquakes”, focussing the attention on the 6 April 2009 L’Aquila earthquake, has highlighted that there are several crucial relationship factors which must be improved. Particularly, these factors concern the communication problems among politicians, the scientific community and citizens and can be summarised in the following way: “1) a serious gap between researchers and citizens; 2) measures adopted by local administrators and the National Civil Protection Service not agreed by the population; 3) misunderstanding originated from a lack of clarity of communication about scientific terminology; and 4) the lack of an alert procedure protocol. In the current situation, all these problems are crucial and contribute to the 16

“If, […], ‘everyone can learn from people who have been hit and that, by their example, can say whether and how it is possible to heal their suffering’, it is just as true that each territory can ‘learn’ from its past and from the experiences of others the way to ‘heal the suffering endured’ ” (Leone, 2011, p. 23).

unpreparedness to face a seismic event, and thus greatly increase the risk” (Stoppa and Berti, 2013, p. 78). Thus, the dramatic effects of the L’Aquila earthquake, in terms of human fatalities, building and cultural heritage damage and economic and productive activities, have shown the need for a general review process of the methods aimed at assessing seismic hazard and risk in the areas highly subject to this kind of events. Therefore, one of the inputs that the GIS4RISKS project can pursue is to promote the progress of scientific knowledge17, through field surveys, the interdisciplinary approach and the potentialities offered by geotechnologies. At the same time a widespread education to geodynamic risks must be fostered, involving people and above all young people in a communication and didactic system which can reach everyone as based on web application and social network, but not random but connected to the geographical sciences and conveyed by GIS. The paramount challenge for geographers, engineering, volcanologists, geologists and other scientists of this field of study as well as emergency-planning and management officials is to prevent a volcanic or seismic crisis from turning into a general disaster (Tilling, 2008, p. 9). Acknowledgements C. Pesaresi has written paragraphs 1-3 and 6; M. Lombardi paragraphs 4, 5 and its subparagraphs. The Scientific responsible and Principal investigator (geographic area) of the GIS4RISKS project is Cristiano Pesaresi. The Second investigator (engineering area) is Massimo Guarascio. The Sapienza University research group is made up of: Valerio Baiocchi, Alessandro D’Agostino, Gino De Vecchis, Mara Lombardi, Miriam Marta, Riccardo Morri, Alessandro Simonicca. Other experts involved are: Pierluigi Cara, Maurizio Fea, Daniela Pasquinelli d’Allegra, Roberto Scandone. The Institutions which have expressed their interest to participate in the GIS4RISKS project are the following: 17

After underlining the importance of local knowledge and aspects, a recent study has affirmed that they “must be balanced with fresh ideas and expertise in a combination of disciplines to produce an advisory context that is conducive to high-level scientific [and widespread didactical] discussion” (Donovan et al., 2012, p. 1005). Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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• The Italian Civil Protection Department (Presidency of the Council of Ministers) – Office III: Seismic and Volcanic Risk; • The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV); • The Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI Italia); • The European Space Agency (ESA/ESRIN); • The Geographic Research and Application Laboratory (GREAL) – European University of Rome; • The Italian Association of Geography Teachers (AIIG).

References 1. Alberico I., Caiazzo S., Dal Piaz S., Lirer L., Petrosino P. and Scandone R., “Volcanic risk and evolution of the territorial system in the active volcanic areas of Campania”, EGU - 1st General Assembly (Nice, 25-30 April 2004), 2004, pp. 9. 2. Alberico I., Petrosino P. and Lirer L., “Volcanic hazard and risk assessment in a multi-source volcanic area: the example of Napoli city (Southern Italy)”, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 11, 2011, pp. 1057-1070. 3. Alberico I., Petrosino P., Maglione G., Bruno L., Capaldo F.S., Dal Piaz A., Lirer L. and Mazzola S., “Mapping the vulnerability for evacuation of the Campi Flegrei territorial system in case of a volcanic unrest”, Natural Hazards, 64, 2, 2012, pp. 1823-1854. 4. Alexander D.E., “The L’Aquila Earthquake of 6 April 2009 and Italian Government Policy on Disaster Response”, Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research, 2, 4, 2010, pp. 325-342. 5. Armaş I., “Earthquake Risk Perception in Bucharest, Romania”, Risk Analysis, 26, 5, 2006, pp. 1223-1234. 6. Armaş I., “Social vulnerability and seismic risk perception. Case study: the historic center of the Bucharest Municipality/ Romania”, Natural Hazards, 47, 3, 2008, pp. 397-410.

7. Baiocchi V., Dominici D., Ferlito R., Giannone F., Guarascio M. and Zucconi M., “Test of seismic vulnerability maps and their prospective implementation in Plan4all data models”, Semestrale di Studi e Ricerche di Geografia, 1, 2012a, pp. 185-202. 8. Baiocchi V., Dominici D., Ferlito R., Giannone F., Guarascio M. and Zucconi M., “Test of a building vulnerability model for L’Aquila earthquake”, Applied Geomatics, 4, 2, 2012b, pp. 95-103. 9. Baiocchi V., Dominici D., Milone M. and Mormile M., “Development of a software to plan UAVs stereoscopic flight: An application on post earthquake scenario in L’Aquila city”, The 13th International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 24-27 June 2013), 2013a, pp. 150-165. 10. Baiocchi V., Dominici D. and Mormile M., “Unmanned aerial vehicle for post seismic and other hazard scenarios”, Wit Transactions on the Built Environment, 134, 2013b, pp. 113-122. 11. Baiocchi V., Milone M.V., Mormile M. and Dominici D., “Levés de bâti par drones dans un contexte post-sismique”, Géomatique Expert, 95, 2013c, pp. 1419. 12. Barberi F., Davis M.S., Isaia R., Nave R. and Ricci T., “Volcanic risk perception in the Vesuvius population”, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 172, 2008, pp. 244-258. 13. Bellucci Sessa E., Buononato S., Di Vito M. and Vilardo G., “Caldera dei Campi Flegrei: potenzialità di un SIT per valutazioni di pericolosità vulcanica”, Proceedings of 12th National Conference ASITA (L’Aquila, 21-24 October 2008), 2008, pp. 353-358. 14. Beolchini G., “Definition of an indicator of urban vulnerability”, Seismic Risk Conference and Urban Planning Scale: Analysis Methods and Tools of Intervention (Rome, 5-6 June 2003), 2003. 15. Burrato P., Vannoli P., Fracassi U. and Valensise G., “Hints on the seismo-

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Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 3, Dec., 2014, pp. 33-41 DOI: 10.4458/4403-03

Vesuvius, Pompei, Herculaneum: a lesson in natural history Roberto Scandonea, Lisetta Giacomellia a

Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, University of “Roma Tre”, Rome, Italy Email: scandone@uniroma3.it

Received: October 2014 – Accepted: October 2014

Abstract The eruption of Mount Vesuvius of 79 AD destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, but preserved them from the deterioration of time. A large patrimony of knowledge was obtained with the development of new techniques of archeological excavation, which began in these areas in 1700. At the same time, the persistent activity of the volcano stimulated the birth of modern volcanology with the building of the first volcanological observatory in the world in 1841. The effects of the different volcanic phenomena during the eruption of 79 AD also made it possible to investigate the causes of death during an explosive eruption. Overall the volcano and its activity have stimulated the advancement of different branches of human knowledge and the preservation of a cultural patrimony unrivaled in the world. This information can be used to develop interdisciplinary projects in schools aimed at better understanding the nature of volcanic hazard. Keywords: Hazard, Herculaneum, Interdisciplinary Projects in Schools, Pompei, Vesuvius, Volcanic Eruptions

1. Introduction Vesuvius is the best known volcano in the world because a peculiar set of different reasons (Scandone et al., 1993): -

the first written account of an explosive eruption in 79 AD to hit the densely inhabited cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The term Plinian, used to define the large explosive eruptions, derives from the description of Pliny the Younger of that very eruption;

- a volcano that was particularly active during the Enlightenment, when new theories on physical nature were developed; - the discovery, at the beginning of 1700, of the buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum led to the birth of a new discipline, archaeology; - its activity and the presence of the Roman ruins made it one of main places to be visited, when Naples was an important European capital during the Grand Tour made by European scholars; Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Roberto Scandone, Lisetta Giacomelli

- it entered a prolonged repose period after the 1944 eruption, and since then there has been a large increase in the density of the population at its base, making it a case study for the Civil Protection to face possible future eruptions. Because of these peculiarities, Vesuvius came to be known as the archetype volcano where many new theories were developed. In this paper we will examine all these different peculiarities, trying to provide an example of multidisciplinary study of natural and social phenomena.

2. Volcanology Vesuvius is a strato-volcano located in Southern Italy near the city of Naples, whose summit elevation is 1281 m asl, with the diameter of the base approximately 10 km. It is formed by the superposition of different edifices formed by growth during effusive phases and destruction during major explosive eruptions. This feature is recognized by the occurrence of the so-called Somma rim, which represents the overlapping of at least four major caldera collapses (Cioni et al., 1999). On the side of one of these collapses was emplaced the present volcanic cone (Gran Cono), which has been active since 79 AD (Figure 1).

The activity of Somma-Vesuvius spans the entire spectrum of volcanic eruptions, from mild effusive emissions of degassed lava to violent explosive eruptions (Scandone et al., 1993). Eruptions began between 39000 and 25000 years ago with the emission of lava flows, which built the mountain called Somma. The first products of an explosive activity are dated at the end of this phase, about 25000 years ago (Delibrias et al., 1979). The most significant explosive eruption occurred about 17000 years ago and is called the “Pomici Basali or Sarno eruption”. A long series of different explosive events took place after that one, the last three of which occurred in 79 AD, (the eruption which destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum), in 472 and 1631. The eruption of 1631 was a violent explosive event, although one order of magnitude lesser than the 79 AD one. It is however important for different reasons: -

it occurred after a long repose period of about 400 years;

it started a period of semi-continuous activity with frequent effusive or mildly explosive eruptions which lasted till 1944;

it is considered as the type eruption which may occur in case of a renewal of activity.

The period of permanent activity between 1631 and 1944 coincided with the development of a scientific approach to volcanoes and from 1700 onwards Vesuvius became the model to test new geological theories on. In 1841, the first volcano observatory in the world was built on its flanks. Among its directors there was Giuseppe Palmieri who devised a seismoscope to study the eruptions, and Giuseppe Mercalli, famous for the invention of the scale to measure the intensity of earthquakes.

Figure 1. The Gran Cono of Vesuvius formed after the eruption of 79 AD with the large crater resulted from the last eruption of 1944. In the background the rim of the Somma and the lava flow of the last eruption of 1944. Photo: R. Scandone.

Nowadays, the Vesuvius Observatory is a section of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, and maintains a comprehendsive monitoring program with a seismic and deformation network, and measures of gravity and chemistry of fumaroles. Along with the nearby area of Campi Flegrei, Vesuvius is one of the best monitored, quiescent volcanoes. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Roberto Scandone, Lisetta Giacomelli

3. The 79 AD eruption The only testimony of the eruption of 79 AD are two letters written by Pliny the Younger to Tacitus nineteen years after the event, describing the death of his uncle, Pliny the Elder, when rescuing the people endangered by the eruption. Several other descriptions like that of Dio Cassius are of a later age and less reliable. Contemporary Latin poets like Statius and Martial recalled the effects of the eruption in some of their poems. Pliny the Younger’s letters to Tacitus have been frequently recalled as the first vivid description of an explosive eruption. In the first letter there is the classical depiction of the eruptive column that has been termed by volcanologists “Plinian eruption column”: “It resembled a pine [Mediterranean pine] more than any other tree. Like a very high tree, the cloud went high and expanded in different branches. I believe, because it was first driven by a sudden gust of air (recenti spiritu eiecta), then, with its diminution or because of the weight, the cloud expanded laterally, sometimes white, sometimes dark and stained by the sustained sand and ash (pondere suo victa in latitudinem vanescebat, candida interdum, interdum sordida et maculosa prout terram cineremque sustulerat )”. According to Pliny’s description, and the analysis of erupted products, from the column white pumices fell for over 12 hours, followed by the fall of grey pumices. The height of the eruption plume is estimated at 24 kilometers in the first phase, reaching over 30 km during the phase of grey pumices. The pumices were dispersed to the SE of Vesuvius because of the dominant winds, thus covering everything downwind, including the city of Pompeii (Sigurdsson et al., 1985). The increase of the eruption vigor led to the collapse of the eruptive plume and the flow along the flank of the volcano of the eruptive products as hot avalanches (pyroclastic flows) that destroyed everything in a radius of 10 km (Figure 2). The earlier pyroclastic flows reached Herculaneum which was not affected by the pumice fall as it was upwind. When the valley along the slopes of the volcano had been filled up, the flows expanded on the flattened surface to Pompei already buried by the pumice. Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Figure 2. The deposit of the pumice fall at Pompei and the overlaying pyroclastic flow deposits. Photo: L. Giacomelli.

The thickness of the pyroclastic flow deposits is in the order of 20 m in Herculaneum and 4 m in Pompeii, but their passage was fatal everywhere. The eruption lasted little more than 24 hours but its products sealed fields, people and cities under a deep cover for more than seventeen centuries (Figure 3). 4. Archeology In 1592, the building of an aqueduct from the Sarno river to Torre Annunziata, passing through a small hill called “Civita”, cut some ancient walls belonging to the buried city of Pompeii. Only in 1607 did the Neapolitan historian Capaccio report the findings of the ruins of an old city called Civita. The burying of most of the Vesuvius area during the eruption of 1631 delayed a systematic study of these discovered places for more than a century. The first excavations were thanks to the Austrian viceroy, prince D’Elboeuf, who owned a villa in Portici, where he started accumulating the statues and findings of the first sporadic excavations made in correspondence with the theater of Herculaneum (Giacomelli and Scandone, 2001). In 1734, the kingdom of Naples became part of the Bourbon heritage and given to Charles, son of Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese. The young king and his wife, Mary Amaly Cristine of Polony, gave a strong impulse to the excavations of Herculaneum (Figure 4). An engineer of the Bourbon army, Roche Joachim Alcubierre, was nominated for the direction of the excavations. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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Figures 3 and 4. Above, the excavation area of Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background. Below, the excavations of Herculaneum, surrounded by the modern town of Ercolano, lay at 20 m below the present ground level. The green area at the upper part of the picture is the garden of the royal palace of Portici (the yellow building on the left side). Photos: R. Scandone.

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Roberto Scandone, Lisetta Giacomelli

The city of Herculaneum, buried under more than 20 meters of hard pyroclastic deposits, required a special process consisting in the digging of deep wells and lateral excavations starting from the central shaft. Large holes in the walls of the buildings were made when they prevented further advancement. The holes are still visible nowadays. Precious belongings and decorations were taken away and transported to the royal palace. The less important ones were destroyed or thrown away. At the end, the excavations were filled up again with the volcanic material to prevent collapse and to avoid a large accumulation of volcanic materials (Figure 5).

The collection of objects, first in Portici and then in Naples, although in a primitive way represents the first example of a Museum that, according to the King, was to be a patrimony of the State. The public character of the enterprise was also enhanced by the assignment of royal financial support, and the sporadic publication of journals on the excavations. On his departure from Naples to become King of Spain, Charles (Figure 6), left everything found in the excavations as patrimony of the Kingdom of Naples.

Figure 6. Two bronze (Runners) and marble statues recovered from Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. Photo: L. Giacomelli.

Figure 5. Example of a hole dug during the first excavations in the wall of a house to explore the buried edifices. Photo: L. Giacomelli.

Archeology as a science did not yet exist and the excavations were only made to collect objects to adorn the royal palaces. These were the first steps in the development of a more formal investigation, which later on was to become a proper science. CopyrightÂŠ Nuova Cultura

The difficulty of digging in Herculaneum and the rarefaction of important findings led the attention to Pompeii, where the excavations were easier because the city was covered by 8 meters of almost soft pumice and ash. On the 1 April 1748, 12 workers, sent to dig on the hill of Civita, set out on the astonishing enterprise of uncovering a city buried for centuries under the products of Vesuvius. Since the middle of the nineteenth century the archeologists Fiorelli and then in 1900, Maiuri, improved new research methods. Fiorelli developed the ingenious method of dripping liquid chalk into the holes in the ashes thus obtaining the cast of the corpses and artifacts, which had been consumed following their burial. At Herculaneum the method was not possible

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because the lack of pumice below the ashes did not permit the slow degradation of bodies (Figure 7). Maiuri made great advances by uncovering large parts of Pompeii by selling the accumulated pumice as construction material for the new highway between Napoles and Salerno. However, his efforts of completely removing the eruption product, prevented a full understanding of the mechanism of deposition and the circumstances of the burial of the two cities.

5. Gran Tour During 1700 and 1800, Italy was the country where intellectuals, aristocrats and scholars from all over Europe came to visit its arts cities, enjoy the climate and the natural beauties. Vesuvius and its fuming craters with its scenic eruptions, and the nearby Campi Flegrei with hot springs and baths, were among the most attractive places to be visited. The discovery of the buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum added relevance to the new independent reign of Naples and its enlightened court. Several narratives of these travelers of the “Tour d’Italie” became classical accounts of sociology and science. The English plenipotentiary minister to the Kingdom of Naples, Hamilton reports, that “without a detached, Scottish point of view, it would be difficult to live in such suggestive and difficult country”. In spite of this opinion, he enjoyed the natural environment of the country and left a lifelong description of the activity of Vesuvius and the other volcanoes of Southern Italy in a series of letters to the Royal Society of London, which were later collected in an elegant book “Campi Phlegraei, observations of the volcanoes of the Two Sicilies” illustrated by 54 color drawings by Pietro Fabris.

Figure 7. Cast of a victim in a repository of Pompeii. Photo: L. Giacomelli.

The archeological areas of Pompeii and Herculaneum make it possible to understand the slow and difficult development of archeology since the early attempts in 1700 with rough reconstruction work and removal of frescos and mosaics to the more difficult restoration and preservation of later excavations. A full understanding of the crucial steps of archaeology and Roman history could be better obtained by the reading of the excavation journals written by the different archeologists and by visiting the Archeological Museum of Naples where most of the artifacts are conserved. Copyright© Nuova Cultura

In 1764 the kingdom was governed by a thirteen year old king, defined by Hamilton as “one of the divine damnations of the Bible”. Later, most of the day to day routine was to be governed by his brilliant wife Caroline, daughter of Mary Therese of Austria and sister of Mary Antoinette of France. The queen loved to be surrounded by Enlightenment intellectuals, until the revolutionary turmoil of France, which rapidly spread to the whole of Europe and the death of her sister. One of the most famous tourists, J.W. Goethe, wrote his “Travels to Italy” with a romantic attitude. Dining on the riverside of Torre Annunziata, on 13 March 1787, he wrote: “It is sufficient that this image remains in my spirit” and visiting the Pompeii excavations added that the eruption of Vesuvius of 79 AD had been the major disaster that caused “so much joy to posterity”. He climbed the volcano several times leaving detailed accounts of its activity.

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The great number of people visiting the volcano brought about the proliferation of artists, who developed a new fast painting technique, called gouache that permitted them to catch the eruptive activity of the volcano like photographic pictures, which then became a true visual archive of the record of activity of the volcano (Figure 8).

their back with reverence, wrote in 1895 Vincente Blasco Ibanez. The guides were however necessary to reach the volcano without being assailed by robbers on the way up. The use of guides and their fees were ruled by a prefect’s decree in 1840 and then in 1855. The maximum fee was ten carlini for the day, twelve for the night, four ducats for a chair brought by eight people, and eight carlini for a mule, horse or donkey (Figure 9).

Figure 9. Gouache (by Camillo De Vito) of tourists observing an active vent on top of Vesuvius (1829).

Figure 8. A gouache (by Camillo De Vito) of the 1822 eruption of Vesuvius.

Local guides accompanied the tourists to the top of the volcano. The most frequent travelers had their own personal guides, with whom they developed a true friendship even in a period of rigid class separation. The temporary friendship added a further concern to the perilous ascent to the crater. The guides used multiple tricks to extort money from the tourists, but rewarded them with their wild, sweet national music, as wrote the poet Shelley in 1818. Often, they carried ladies and gentlemen unable to continue the ascent on their shoulders, or appeared suddenly with drinks in the middle of lava flows when thirst became unbearable. For a glass of wine, I paid three liras, but the same boys, broke Copyright© Nuova Cultura

On arrival at the top, the show of the fire of the volcano, and the landscape from the Apennine to the sea, and the islands of Capri, Procida and Ischia in the background, cancelled every trace of unpleasantness or tiredness. The experience remained fixed in the mind as the adventure of a lifetime, which compared the smallness of men to the power of Nature. As Chateaubriand wrote, “what are the famous revolutions of empires in comparison with the accidents of nature that change the face of earth and seas”.

6. The Lessons In Pompei, 394 corpses were found in the pumice fall deposit and 650 in the pyroclastic deposit, with a total of 1044 victims being recovered inside 2/3 of the city of Pompeii (the excavated part) (Giacomelli et al., 2003). Most of the corpses within the pumice fall deposit were found inside buildings (88%), whereas, of the 650 corpses recovered in the pyroclastic flow deposit, 334 were found inside buildings and 316 outdoors.

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The relative proportion of people died because of the high pumice fall in comparison to the known statistics, which report less than 4% in many historical eruptions (Tanguy et al., 1998). It is probably related to the unawareness of the people about the very presence of a volcano (Vesuvius was inactive for many centuries before 79) and to the belief that they could save their lives inside the buildings that later collapsed under the load of pumice or because the pyroclastic flow action. Such information is relevant to minimize loss of human lives during an explosive eruption. The evacuation of a city is possible even under the fall of pumice, but must be made rapidly before the emplacement of pyroclastic flows, that generally occur in the later phases of an eruption, after the beginning of the Plinian phase. Moreover, people have to know what direction to take, not towards the sea or downwind. The pyroclastic flows emplace more likely along the major drainage valleys of the volcano, and are generally able to destroy all edifices and obliterate any sort of life within a 10-15 km radius. So no refuge can be found within them unless at the very edge of the destruction zone, but the knowledge of the topography of the volcano may help in saving lives especially by avoiding valleys and depressions. At Herculaneum, the dead bodies found in the city were only around ten, and it was hypothesized that most people had fled during the eruption, until, during the excavation of the suburban baths in 1980, more than 300 corpses were found amassed in the porches on the sea front of the town (Figure 10). Most people had died waiting for an escape route toward the sea but, or maybe for this reason, only one boat was found on the beach. Perhaps the weather and adverse sea conditions had prevented their escape as also testified by Pliny the Younger, in relation to the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder, who was unable to leave Stabiae where he had landed the day before, because of contrary winds that did not permit the sailing of his ships.

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Figure 10. Casts of skeletons of victims found in the porches of Herculaneum. Photo: L. Giacomelli.

Strong windstorms, and tsunami are known to accompany the explosive eruptions of volcanoes close to the sea. Similar phenomena occurred also during the 1631 eruption of Vesuvius even if on a smaller scale than those of 79 AD. The eruption of 79 AD buried cities, which were still buzzing with life, and preserved intact a patrimony of historical and social knowledge that cannot be obtained from the study of ruins deteriorated by time. The bodies found in Herculaneum supplied a sample of population of all ages and social classes thus providing paleopathology with a better knowledge of the state of health and the diseases of an entire population during the Roman imperial period. Although destructive, the activity of Vesuvius provided an invaluable lesson that permitted the development of volcanology, archeology and ancillary studies on the effects of an eruption on densely inhabited areas (Pesaresi et al., 2008; Pesaresi and Scandone, 2013) (Figure 11). Presently, the Civil Protection has developed an evacuation plan in case of a renewal of activity. However, the great uncertainties related to the forecast of the exact time and character of an impending eruption, the large numbers of people to be evacuated (at least 700000), within a densely inhabited area, make the evacuation plans problematic. A formidable civil protection measure is the actual knowledge of the style of activity of the volcano and the actions to be taken, should an eruption occur without sufficient warning. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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References

Figure 11. The facade of Vesuvius Observatory built by order of King Ferdinand II of Bourbon in 1841 to study the activity of the volcano. The first director was the physicist Macedonio Melloni. Photo: L. Giacomelli.

The history of the major eruptions of 79 AD and 1631 has shown that many people living around the volcano were able to escape even without any knowledge of volcanic phenomena and without knowing that Vesuvius was a volcano. The casualties were only those who remained close to their houses until the last minute. So, even in the case of the failure of all prevention measures, could it be possible to avoid large losses of people by the simple knowledge of elementary rules of behavior that should be taught at school. Primary school should provide the elementary information regarding volcanic phenomena and emergency drills. Specific ad hoc projects in junior schools may embrace science, history, and Latin language, supplemented with visits to the excavations and volcanic outcrops to better appreciate the nature of eruptive phenomena and their effect on the environment.

1. Cioni R., Santacroce R. and Sbrana A., “Pyroclastic deposits as a guide for reconstructing the multi-stage evolution of the Somma-Vesuvius caldera”, Bulletin of Volcanology, 61, 4, 1999, pp. 207-222. 2. Delibrias G., Di Paola G.M., Rosi M. and Santacroce R., “La storia eruttiva del complesso Somma-Vesuvio ricostruita dalle successioni piroclastiche del Monte Somma”, Rendiconti della Società Italiana di Mineralogia e Petrografia, 35, 1979, pp. 411-438. 3. Giacomelli L. and Scandone R., Vesuvio, Pompei, Ercolano: eruzioni e escursioni, Milan, BE-MA, 2001. 4. Giacomelli L., Perrotta A., Scandone R. and Scarpati C., “The Eruption of Vesuvius of 79 AD, and its Impact on Human Environment”, Episodes, 26, 3, 2003, pp. 234-237. 5. Pesaresi C., Marta M., Palagiano C. and Scandone R., “The evaluation of ‘social risk’ due to volcanic eruptions of Vesuvius”, Natural Hazards, 47, 2008, pp. 229-243. 6. Pesaresi C. and Scandone R., “Nuovi scenari di rischio nell’area vesuviana”, in Paratore E. and Morri R. (Eds.), Proceedings in honor of Cosimo Palagiano, Semestrale di Studi e Ricerche di Geografia, 1, 2013, pp. 225-241. 7. Scandone R., Giacomelli L. and Gasparini P., “Mount Vesuvius: 2000 Years of Volcanological Observations”, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 58, 1993, pp. 5-25. 8. Sigurdsson H., Carey S., Cornell W. and Pescatore T., “The Eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79”, National Geographic Research, 1, 1985, pp. 332-387. 9. Tanguy J.C., Ribiere C., Scarth A. and Tjetjep W.S., “Victims from Volcanic Eruption: a revised data base”, Bulletin of Volcanology, 60, 2, 1998, pp. 137-144.

We hope that this patrimony may help to save lives in the future and eventually preserve a testimony of our time to the future, should a new disastrous eruption occur as far into the future as possible. Copyright© Nuova Cultura

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Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 3, Dec., 2014, pp. 43-60 DOI: 10.4458/4403-04

Towards a multimedia approach in geographical research and education. Reflections from the web-research “Al centro di Tunisi – Au centre de Tunis” Matteo Puttillia a

Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Aziendali, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy Email: matteo.puttilli@unica.it

Received: October 2014 – Accepted: November 2014

Abstract Web-based documentaries (web-docs) and interactive documentaries (i-docs) represent an innovative form of multimedia research and communication, consisting of a combination of multiple media such as videos, images, audios and texts within a unique, open and freely accessible web-platform. They are based on interactivity, trans-mediality and non-linearity; they do not impose a specific author’s perspective on the observed reality but allow visitors to explore the different media, voices and sources collected within the documentary and interact with them, developing their personal interpretation and points of view. Therefore, i-docs may become a resource for geographical education and research. Within the educational field, multimedia actually facilitates the individualization and personalization of training, stimulates discovery, interaction and problem solving, and favours an active approach to learning. As regards the research, multimedia may integrate the conventional tools during the fieldwork and offer new resources for the description and narration of the space, as well as a more effective circulation of the results. Starting from these broader reflections, the paper focuses on the particular case of the web-research “Al centro di Tunisi – Au centre de Tunis”, a multimedia experimental project upon the practice of the public space in Tunis two years after the Jasmine Revolution of 2011. Through the description of the project from the theoretical and methodological point of view, the paper ends by suggesting some possible applications of the webresearch in geographical education and didactics. Keywords: Multimedia, I-documentaries, Web-research, Tunisian Revolution, Geographical Education

1. Introduction The use of multimedia as a basic resource both in research and in geographical education has been gradually making headway. As regarding research, multimedia can integrate the Copyright© Nuova Cultura

sources of traditional investigation, offering, mostly in empirical field research, new instruments to describe and narrate reality, as well as innovative forms to spread results scientifically. From the point of view of geographical education, the application of Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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different media allows for the development of an active multimodal approach, based on the direct relationship with the reality being studied. Multimedia facilitates multiplying the points of view on a given phenomenon, developing the critical analysis, problem solving and group work, as well as a higher emotional involvement than conventional instruments would.

Tunis”, either in connection with the theoretical and methodological basis, or with the results achieved and the perspectives the project has opened. Finally, the third paragraph introduces and debates some educational prospects, as well as the possible didactic applications the webresearch offers.

From this double point of view, the paper presents the results and the perspectives opened by the bilingual multimedia research project “Al centro di Tunisi. Geografie dello spazio pubblico dopo una Rivoluzione – Au centre de Tunis. Geographies de l’espace publique apres une Revolution” (available at the web address http://webdoc.unica.it), realised by a team of geographers, video-makers and photographers during the year 20131. The project aims at investigating, two years after the so-called “Jasmine Revolution”, the changes occurred in the practice and the perception of public spaces in the centre of Tunis. The approach adopted in the project is defined as web-research, meaning the use of the web form and of multimedia as a resource both in the fieldwork and in the reelaboration and circulation of the materials produced.

2. Multimedia in action

The article has been structured as follows. The first paragraph suggests a review of the international literature on multimedia in the research and the didactics of geography, later focusing on the web- or i-documentaries as a successful synthesis of a multimedia and visual approach in the geographic research and records. The second paragraph focuses on the webresearch “Al centro di Tunisi – Au centre de 1

The research group involved in the field includes eight people: four geography researchers at the University of Cagliari (Raffaele Cattedra, Maurizio Memoli and Matteo Puttilli) and the Polytechnic of Turin (Francesca Governa), three photographers and video-makers from the agency Prospekt Photographers of Milan (Bruno Chiaravalloti, Claudio Jampaglia and Samuele Pellecchia) and the free-lance photographer Rosi Giua. They were joined in the field and, above all, in the postproduction stage, by many other people referred to on the research web site. The project involved the realisation of a fieldwork in Tunis (27 March – 11 April 2013) and the long revision of the materials collected, resulting in the publication of the site online on 9th December 2013). Copyright© Nuova Cultura

The centrality gained by multimedia in the educational field is certainly not new, and literature has already highlighted its potentialities in teaching and learning practice. The advantages offered by multimedia experiences in the different levels of the educational field have been underlined since the mid 1990s, pointing out how “the most important advantage of multimedia over other forms of instruction is its flexibility in presenting information and its quick access in providing feedback” (Chang and Chen, 1995, p. 103). The use (and above all the combination) of different media, particularly thanks to the new technologies, “facilitates the effective management of learning, allowing individualization and personalization of learning, provides rapid information, stimulates discovery learning, the interactive learning model, provides opportunities for simulation, problem solving, deepening knowledge (...), stimulates cognitive confrontations, determines active and interactive training and gives the learner cognitive and informational autonomy” (Tudor, 2013, p. 683). The multimedia approach is also, and above all, “multi-modal” (ibidem, 2013) in its using and integrating different tools and devices in didactics: web 2.0 (Alexander, 2006), podcasts (Lazzari, 2009), blogs and social-networks (Twitter and Facebook) (Wright, 2010; Williams and Jacobs, 2004; Wang et al., 2012), videos and images (maps, charts and photos) (Bignante and Rossetto, 2011; Goldman et al., 2007), games (Tüzün et al., 2009), as well as texts (articles, essays, diaries, notes, tales and so on) (Ryan, 2001), animations, but more frequently varying combinations of these different tools in the creation of on-line multi-platforms, accessible and open and therefore freely usable, integrable and modifiable (Qingsong, 2012). “Multimedia Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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learning” develops through a combination of texts, images, words, colours, meanings and messages; it can exploit and vehiculate already available contents (both of a professional and an amateur kind), or, alternatively, stimulate the self-production and the participation of teachers and students in the sharing of materials (Gilroy, 2009), the collective learning, learning by doing, problem solving, as well as the connection between theory and practices (Lieshout, Egyedi and Bijker, 2001; Walmsley, 2003). Although some problems with the educational use of multimedia still remain unsolved or poorly analysed (because of cost, control, effectiveness, accessibility and potential negative intellectual outcomes) (Olson, 1997; Lieshout, Egyedi and Bijker, 2001), the experiences both among teachers and students show highly positive results (Wang, Cowie and Jones, 2009, Han, Eom and Shin, 2013). It is a common opinion that, compared to the traditional approaches, multimedia strategies are more incisive in showing either the complexity of reality or the multiple interpretations and points of view, mostly allowing for the development of a real cross-curricular perspective (Goldman et al., 2007; Jacobson, Militello and Baveye, 2009). 2.1 Multimedia in geographical education and research Simply because of the cross-curricular and multimodal vocation, multimedia has always been connected to geographic research and, in particular, to geography teaching. In a fundamental article written in 1997, Judy Olson introduces some pioneering examples of multimedia educational applications and recognizes in multimedia (intended as “the use of more than one medium – text, still graphics, sound, animation, video”) (Olson, 1997, p. 571) an agent able to modify “the way in which geography is recorded, studied, and communicated” at a deep level (ibidem, p. 571). In particular, “interactive multimedia gives the user control over the order in which to see or hear the information” and it “opens doors for geographers to discover and communicate” (ibidem, p. 571). More recently, Hofsetter (2001) has focused on the prevailingly visual character of geography to claim how this subject Copyright© Nuova Cultura

naturally tends to use multiple media. This vocation has been further confirmed by the late academic handbooks, which tend to confirm and experiment a visual approach in geographical education (Grainer et al., 2012). The latest studies on the introduction of multimedia in geography are mostly concentrated on the usefulness of new technologies in the production and use of digital cartography, of GIS and Google Earth (Seong, 1996; Scott and Wesley, 1999; Patterson, 2007; Sinton, 2009), but there are further experiences and experimentations such as virtual field-work and virtual visit (Stainfold et al., 2000), digital storytelling (Porto and Belmonte, 2014), gaming (Tüzün et al., 2009), image production (Bignante and Rossetto, 2012), e-participation (Rocca, 2012) and so on. This is a wide and varied universe, difficult to systematize and still innovative and experimental from many points of view. However, some later studies on learning results seem to confirm the advantages in the didactics of geography: in a recent paper about teaching in secondary schools, Da Silva and Kvasnak (2012) evaluate the results achieved in geography by mother-tongue and non mothertongue students within a large sample of classrooms in which multimedia teaching methods were used. These researchers see that, in the American context, multimedia teaching allows an almost complete levelling of all language differences in learning specialist concepts and terms. Though widely adopted and experimented in didactics, the use of multimedia in geographic research has been further considered either from a theoretic-methodological or an empiricapplicative point of view. Most of the production on the subject focuses on the role of the photographic image as an instrument of geoethnographic analysis and as an instrument of field research (Driver, 2003; Rose, 2007; Bignante, 2010); the impact of the other media, such as the role of social networks in redefining the ways of cartographying the geographic space (in a progressively shared and collective way) has been considered as well (Caquard, 2014). Nevertheless, while analysing the new visual media being used in geographic research from a critical point of view, Bradley Garrett (2010) is Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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surprised that video (and particularly digitalvideo) is, “strangely, underutilized, spurned as a method of publication and dissemination in many instances” (p. 523). The author distinguishes two possible approaches of investigation towards the visual image (and, by extension, towards multimedia) in geography. The first, an analytical one, refers to the analysis of the contents in a multimedia product (an image, a video, a map, a blog, etc.) and considers the media as a source, not different from the traditional textbook. The second one, on the contrary, refers to the use of the media in the production and realization of new geographical research, as instruments of investigation, observation of reality and interaction both with the public and the actors involved in it. This approach, though still under-utilized, offers meaningful possibilities to geographical research, so that Garrett states, “geography as a discipline would benefit greatly from expanding the researcher’s toolset to include the consistent use of digital video, especially in ethnographic research” (Garrett, 2010, p. 521), for several reasons. Just to list some of them: from the research (and the field investigation) point of view “video is a useful geographic research tool because it captures movement; video tracks the multisensual fluidity and rhythms of everyday life (…) in the flux and flow of passage and encounters on a sliding range of scale, time and space” (ibidem, p. 522). The use of the digital video requires a radical review of the relationship between those who research and their investigating field, through new forms of mediation with the reality not compatible with more conventional investigating instruments: “raw fieldwork footage serves as an excellent record keeper and a well-considered, well-shot, well-edited video becomes a multifaceted web of thought, memory, materiality and movement” (ibidem, p. 522). Where the relationship with the context was above all a reflexive one, it becomes documental through the video, centred on the observation and the documentation of what happens in reality. The researcher becomes an active (and visible) part of the investigating field and voices, more directly and explicitly, the subjects taking part in it (among the several forms of videoresearch, the participative ones have become Copyright© Nuova Cultura

increasingly significant, being centred on the direct involvement of the social actors in the field). Finally, from the point of view of the circulation and availability, the video allows for a deeper involvement of the spectator due to it being more and more frequently a “multisensory representation”: “video is inherently not primarily a visual medium. It is a medium that operates on two of the five senses (…) and I will add that in particular situation video footage (…) invokes olfactory and tactile sensory perceptions as well” (ibidem, p. 532). In other words, videos and images (as well as other multimedia tools) increase the exploring and cognitive possibilities of geography, extending the sources and instruments of description, representation and analysis of the space. This is not a quantitative but a qualitative extension. Far from being “neutral”, even multimedia images and technologies are the result of the authors’ careful choices (thus encouraging and influencing the public through the operations of selection and organization of the contents). However, thanks to its specific characteristics, every instrument can record and show reality from different angles, multiplying the reading levels and leaving more freedom in observation and interpretation. 2.2 Video-research and i-documentaries Interactive documentaries (i-docs) (Vicente, 2008; O’Flynn, 2014; Aston and Gaudenzi, 2014; Aufderheide, forthcoming) (also defined web-documentaries or web-docs, since almost all of them turn to on-line platforms to allow interactivity with the spectators) have been recently winning a leading position among the different experiences of video-research. I-docs represent a form of multimedia documentary, organised on a corpus of video clips, images, audios and texts among which users can move freely, developing curiosity and choosing (more or less independently) to which contents they want to refer and which cognitive experiences they want to live. The definition of i-doc results from the combination of documentary and interactivity: “i-docs generate new, creative, non-linear forms of engagement and interactions between Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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viewers, authors and the material itself” (Favero, 2013, p. 261). This is made possible by the i-doc hypermedia and trans-medial structure (O’Flynn, 2014), which allows a non-linear writing (thus emphasizing the characteristics already present in hypertexts). In other words, i-docs are structured on “chunks of information connected by links capable of offering a series of pathways” (Favero, 2013, p. 267). With a similar layout “a narrative ceases to be a linear sequence of events imposed by an author” (ibidem, p. 267), but implies the user’s direct participation. The availability of an i-doc implies surfing (similarly to the web) and not simply observing. This is also why i-docs are defined “relational objects” (Gaudenzi, 2014). This is not the right site for a precise taxonomy of the existing types of web-docs, since case records change significantly: “a transmedia documentary distributes a narrative across more than one platform, it can be participatory or not, can invite audiencegenerated content or not, tends to be open and evolving, though not always” (O’Flyinn, 2014, p. 143). According to Sandra Gaudenzi (2014), four forms of i-docs can be currently identified: Hypertextual, where the user “just explores by clicking on a pre-existing options” within a closed video archive; Conversational, if the “piece is more fluid (…) where one can dialogue into a reconstructed documentary world”, simulating a seamless conversation with the computer; Participative, “when the logic of interaction is based on people’s comments, uploading (sending videos, writing comments, uploading audio files etc.…)”; Experiential, if the interaction is supposed to happen also outside the screen and the i-doc suggests occasions of physical interaction in real space. In all its possible types (from the most open to the most closed ones), the web-docs principle is that users become co-producers of the research and its meaning, and there is not a single possibility of interpreting the fieldwork. Quoting Favero again (2013, p. 262), the contents suggested in i-docs are “relational items situated amidst the events, socialness and physicality of actors’ everyday life”. They create a connection between the researcher and the actors in the field, the investigating tools, and the users that is a multi-directional one, with a Copyright© Nuova Cultura

direct involvement of all the subjects’ living spaces. The impact of these forms of video-research in an educational and didactic context is evident (in particular for geography). i-docs actually allow the user (using Jenner’s effective metaphor, 2014) “to navigate distant worlds”, and to explore close and distant realities and territories through different and multiple points of view, from the inside. Sometimes closer to the journalistic research, web-docs often take an interest in contemporary situations, therefore developing the education to contemporaneity that is (or at least it should be) peculiar to geographic education. I-docs successfully represent the implementation of a multimedia approach, even though in a single virtual space (and, therefore, a more easily accessible and controllable one). The presence of different media among them develops the attitude to compare, deal with and analyse different sources, as well as critical thought. Finally, the use of web-docs allows for the students’ direct involvement in the developing research even from an emotional point of view, stimulating debates, group work, interaction and active learning. However, the use of multimedia and webdocs in didactics and learning implies some risks (from the lack of organization to the accessibility of the different technological solutions (Jenner, 2014) and requires some methodological strategies that Derry et al. (2010, p. 6) summarize in four challenges for the teacher: selection, that is how to “decide which elements of a complex environment should be recorded or which aspects of an extensive video corpus should be sampled?”; analysis, that is “what analytical frameworks and practices are available, and which of these are (…) appropriated?”; technology, that is “what technological tools are available and which social tools must be developed (…) to support collecting, archiving, analysing, reporting?”; ethics, that is “how to encourage broad video sharing and reuse while adequately protecting the rights of the human subjects who are represented?”.

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3. The web-research “Al centro di Tunisi – Au centre de Tunis” “Al centro di Tunisi” is a project of experimental research from many points of view2. As regarding the subject, it deals with issues of urban geography and in particular with the changes in the use of public spaces in the centre of Tunis after the so-called “Jasmine revolution” in December-February 2011. Generally speaking, Tunis offers a chance for a deeper reflection on the connections between places, social practices and perceptions of the space, as well as on the role of the field research and of the geographic description-narration. From the methodological point of view, the project represents an example of multimedia research in geography. The form recalls i-docs, especially for the non-linear and open character of the geographic narration. In agreement with the meta-reflection on the non-representational theory in social sciences (Thrift, 2008), the research is not going to offer an explicit representation of the analysed phenomenon. On the contrary, it will simply present and keep as many interpretative and reading levels open as there are voices and people involved in the project, among whom the present researchers and authors, whose presence in the field and whose point of view have never been hidden but always clearly expressed and revealed. 3.1

What’s a web-research stands for?

Quoting Bruno Latour’s approach (2005), the basic methodology of the web-research can be expressed through a synthetic concept: hybriddization. If it is true that what we observe and study is a combination of things, words and social relationships, then also the way of studying, analysing and narrating can only be a combination of approaches, words, images, points of view, emotions, skills, looks, and so on. In the web-research, this hybridization has taken place at three complementary levels. The first level refers to the composition and 2

This paragraph resumes and revises a text published on the site http://webdoc.it and shared with the other authors of the web-research.

the work of the research group. This includes not only different sensibilities (as a standard in cooperative works), but also different professsional competences (geographers, journalists, photographers, video-makers, as well as an anthropologist, an art director, a webmaster and a translator, joined in the post-production stage), experiences, pre-knowledge (only some members knew Tunis and the Arabian countries directly) and interests (only some of them had a previous competence of urban geography). Coordinating such a varied group might have been complicated, an informal and spontaneous approach was thus chosen, where everybody’s relationships and different vocations could be mixed, without any pre-established role. Therefore, everybody took part in any stage of the research, sharing the assigned responsibilities and an approach based on collective discussions and debates. The second level refers to the methodology of the research that can be defined subjective and spontaneous. Rather than a detailed preparation of the mission and of the political, social, economic and spatial conditions of the studied context, the group preferred to choose a fluid and progressive approach, collectively built and shared in the field while gradually dealing with the developing research3. Though creating at first a sense of disorientation towards the final objectives of the research, this allowed a flexible approach to be developed and to build the issues step by step, selecting topics, places, people and investigating tools according to the priorities being gradually shared and to everybody’s sensibility. As for the techniques, they are hybrid too and range from the most orthodox qualitative methodologies, typical of the post-structuralism geography (interviews, participated observation, etc.), to visual research techniques practised by those who, by profession, use images to describe 3

In a sense, this approach was necessary, even for the uncertainty and the poor knowledge of the context conditions before leaving, which made setting the fieldwork for the mission difficult. The impact and the obvious uncertainties caused by such a radical event as a revolution, and the political tensions in Tunisia at the beginning of 2013 (culminating on 6th February with the political murder of Chokri Belaïd, one of the opposition members of the government) had called the group’s departure into question. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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places, events and situations. Finally, the third level of hybridization implies processing and optimizing the materials collected in the field. Following the I-docs logic, choosing the web is consistent with the general expression of the research and with the intention to spread an experience of geographic research through a public potentially wider than the academic context. At the same time, the web form does not simply represent a space where the different materials can be set and put together. The web-research instead starts from the assumption that different media have to be mixed and integrated, in a non-linear process that, though not neglecting the other authors’ point of view, leaves those who observe free to choose. At this level, hybridization also means that all contents are connected and referring to the others, so that the chosen words may influence the realization of images and the appreciation of the video or vice versa. 3.2 Topics and spaces of the web-research The choice to deal with the case of Tunis after the so-called Jasmine Revolution is consistent with the flexible and open approach of the whole web-research. Starting in December 2010 in Sidi Bouzid, a small village in the southern centre of the country, culminating on 14th January 2011 with President Ben Ali’s escape after a great demonstration day in Avenue Bourguiba, and going on in the following months through incessant popular mobilizations, the Jasmine Revolution has actually been considered as the first revolution of the so called Arab Spring, causing a widespread effect that would shortly inspire – though with different procedures, objectives and results – other Arabian countries in North Africa (Egypt, Libya and Syria above all), but also other forms of protest in the world (such as Occupy Wall Street in New York, Occupy London and Occupy Movement in the rest of the world, Indignados in Madrid and Barcelona, Gezi Park in Istanbul and so on)4.

Apart from the differences in every national case, these revolts have definitely represented a breaking off moment in the political geography of these countries, mainly expressed (or, at least, this is what mostly appeared) in the occupation and reappropriation of the most important public spaces in the main cities by a group of demonstrators (such as streets and squares or power centres). The hypothesis at the basis of the webresearch is that, after some years, public spaces in Tunis still keep the signs and legacy of the revolutionary events, in particular the people’s ability of self-organizing and re-appropriating the spaces, a reappropriation expressed through symbols and practices: symbols, since these are the places where the new meaning of citizenship and civil rights, as well as of the emotions connected to the memory of the Revolution and to the previous regime, is being redeveloped; practices, since the post-revolutionary changes in the use and practice of the space are more evident, for instance in the freedom to demonstrate and speak of politics publicly, that was forbidden during the regime. Describing such a re-territorialisation and resignification of the public space is complicated; it is a radical and continuously redefined project that involves actors, representations, and different, sometimes conflicting, practices. The impression felt during the mission in Tunis is actually of a “suspended” city (and sometimes a fractured one), where a widespread awareness of having realised a deep change is tangible, together with a marked uncertainty about the future. This characterized the research, complicating a strict organisation of the work, and preventing a linear reading and a synthesis of the developed issues from being reached once the project had come to an end. As for the choice of the spaces, the webresearch concentrated on the main spaces of the city. It was not a stock choice, as the Tunisian revolution was born “out” of the capital, in other cities, in suburban, peri-urban and rural sectors, acquiring its own specific urban character later, and the effects of the Tunisian revolution and the Arab Springs (see for Bettaïeb, 2011; Gobe, 2012; Puchot, 2012; Saïdi, 2011 for further reference). Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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in the hardest moments of the conflict and of the demonstration5. However, the centre of Tunis and, in particular, the spaces of Avenue Habib Bourguiba, of Place de la Kasbah and the Medina are still the strategic points of the political life in the capital. These are the places where the Revolution was brought to an end, and where the process of post-revolutionary reterritorialisation was stronger. Avenue Bourguiba, the wide boulevard crossing the modern part of the Tunis centre, was the “theatre” of the most symbolic day in the late history of the country: 14th January 2011. This is the day of the big demonstration that, starting early in the morning and ending late in the evening in front of the Home Office, forced the President’s escape from the country. In the recollections of the people met in Tunis, this date evokes pride and emotion, but also regrets. It is the symbolic date of the liberation of a people that takes destiny into their hands, freeing themselves from a violent, repressive and corrupted regime. But it is also the symbol of an unrepeatable collective unity, that witnessed a whole country move towards a single objective, though experiencing new divisions and conflicts the next day. The square in the Kasbah is pre-eminently the place of the political power inside the city, the space where it takes shape and demonstrates6. It is the spatial expression of the control centre, the place where every decision is taken and power is made evident. But in the days of the Revolution and in the months following the momentous 14th January 2011, the Kasbah became the expression of the revolutionary counter power. The occupation of the wide esplanade by thousands of people coming from every part of the country, lasting several weeks in the months of February and March, prevented the attempts to establish a 5

There could be many other places to be closely observed for a deeper analysis of the developing research: the urban outskirts of the Kram and of La Fayette, of Sidi Bou Said, of the Marsa, of the Bardo area, the university city of the Manouba, the cemetery of Jallaz, the cities of Kasserine and Redeyef. 6 The Government Palace lies at the base of the wide cement esplanade of the Kasbah. During Ben Ali’s regime it was used for the big demonstrations in his support. Copyright© Nuova Cultura

continuity government with Ben Ali’s regime from succeeding and allowed the establishment of the Constituent Assembly. Finally, the Medina is considered the “property” space of Tunis, and physically separates the power citadel (the Kasbah) from the colonial city of Avenue Bourguiba. Despite its lower involvement in the revolutionary events compared to the other spaces, the Medina remains the symbolic, identitary and touristic centre of the city and has a leading role in the process of social and spatial re-signification, as well as in the new urban practices characterising the latest years. In other words, the centre of the city represents the referential space of the webresearch for its remarkable importance at a political and symbolic level, and from the point of view of the urban and social practices. 3.3 Navigating the centre of Tunis In Internet language, the multimedia form of the web allows users “to navigate” the several sites in the centre of the city. In an endless recalling, the virtual space allows for the connection to the different places visited during the fieldwork, the different practices of the public space, the voices of the different social actors that live in it, as well as the different levels of reading and interpreting the town by the different members of the research group. The produced and reprocessed materials – images, videos and texts – flow into a mutual relationship, undermining the conventional hierarchy that the different media take in the research, and acquire new functions. Images and videos, for instance, do not show only what the researchers have observed, didactically, nor have they a mere aesthetic function. On the contrary, they are conceived as instruments of geographic knowledge and have the function of stimulating the critical observation and the spatial analysis. Similarly, texts do not offer a more “scientific” reading of reality than the images, but declare and reveal the “positioning” of the authors towards the city, recording the impressions and the emotions lived during the field mission. All the media are in mutual communication, making the presence of the researchers in the field more explicit: their point of view, the uncertainties, the sense of disorientation, the way of living in the space and to narrate it. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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At the same time, the different media imply a direct dialogue with the visitor of the site and with his freedom to move and visit the centre of Tunis two years after the Revolution. The visitor knows the researcher’s point of view, but he can also listen to the interviewees’ voices, watch the images and build his own representation of the city and of the developing research. Once in the site, the visitor is asked to take different decisions on a spatial basis, starting from a map of the centre of Tunis. The centre of the city is divided into three spaces (redefined “rooms”): the Kasbah, the Medina and the Avenue Habib Bourguiba (Figure 1). Having virtually entered one of these spaces, the visitor is asked to interact with a wide range of possible options for exploration and consultation, both visually and textually (Figure 2). The videos include the interviews of some preferential witnesses who describe the changes occurring in the space during and after the Revolution, some evidence recorded in the field, shots of particular events caught at random during the stay in Tunis (for instance, political or corporative demonstrations, cultural meetings, sitins, etc.) or, more simply, expressions and signs of everyday life that emerge from public spaces. Similarly, photos portray some particular practices of the public spaces, some sights of the city or more simply the faces of the people met in the street by chance. They also report the presence of the researchers in the field, never invisible, always explicitly present, and interacting with the observed reality. This presence is further emphasized by four editorialvideos (one for each researcher) that, in different ways, express a personal and subjective view about the conducted research. Finally, the texts are conceived as auxiliary contributions, with no aspiration to be exhaustive or comprehensive of the whole developing research, but, on the contrary, eager to open and suggest new cues for a reading: some aim at dealing with precise specific topics (for example, the explanation of the term “medina”)7; others with more theoretic and general ones (for instance, a reflection on the 7

Cattedra R., “Dentro le mura”, http://webdoc. unica.it/it/testi/dentro-le-mura.pdf.

control of the space through the urban project)8; some have a more descriptive function (such as the chrono-spatial and symbolic reconstruction of the spatial practices in Avenue Bourguiba)9. Clicking on the link of every media, the visitor is lead to the page dealing with the chosen content. Every media has a title and a concise description of its content. At the bottom of the page, the tags allow for access to other contents or spaces linked to the visited one directly and, therefore, to surf the site and the centre of Tunis according to a given topic in a trans-medial procedure (Figure 3). In this way, listening to Larbi Chourika’s political comment, visitors can recollect the route of the big demonstration on 14th January 2011 along Avenue Bourguiba and be thrilled remembering the most dramatic and intense moments in the recent history of Tunisia10. They can even experience the contradictions of the present taking part in the picket line that, every Wednesday at 1 p.m., occupies the spaces in front of the municipal theatre, claiming justice for the political murder of the opposition leader Chokri Belaïd11. Or listen to the urban planner and historian Jellal Abdelkafi, describing the birth, the architectonic characteristics, the urban development, as well as the social and political role of Avenue Bourguiba he has recently contributed to planning12. Otherwise, we can move towards the Medina and listen, in shops and cafeterias, to the opinions about life after the Revolution, persuaded that nobody will never deprive the Tunisians of their freedom of speech again13, but also be bitterly aware that words are not enough to get by on14.

Memoli, http://webdoc.unica.it/it/testi/controllo-medi na.pdf. 9 Puttilli, http://webdoc.unica.it/it/testi/altra-faccia.pdf. 10 Video: “Il 14 gennaio di Larbi Chouraki”, http://webdoc.unica.it/it/index.html#Av-Bourguiba. 11 Video: “Ogni mercoledì alle 13”, http://webdoc.unica.it/it/index.html#Av-Bourguiba. 12 Video: “Ogni mercoledì alle 13”, http://webdoc.unica.it/it/index.html#Av-Bourguiba. 13 Video: “Non si torna indietro”, http://webdoc. unica.it/it/index.html#Medina. 14 Video: “Non si torna indietro”, http://webdoc. unica.it/it/index.html#Medina. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Matteo Puttilli

Figure 1. The Italian home page of the web-research and the three spaces of the centre of Tunis.

Figure 2. An example of “stanza”: the Medina and its multimedia content.

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Matteo Puttilli

Figure 3. An example of a video within the Kasbah: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Davanti al palazzoâ&#x20AC;?.

These are only some examples of the voices and reading levels (sometimes opposed and radically different), from a more analytical and emotional angle; they allow the user to surf the centre of Tunis and recover, though in the distance, the places and spaces of the Revolution.

Apart from the issues that, broadly speaking, deal with the role of geography and social sciences, currently debated at an international level15, these questions came up rather frequently in the group involved in the webresearch in Tunis (geographers or not).

After all, an experimental research by definition always implies risks and controversial points of view that cannot be easily solved or properly analysed. In particular, the lack of combined interpretations answering the first question in the research (that is an analysis of the changing use of the public space), the consequent choice to leave multiple interpretations open and the multimedia form might raise an issue about the role of the scientific research, and more specifically the geographic one, compared to other forms of investigation (the journalistic or the media one). In other words, what is the role of geography (and of geographers) in such research if not finding and putting documents and observations together? And thus, what distinguishes a research from a journalistic survey? Is there any risk of being confined simply to evidence and ideography, neglecting the interpretative function?

On the one hand, the role of geography emerges from the same setting of the developing research, evidently a spatial one, as well as from the attempt at adopting multimedia techniques to explain transformations and uses of the space, as well as from the texts and the video-editorials where the points of view of the researchersgeographers involved are expressed more clearly. On the other hand, the purpose was to practice a geography that could voice and point out the public space, the people living in it and the events peculiar to it. Beyond the specific professional competences, a geographic view caring for the spatial dimension was aimed at and supported, whether practised by a professional geographer, a video-maker, a journalist or, broadly speaking, any visitor of the web-research through his own biography and specific interests.

CopyrightÂŠ Nuova Cultura

For a synthesis and a position on the topic see Governa, http://webdoc.unica.it/it/testi/oltre.pdf. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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4.1 Urban geography and education to the analysis of socio-spatial relations

4. Learning from (virtual) space Although “Al centro di Tunisi – Au centre de Tunis” is not a project explicitly conceived for a didactic purpose, like other multimedia projects it has many possible applications in the educational field. The web-research is currently used – and not only by the authors – as a didactic and educational resource at a university level (of course in the context of political and economic geography, developmental geography, urban geography and cultural geography, in particular of the Mediterranean area), especially through workshops and group activities. Starting from these first experiences, we hereby present some synthetic reflections on the educational impact of the research. Apart from the more specifically multimedia features (whose importance and limits in the educational context have already been described in paragraph 1), the web-research allows for work on some specific geographic contents and competences, exploiting both the issues dealt with and the methodologies adopted by the project. Referring to other sites for a deeper analysis of the problems and competences in geographic education (IGU, 1992) and, above all, for the latest reflections on this subject (Van der Schee, 2012; Morgan, 2013; Stoltman, 2013; MacLeod, 2014; Giorda, 2014), it can be maintained that one of the main objectives of geographic education is the development of the knowledge and the functional ability to read and interpret contemporaneity, the on-going material and immaterial changes in the geographic space at different levels, the links between society and territory. How can the web-research offer a contribution to the development of these abilities? Which geographic contents emerge from the research? Though not expecting to be exhaustive, three possible lines can be listed for further development, expressing the geographic competences connected to them through some examples.

The first line refers to the analysis of the urban changes and the socio-spatial relationships. “Surfing ” the centre of Tunis, we are immediately aware of the deep changes that occurred in the space, and, above all, in its practice and representation. Recognizing the spatial changes explains the incessant evolution and transformation of the space, even the physical and apparently neutral one of a city, either visibly or invisibly. Even in the case of Tunis, the spatial changes are not only connected to the Revolution but also intrinsic in explicit urban policies. The vicepresident of the Association for the Safeguard of the Medina Zoubeir Moulhi16 proves this, describing the projects of requalification and regeneration of the historical area of Tunis that had already been implemented under the regime, aimed at improving the Medina from the cultural and touristic point of view. However, a Revolution obviously exasperates and accelerates transformations, to such a point that “nothing is as it used to be”16. The denomination of the places and squares where the revolution has developed is different17. Attitudes and behaviours in public spaces, starting from the new freedom to speak and protest, are different18. The perception of the places and spaces in the city is transformed: as told by Emna, a young girl studying Architecture, met in a café in Avenue Bourguiba, the once frightful buildings symbolizing the repressive power of the regime (like the Home Office, a place for the detention and persecution of political prisoners), that made people turn the other way while walking past them, nowadays are proudly admired as a symbol of the liberation of the country19. 16

Video: “Zoubeir Moulhid”, http://webdoc.unica. it/it/index.html#Medina. 17 Video: “Nulla è più come prima”, http://webdoc. unica.it/it/index.html#Medina. 18 Text: Puttilli, http://webdoc.unica.it/it/testi/altrafaccia.pdf. 19 Video: “Questo spazio ora è nostro”, http://webdoc.unica.it/it/index.html#Av-Bourguiba. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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Images represent a powerful instrument to interpret urban transformations. For instance, one of the most recognized spatial “objects” in Avenue Bourguiba is the presence of the barbed wire for the protection of some “”sensitive” buildings, such as the French Embassy and the Home Office (Figure 4).

Figure 5. An example of people’s practice of space despite the presence of barbed wire. Photo: R. Giua.

Figure 4. Barbed wire in “protection” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Photo: R. Giua.

An urban element only apparently temporary and removable, the barbed wire is in reality a constant presence and seems to have acquired permanent or somehow lasting features. It is certainly an element of division and separation, deeply affecting the space, creating suspended and inaccessible places that have been stolen to the practices and the uses involving the remaining part of the city20. Its presence seems to express the weakness of the democratic process and in part to undermine the “revolutionary dream”. However, changing the image reality can look different (Figure 5). During the field mission at least, the Tunisians seem to be used to avoiding the barbed wire, to bypassing it, to walking close to it and not to touching it, to filling only a piece of the carriageway and walking anyway. The barbed wire, despite it being a symbol of division, seems to have been absorbed in the routine of the streets and of the city.

Therefore, the case of Tunis leads to a reflection on how the urban space is represented, used and appropriated by the social actors and aimed at in a continuous process of changes and transformations. 4.2 Political geography and education to contemporary complexity The second line refers to the geopolitical dimension and the education to the complexity of reality. The international public opinion at first associated all the “Arab Springs” in the different countries, and classified them as a form of collective re-awakening towards democracy; however, it might be premature, or at least limiting, to consider them as a failure nowadays, since they find it difficult to establish steady governments or to emerge from a state of permanent conflict21. As for Tunisia, the legacy of the revolution is a highly complicated political, social and economic condition, if not an openly conflicting one (though not reaching a state of civil war like other countries, particularly Libya and Syria). Understanding the complexity of the contemporary world means educating to the critical thought and to interpreting reality through different points of view, wasting no time in simplistic explanations of facts and spaces. 21

For a deeper analysis on the different interpretations of the “Arab Springs” by the international public opinion see Ferreri, 2013. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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Showing specific situations experienced by the group, the web-research allows for a deeper analysis of some contradictions and contrasts of the post-revolutionary Tunis, through the evidence collected in the interviews or through the observation of the events. From this point of view, “taking part” in the big demonstration in Avenue Bourguiba for the national day of the martyrs for independence of 9th April22, saddened by incidents and clashes in 2012, becomes really meaningful. In 2013 parades were peaceful but separated: on one side of the boulevard, a shared picket composed of trade unions, the popular Front, the liberals and the radicals; on the other side, in front of the municipal theatre23, a meeting held by the members of Ennahda, the confessional party in power at that moment and a picket of the Salafi movement, with a more integralistic background (Figure 6). In the middle, a police cordon to separate the participants in the two coalitions of the demonstration. No representation can be more significant than the post-revolutionary political movement in the country. The public space becomes the stage where the rival political forces confront and mock each other, claiming a right to the square and the street as their own spaces of political achievement. In a role play made of provocations and contrasts but never resulting in violent clashes, the demonstrators often come really close, but never touch, revealing thus how the public space can be used in geopolitical terms to legitimate one’s own positions and de-legitimate the others’ at the same time.

Video: “Il giorno della manifestazione”, http://webdoc.unica.it/it/index.html#Av-Bourguiba. 23 The spaces in front of the theatre represent a real contended site by the different political wings, due to their symbolic value linked to the memory of the revolution. Ennhada claims their own exclusive right to demonstrate in front of the theatre because of the meeting there of their representatives on 14th January 2011. On the other hand, the representatives of the opposition disagree with it claiming that after the Revolution the theatre could become the right site for the progressive and liberal forces assembly. Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Figure 6. Pics from the video “Il giorno della manifestazione”: 1. Police and barriers in the center of Avenue Bourguiba; 2. The political meeting of Ennhada in front of the theatre; 3. The parade of liberals, progressives and labor unions; 4. The parade of salafists.

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4.3 Social geography and education to cultural diversity The third line refers to the social geography of Tunis and the education to interculturality. “Al centro di Tunisi– Au centre de Tunis” is a project on cultural differences too. Although they do not represent the core of the research, there are lot of materials recording moments of incomprehension, confusion, disorientation as well as of experience and knowledge of the otherness. For all these “moments”, occurring during the fieldwork, the web-research resorts to the suspension of judgement, of documentation and testimony.

the government, hoping for the implementation of a moderate Islamic government because, in her words, Islam is democracy. Such an opinion disagrees with some recent reflections that appeared in the European media and in literature, as for the rising of internal conflicts in the Arabian countries like Libya and Syria, and that start to question the supposed incompatibility of Islam with democracy (Maogoto and Coleman, 2013).

It is thus possible to follow the researchers out of the Zitouna mosque, in the heart of the medina, and get lost in a dialogue made of cultural and linguistic incomprehension between a researcher, an imam’s man, a shopkeeper and a video operator, becoming aware of the little or big difficulties arising in a research mission in a foreign country belonging to a different culture24. In a sense, for the Italian and European students listening to Myriam, a 23-year-old girl who helps her father in a lingerie and wedding dress shop in the medina may be rather bewildering (Figure 7)25. According to Myriam, as well as for the other young women interviewed during the research work, one of the main successes in the revolution is represented by having defeated the prohibition to wear the headscarf in public places, imposed by Ben Ali’s secularist biased regime. For many women, wearing the headscarf therefore acquires a new meaning: it is certainly worn as a religious symbol of identity and membership, but also as an act of asserting one’s own freedom of expression and religion. This is a very different meaning from the stereotype of the headscarf as a cultural imposition wielded on the woman’s body, common to a stigmatized view of Islam as a male chauvinist religion. Similarly, Myriam sounds surprising when she reveals she is a supporter of Ennhada, the confessional party of 24 Video: “Incomprensioni fuori dalla Zitouna”, http:// webdoc.unica.it/it/index.html#Medina. 25 Video: “La discoteca no”, http://webdoc.unica. it/it/index.html#Medina.

Figure 7. “We found freedom in our religion, the freedom to wear the veil”, Myriam says in the video “La discoteca no”.

Fighting against similar issues and getting immersed, even visually, in an urban landscape different from the one we are used to observing (at least in the medina) can contribute to the knowledge and acceptation of different cultures, of those behaviours and social rules whose acceptance differs according to the context, as well as of all those situations, images and also sounds, languages and words perceived by the students as “other” or “distant”, for a further deeper analysis of the motivations, the logic, the sensations of curiosity, unrest and surprise that they can stir up.

5. Conclusions “Al centro di Tunisi – Au centre de Tunis” represents an example of multimedia geographic research, more or less directly inspired by other multimedia products such as the i-docs but offering, compared to the latter, a different angle of reflection from the methodological and theoretical point of view (at least as far as the geographic research is concerned).

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Matteo Puttilli

The web-research represents a “virtual” place made up of a combination of characters, relationships, words and emotions. It is an attempt to show the incessant contamination of methods, languages, immersion practices and efforts to understand reality; to research, through explorations and conjectures, the changing twists between facts, values and discussions that make the space meaningful; to try to practice a geography based on a non absolute view of the places, but as an overlapping of different realities, characters and relationships. For these characteristics and due to its multimedia nature, the web-research is suitable for many applications both in the research and in the educational context, sharing with the other multimedia approaches the possibility to move to an active multimodality, focused on critical analysis, problem solving and group work, as well as on a higher emotional involvement than the traditional instruments. At the same time, it is an experimentation to be further fixed, discussed, and better defined, both from the point of view of research methodology and educational perspectives. Acknowledgements The Author would like to thank all the other components of the research team for the opportunity to participate in such a stimulating and innovative project and for their suggestions, support and constant understanding.

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5. Bignante E., “The use of photo-elicitation in field research”, EchoGéo, 11, 2010, http://echogeo.revues.org/11622. 6. Bignante E. and Rossetto T., “Metodi visuali per la formazione geografica”, in Giorda C. and Puttilli M. (Eds.), Educare al territorio, educare il territorio. Geografia per la formazione, Rome, Carocci, 2012, pp. 192-201. 7. Burke S., Snyder S. and Rager R.C., “An assessment of faculty usage of YouTube as a teaching resource”, The Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice, 7, 1, 2009, pp. 1-8. 8. Cadman L., “Nonrepresentational Theory / Nonrepresentational Geographies”, in Kitchin R. and Thrift N., “International Encyclopaedia of Human Geography”, Amsterdam, Elsevier, 2009, pp. 456-463. 9. Caquard S., “Cartography II: collective cartographies in the social media era”, Progress in Human Geography, 38, 1, 2014, pp. 141-150. 10. Chang C. and Chen Y., “A study of multimedia applications in education and training”, Computers and Industrial Engineering, 29, 1-4, 1995, pp. 103-107. 11. Derry S.J., Pea R.D., Barron B., Engle R.A., Erickson F., Goldman R., Hall R., Koschmann T., Lemke J.L., Sherin M.G. and Sherin B.L., “Conducting video-research in the learning sciences: guidance on selection, analysis, technology, and ethics”, The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 19, 2010, pp. 3-53. 12. Driver F., “On geography as a visual discipline”, Antipode, 35, 2, 2003, pp. 227231. 13. Favero P., “Getting our hands dirty (again): interactive documentaries and the meaning of images in the digital age”, Journal of Material Culture, 18, 3, 2013, pp. 259-277. 14. Ferreri E., “Don’t you know. They’re talking ‘bout a revolution. It sounds like a whisper. For an anthropological reading of the Arab Spring”, International Review of Sociology, 3, 3, 2013, pp. 699-710. 15. Garrett B.L., “Videographic geographies: using digital video for geographic research”, Progress in Human Geography, 35, 4, 2011, pp. 521-541.

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16. Gaudenzi S., “The i-Doc as a relational object”, http://i-docs.org/2011/09/08/the-idoc-as-a-relational-object/. 17. Gilroy M., “Higher education migrates to YouTube and social networks”, The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education, 19, 2009, pp. 12-14. 18. Giorda C., “L’educazione geografica. Competenze e conoscenze per affrontare le sfide del mondo contemporaneo”, in Santus D. (Ed.), Sappiamo ancora disegnare la terra? Geografia, didattica e ambiente, Turin, Stampatori, 2014. 19. Gobe E., “Dossier : Un printemps arabe ?”, L’Année du Maghreb, VIII, 2012. 20. Goldman R., Pea R., Barron B. and Derry S.J., Video research in the learning sciences, Erlbaum, Mahwah, 2007. 21. Governa F., “Oltre”, http://webdoc.unica.it/it /testi/oltre.pdf. 22. Greiner A.L., Dematteis G., Lanza C., Geografia umana. Un approccio visuale, Turin, UTET, 2012. 23. Hall T., “The camera never lies? Photographic research methods in human geography”, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 33, 3, 2009, pp. 453-462. 24. Han I., Eom M. and Shin W.S., “Multimedia case-based learning to enhance pre-service teachers’ knowledge integration for teaching with technologies”, Teaching and Teacher Education, 34, pp. 122-129. 25. Jacobson A.R., Militello R. and Baveye P.C., “Development of computer-assisted virtual field trips to support multidisciplinary learning”, Computer & Education, 52, 2009, pp. 571-580. 26. Jenner C., “Navigating distant worlds”, Glocal Times. The Communication for Development Journal, 20, 2014, http://ojs.ub. gu.se/ojs/index.php/gt/article/view/2870. 27. Latour B., Nous n’avons jamais été modernes: essai d’anthropologie symétrique, Paris, La Découverte, 1991. 28. Lazzari M., “Creative use of podcasting in higher education and its effect on competitive agency”, Computers & Education, 52, 2009, pp. 27-34. 29. MacLeod D., “A teacher’s perspective of geography: a school subject for today, tomorrow, and for all time”, The Geography Teacher, 11, 1, 2014, pp. 3-6. Copyright© Nuova Cultura

30. Maogoto J.N. and Coleman A., “The Arab Spring’s constitutional indigestion: has democracy failed in the middle east?”, Liverpool Law Review, 35, 2, 2013, pp. 105134. 31. Memoli M., “Controllo e desiderio”, http:// webdoc.unica.it/it/testi/controllo-medina.pdf. 32. Morgan J., “What do we mean by thinking geographically?”, in Lambert D. and Jones M. (Eds.), Debates in Geography Education, London, Routledge, 2013, pp. 273-281. 33. O’Flynn S., “Documentary’s metamorphic form: Webdoc, interactive, transmedia, participatory and beyond”, Studies in Documentary Film, 6, 2, 2012, pp. 141-157. 34. Porto M.D. and Belmonte I.A., “From local to global: visual strategies of glocalisation in digital storytelling”, Language & Communication, 39, 2014, pp. 14-23. 35. Puchot P., La Révolution confisquée: Enquête sur la transition démocratique en Tunisie, Arles, Sindbad, 2012. 36. Puttilli M., “L’altra faccia di Tunisi”, http://webdoc.unica.it/it/testi/altra-faccia.pdf. 37. Qingsong L., “The application of multimedia technology in web education”, Physics Procedia, 33, pp. 1553-1557. 38. Rocca L., “Educare all’e-participation”, in Giorda C. and Puttilli M. (Eds.), Educare al territorio, educare il territorio. Geografia per la formazione, Rome, Carocci, 2012, pp. 2012-223. 39. Rose G., “Teaching visualised geographies: towards a methodology for the intepretation of visual materials”, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 20, 3, 1996, pp. 281-294. 40. Rose G., Visual Methodologies: an Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials, London, Sage, 2007. 41. Ryan M.L., Narrative as virtual reality: immersion and interactivity in literature and electronic media, John Baltimore, Hopkins University Press, 2001. 42. Saïdi H., La Tunisie réinvente l’histoire: récits d'une révolution: Un passé troublé et un présent sous pression, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2011. 43. Shamai S. and Ilatov Z., “Measuring sense of place: methodological aspects”, Tidschrift voor economische en sociale geographie, 96, 5, pp. 467-476.

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44. Sinton D.S., “Roles for GIS within Higher Education”, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 33, 1, 2009, pp. 7-16. 45. Stainfield J., Fischer P., Ford B. and Solem M., “International virtual field trips: a new direction?”, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 24, 2, 2000, pp. 255-262. 46. Stoltman J., “Geography Education in the United States: Initiatives for the 21st century”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 2, 2013, pp. 5-9. 47. Tudor S. L., “The role of multimedia strategies in educational process”, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 78, 2013, pp. 682-686. 48. Tüzün H., Yilman-Soylu M., Karakuş T., Inal Y. and Kizilkaya G., “The effects of computer games on primary school students’ achievement and motivation in geography learning”, Computers & Education, 52, pp. 68-77. 49. Van der Schee J., “Geographical education in a changing world”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 0, 1, 2012, pp. 11-15.

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Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 3, Dec., 2014, pp. 61-71 DOI: 10.4458/4403-05

Is family farming educational? The Australian experience Simone Bettia, Alessandro Ceccarellib a

Dipartimento di Scienze della formazione, dei beni culturali e del turismo, University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy Dipartimento di Scienze agrarie, Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy Email: simone.betti@unimc.it

Received: November 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Accepted: November 2014

Abstract The Australian rural landscape has been changing throughout history since the first European settlement. The progressive expansion of agriculture in the past centuries is responsible for its modification and diversification. Family farming has a relevant role in the Australian agriculture and food production, however in the last decades it has been facing a consistent decline, primarily because of economic and climatic reasons. This paper aims to retrace the historical development of agriculture in Australia and to analyse the current situation of family farming, by reporting the tendencies and the changed features, the educational and social aspects, and the interaction with the rural landscape. According to our research it emerged that family farming has been one of the major keys of the agricultural sector development in Australia and was deeply affected through history by internal and external factors such as globalization, neoliberalism, immigration and climatic conditions. Nowadays family farming is pivotal in the interface connection between modern societies and rural environment. In fact it is also becoming an important component of national tourism, with the birth and development of agrotourisms and holiday farms which in the past years have accounted for a considerable percentage of visits both from international and national people.

Keywords: Australia, Family Farming, Geography of Agriculture, Green Tourism, Landscape, Education

1. Introduction The visual observation of the Australian rural landscape suggests that it is highly standardized. In fact the geomorphology of the Australian territory along with soil and climatic conditions produces a rural landscape with low variability, encompassing similar common features in large extensions. Agriculture in Australia is composed mainly of small businesses (Australian Bureau of StaCopyrightÂŠ Nuova Cultura

tistics, 2012b) of which a large number are family farms (Alston, 2004; Pritchard et al., 2007). It is reasonable to think that family farming played a pivotal role in the composition of the Australian landscape and in the structure of the rural society and economy. It is well known that family farms are defined as farms organized as sole proprietorship, partnership, or family-corporation where most of the production inputs, management and labor are Italian Association of Geography Teachers

Simone Betti, Alessandro Ceccarelli

provided by the farming family (Hoppe et al., 2007; Gasson and Errington, 1993; Johnsen, 2004). Family farming takes place on land owned and operated by family units, unlike share-cropping or corporate agriculture, in which land may be held by landlords and/or investors, but worked by some other group or individual (Pritchard et al., 2007). Focusing on the evolution of different types of family farming experience we will discuss the meaning of family farming in its educational aspects with particular regard to schools, leisure and tourism. To do so we used geographical and historical sources in order to evaluate how Australian family farming has changed over time in relation to the changes that have taken place in worldwide agriculture. Other sources of information utilized in this paper were provided by statistical bureaus, extension reports, referred papers from scientific journals, field research carried out in the past three years. It is important to underline that this work was triggered by the proposal by the United Nations to dedicate 2014 as the year of family farming. Australia has been actively involved in the last years in projects and activities aimed to improve the quality of life, health and wellbeing of the farming families, which nowadays present several points of weakness and therefore need careful social and political attention. An example of this was the “Year of the Farmer”, celebrated in Australia in 2012. The associated events aimed to establish closer links between Australia’s rural and urban communities, not only for the range and quality of Australian agricultural products, but also recognized its role in the cultural heritage of Australia.

2. The development of family farming in Australia In July 1789, about 18 months after the arrival of the First Fleet from England, Governor Arthur Phillip assigned 12 ha of land to the exconvict James Ruse at Rose Hill, in what is now known as Parramatta (Muir, 2001, p. 9; Lucchesi, 1988 and 1994). This was the location of Australia’s first wheat farm (Watkin, 1793). Crop development relied upon rainfall distribution and the temperate buffer between the 20 and 12 inch rainfall lines, known to separate the coastal areas from the semi-arid

zones (the latter to be known as the Goyder, drawn by South Australia’s surveyor-general, George W. Goyder in 1865) was suitable for cropping and became known as the wheat belt (Australian Government, 2013). In 1793, John and Elizabeth Macarthur received a grant of 100 acres of land near Parramatta and, using convict labour, established Elizabeth Farm (Lawrence and Davis, 2011). Wool production started in 1796, when John Macarthur bought his first merino sheep to Australia. In 1807, the Macarthurs sent their first bale of merino wool to England, becoming later pivotal for Australia’s wool industry (Ellis, 1955). Such was the importance of agriculture, particularly wool production, to Australia’s prosperity that the country was said to “ride on the sheep’s back” (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012a). From 1813 onwards a vast expanse of bush and grasslands had begun to be populated by new settlers, bringing their livestock to graze on the open plains (Flannery, 2010). In 1824, the Australian Agricultural Company was established through an Act of the British Parliament, with the right to select over 400,000 ha, from Port Stephens to the Manning River (New South Wales) for agricultural development (Australian Government, 2013). Cheap labour was sourced through convicts, Aboriginal workers and indentured labourers on seven-year contracts (Moore, 2000; Gammage, 2011). The extensive grasslands, open woodlands and abundant wildlife claimed by the Europeans for their pastoral opportunities has been described as The Biggest Estate on Earth by Bill Gammage (2011). Furthermore, huge areas of forest and scrub (land covered with low trees or shrubs) were cleared for pasture and crop farming along Australia’s coast and inland. By 1860, after 70 years of European farming settlement, there were 480,000 ha under crop and livestock numbers had increased to 25 million head (Hockman, 2012, p. 3). At the end of the 19th century Australia was emerging from the impact of two major depressions (in the 1880s and 1890s), and was in the grip of a severe drought. Despite this, Australian agriculture continued to develop and become characterised by great diversity, such as meat cattle, dairying, sugar cane and a wide range of horticultural crops. Science, inventions in machinery and experimentation in seed added millions of hectares to wheat farming in the low rainfall areas, reduced labour harvesting costs and

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made it possible to farm large land areas (Wells, 2013). From 1850 on Chinese people developed several market gardens across Australia to provide fresh vegetables to supply the diggers in the gold rush period. Between 1900 and 1920 the majority of vegetables grown in Western Australia were grown by Chinese market gardeners who relied on farming techniques practiced in China. Market gardens employed approximately half the total Chinese population in Western Australia. In 1901 there were 1,521 Chinese males and 18 Chinese females living in Western Australia. The 54% majority lived in the rural areas whilst 46% lived in the Perth metropolitan area (Atkinson, 1985). By the late 1920s the number of Chinese involved in the industry had declined due to Australia’s racist immigration restrictions. At the same time the arrival of Italian and Slav families in Spearwood, Osborne Park and Wanneroo saw a new migrant group active in the industry (Western Perspectives on a Nation, 2001). Costal agricultural areas with rich alluvial soils and an average rainfall of more than 20 inches developed smaller agricultural practices, such as timber, dairy, sugar, fruits and vegetables (Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology, 2014). These areas have a long history of settlement farmer occupation, and have contributed greatly to a variety of food regions and a wine industry. By 1900, greater diversity in agriculture had developed with beef and dairy cattle, and a wide range of grain, fruit and vegetable crops. Dairying and horticulture became the main industries of the coastal agricultural areas (Hobbs and McIntyre, 2005). The sugar cane industry in Queensland was established in the 1860s using Pacific Island labourers, known as Kanakas. Tens of thousands of Kanakas, some of whom were kidnapped from their island homes, worked under indentured labour schemes on the sugar plantations. By 1906, most of the 10,000 Pacific Islanders living in Queensland were repatriated under the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901. The plantations then became family farms (Moore, 2000). Government protection and subsidies were then provided to cover the costs of white labour. Following the deportation of the Pacific Island families newly arrived Italian and other European workers took Copyright© Nuova Cultura

up the opportunities to work on the sugar farms cutting cane, and worked hard to buy their own small farms. Australian agriculture continued to grow throughout the first half of the 1900s despite huge impacts from the Great Depression, and the First and Second World Wars. Following the First World War (1914-1918), there were numerous government marketing schemes for agricultural products which maintained high prices. These protection programs continued until the 1980s when the National Farmers’ Federation challenged the protective tariff policy. This eventuated in prices for agricultural products being directly related to the cycles of the international markets (National Farmers’ Federation, 2014). In 2012, Australia exported 60% of its agricultural products. Australia’s farm exports earned the country $32.5 billion in 2010-11, up from $32.1 billion in 2008-09, while the wider agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors earned the country $36.2 billion in exports (National Farmers’ Federation, 2012). Since the 1950s, international economic factors and changes in farming methods have led to a return of the larger farms of the mid 1800s, as more economically viable than small ones. From 1961 to 2001 the number of “commercial” farms in Australia almost halved, from around 200,000 to just over 100,000. Over the same period the average area of land operated by these farms increased by almost half from 2,800 hectares in 1961 to around 4,100 hectares in 2001 (Hopper et al., 2002, p. 495).

Figure 1. Fence for cows in a cattle farm, New South Wales.

While the average size of farms has increased, the number of farming families in Australia has steadily decreased (Australian Bureau of StaItalian Association of Geography Teachers

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tistics, 2012b; Australian Bureau of Statistics 2003; Pritchard et. al, 2007; Alston, 2004). In real terms, farm incomes rose more slowly than wages, and the movement away from the land continued, resulting in the proportion of the total employed males and females working on farms dropping from 19% in 1933 to 14% in 1954. As for previous years, these values do not include the contribution made to the industry by full blooded Aboriginal people, who contributed significantly to the cattle industry in Queensland and the Northern Territory (Gammage, 2011). While fewer people remained on the land, production increased, largely due to technological progress (Sheng, Zhao and Nossal, 2011). The growth of mechanisation in agriculture expanded at a considerable rate following the war, thanks both to improvements in technology and supplies. The number of tractors on rural holdings rose from around 42,000 in 1939 to 202,000 in 1956, almost fourfold, whereas between 1938-39 and 1955-56 the number of rural holdings fell slightly, from 254,000 to 253,000 (Year Book Australia, 2000, n. 82). The other notable feature of Australian agriculture at the end of the 20th century is the declining importance of small farm operators. Roughly half the farm establishments contribute less than 20% of commodity output. In many of the major broad acre crops (wheat, barley, grain sorghum, lupines, etc.), the contribution of half the establishments is well under 10%, as it is for the dairy industry (PricewaterhouseCoopers Industry, 2011). At the start of the century the State Governments were attempting, through closer settlement schemes, to get more population onto the land and to create a small farmer class. At the end of the century, farm economics result in the opposite. The small farms are giving way to larger and more viable economic farm units. In 1996-97, about onetenth of farm businesses were responsible for almost half of farm business turnover and cash operating surplus (Year Book Australia, 2000, n. 82, p. 449). Many modern individual family farmers find that they struggle to make a profit and some are forced to find extra work off the farm to supplement the farm income (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012b). Succession is now a priority business issue for farmers. Approximately one third of all farmers are women (Australian Government, 2013).

Figure 2. Retrieving cows from grazing, New South Wales.

While Australian farmers have enjoyed periods of economic boom and prosperity, they have also experienced times of extreme hardship, brought about by an unreliable climate and volatile market forces. Currently, with Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s high exposure to international markets (Kimura and AntĂłn, 2011), and a domestic environment in which farmers are expected to operate without government assistance, many farmers are experiencing financial pressure to restructure their operations. This will require, in many cases, a change in the mix of activities on farms, and even an expansion into new agricultural industries. While innovation, planning and hard work will improve the circumstances of many individual farmers, agriculture is unlikely to again reach the prominent place it held in the Australian economy up to forty years ago (Wells, 2013).

3. Tendencies and impacts of Australian family farming Relevant agricultural producing areas worldwide are strongly related to family-oriented activities. This paragraph aims to analyse the current tendencies and impacts of the family farming activities in Australia in comparison with other important agricultural areas in the world, pointing out the evolution trends throughout the past decade, the types of productions and the distribution within the territory. The rural landscape is undeniably a characterizing element of the Australian territory and is regulated by different aspects, notably the crop distribution, the cultural production techniques, the degree of specialization, the farm

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dimension, and furthermore the type of farming business. Given that the landscape can be understood and read as a document attesting the manipulation of the territory operated by groups of people, who consider it more of a pure social product (Betti, 2014, p. 69), we will compare the Australian family farming with other three agricultural realities of impact in the world (European Union, United States, and Brazil). In the European Union (EU), for example, sole-holder family farms accounted for 85% of all farms, covering 68% of total utilized agricultural area and representing 71% of total standard output in 2010 (Davidova and Thomson, 2014). Moreover, in 2010, 78% of the total agricultural labour force came from farm holders or members of their families (EUROSTAT, 2014). Agriculture in the United States is mainly represented by family farms as well, accounting for 98% of the total farms in 2004, ranging from small retirement and residential farms to large enterprises (Hoppe et al., 2007). In Australia, according to the 2010-11 Agricultural Census there were 135,000 farm businesses, mainly engaged in beef cattle farming (Figures 1 and 2), dairy cattle farming, sheep farming, grain growing, or a mixture of two or more of these activities (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012a). The agricultural commodities with the highest value of production by Australian farmers have been meat from cattle and calf, followed by wheat, milk, vegetables, fruit and nuts, sheep and lamb meat, and wool (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012a). As a main feature, farms in Australia have traditionally been family businesses, representing around 69% of the total farms (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012b) mainly focused in the sector of broad acre and dairy production (Garnaut and Lim-Applegate, 1998; Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2003), whilst more specific agricultural industries such as cotton, viticulture, poultry and hogs are generally corporate-owned (Tonts et al., 2003). The majority of family-owned properties are in New South Wales (31% of all family-owned farms), Queensland (28%) and Victoria (26%), whereas the corporate properties are mainly in Queensland (40% of all corporate properties) and the Northern Territory (32%) (Suttie et al., 2005). Farms are mainly located in regional and remote areas, with only a small percentage of CopyrightÂŠ Nuova Cultura

farmers living in metropolitan areas (Ollenburg, 2006), as depicted in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Cattle farm in the remote countryside of New South Wales.

The Australian agricultural territory is divided into pastoral zone, wheat and sheep zone, high rainfall zone according to the agricultural system adopted and differ in the manner in which land and resources are used and the commodities produced (McIvor, 2005). These areas have different climate and growing conditions, soil type, topography, markets, distance to markets, labour availability (Suttie et al., 2005). According to Suttie et al. (2005) the different agricultural zones are distributed and characterized as following: the pastoral zone includes the arid and semi-arid regions and most of the northern tropical areas where agricultural land use is characterized by extensive grazing of native vegetation and some cultivated crops, but it is impractical on most properties because of scarce rainfall. Corporate property ownership is more important than in the other two zones. The wheat and sheep zone has climate and topography that generally allows regular cropping of grains in addition to the grazing of sheep and cattle on a more intensive basis than in the pastoral zone. Lastly the high rainfall zone forms the greater part of the coastal belt and adjacent tablelands of the three eastern mainland states, small areas in south-eastern South Australia and south-western Western Australia, and the whole of Tasmania (Figure 4). Production of fine wool, prime lambs and beef are important in these wetter areas (Figure 5). Farm sizes range from small, often part-time operations, to large enterprises of more than 5000 ha.

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Figure 4. Rural landscape on the south-eastern coast of Tasmania.

Moreover, it is significant to point out that peri-urban regions play an important role in Australian agriculture. Peri-urban regions are those superficially rural districts within the sphere of influence of adjacent urban centres, also referred to as “exurban” regions, the “ruralurban fringe” or “the fringe” (McKenzie, 1996). A study carried out by Houston (2005) suggested that peri-urban regions comprise a little less than 3% of the total land base used for agriculture in the five mainland States, but generate almost 25% of the total Gross Value of Agricultural Production. In Australia, for many decades, the total agricultural production has constantly risen (Gray and Lawrence, 2001), but the country faced a decline in the number of farmers of 40% in the last 30 years up to 2011 (average rate of 294 fewer farmers per month), and fewer young people take over family farms (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012b). An opposite situation in which family farms have increased over the last few years is represented by Brazil. According to the 2006 census, there were 5.2 million agricultural holdings, which had increased about 7.1% from 1996, and the percentage of family labor in all agricultural holdings also increased by about 2.1% (Schneider and Niederle, 2010). As Alston (2004) points out, this decline in Australian farming is consequent to the reluctance of corporations to make large investment in the sector, due to the frequent adverse climatic conditions. In fact Australia has a highly variable climate, which is considered one of the major sources of risks for agriculture (Kingwell et al., 2013; Loch, 2012; Kimura and Antón, 2011) due to frequent extreme phenomena including

droughts, floods, tropical cyclones, severe storms and bushfires (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012a). Periods of droughts have a big impact on Australian farming, notably the decline of 15% in farming workforce in just 12 months in the 200203 drought (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012b). In order to facilitate family farming and the market relation with the rural economy, past governments enforced several actions including low priced water, investments in roads and dams, subsidies in telecommunications and free access to advisory services by the Department of Agriculture (Pritchard et al., 2007). The paring back of these arrangements in the 1980s and 1990s (Pritchard et al., 2007), globalization and neoliberalism together with the changing commitments of Australians toward traditional agriculture (Alston, 2004) contributed to such family farming decline.

Figure 5. Pastures for cattle grazing, Victoria.

The average agricultural production no longer represented a secure way of profit and farmers had to adapt, by expanding their farm, moving to specialized crops and livestock, selling land, machinery and stock, seeking employment off-farm or through on-farm diversification (Ollenburg, 2006). Agro-tourism and food tourism represented a positive on-farm diversification (Ecker et al., 2010) in order to supplement the farm income (Connors, 1997).

4. Educational and social aspects of Australian farming Additionally to the role played by family farming on the structuring of the Australian landscape we consider it particularly relevant to

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analyse the social and educational aspects of this and other agricultural practices. Among the social aspects, we focused mainly in the composition of the farming family, the roles of the family components, the education and wellbeing of the family often affected by the difficulties between rural areas and cities. As previously mentioned, family farming relies upon the agricultural labour mainly done by the family and its components. In Australia men made up the majority (72%) of farmers in 2011, while women accounted for a sizable minority (28%) of the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s farming workforce (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012b). The proportion of female farmers has fallen slightly in recent decades, but in other occupations it has increased. In fact in 2011, around 35,100 women had a job outside the farm, helping supplement farm income while also supporting the operation of the farm through other means including unpaid domestic work (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012b). Another family characterizing aspect is that young would-be farmers have difficulties in entering farming (Barr et al., 2005) because it is often seen as an activity based on poor returns (Stayner, 1997) where monotony characterizes the country life (Monticone, 1913) and greater opportunities are perceived in the modern economy as well as an improved quality of social life in metropolis (Barr et al., 2005). The health and wellbeing of the farming family is another important social aspect related to the distribution of the farms in the territory and the availability of services. A study carried out by Brumby et al. (2009) revealed that the farming sectors have significant health issues related to access to services and information that place their health, wellbeing and safety at risk. Men and women are reluctant to report issues (such as body pain) that affect their work, and they are often content to continue with an ailment for long periods. Brumby et al. (2009) also reports that rural populations experience above average rates of premature mortality through heart disease, cancer and suicide. Suicide rates for men are higher in rural and remote centres across most age groups whilst for women this is true for the 30-44 year-old age group (Caldwell et al., 2004). Due to these considerations, farming families should be recognised as a population in need of social and political attention (Brumby et al., 2009) CopyrightÂŠ Nuova Cultura

Taking into account farm education, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2012b) reports that the level of education of Australian farmers has remarkably increased in the last decades. For example in the period from 1981 to 2011 the proportion of Australian farmers with no school qualifications more than doubled, (from 15% to 38%), those with a certificate-level qualification doubled and the proportion with a bachelor degree or above increased six-fold (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012b). Nevertheless, personnel with specific skills in agriculture is still needed. In recent times the agricultural industry has been subject to setbacks by the difficulties in finding suitably qualified personnel for employment opportunities such as agronomists but the demand is widespread across agricultural disciplines (Pratley and Leigh, 2008). Around twelve universities are offering agricultural study courses in Australia but the number of graduated students is not filling the agricultural sector requirements (Pratley and Leigh, 2008). The last social aspect considered in this article is rural tourism (Figure 6), which is believed to be pivotal in making Australians aware of agriculture and farming.

Figure 6. Vineyard in the Yarra Valley (Victoria). The Yarra Valley is a famous area for wine tasting, vineyards and tours of wineries.

As previously mentioned, agro-tourism offered the farming family opportunities for onfarm diversification, thus offering the visitors a chance for education and training (Figure 7). Examples of farm activities offered by the farms to visitors are: milking cows, collecting eggs, hand feeding a wide range of animals, hand-led pony rides, targeting mainly families with small children (Ollenburg, 2006).

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Such visits to working farms included the familiarization with a homestead, a shearing shed, the machinery sheds and other areas of interest (Connors, 1997). Federal government and state governments have actively promoted rural tourism in the past years, including the giving of support to local authorities to promote rural tourism (Connors, 1997). In 2010, for example, there were 569,000 international visitors (10% of international visitor arrivals) who visited Australian farms, mainly for holiday purposes (60%) or for educational purposes: 15% of all international visitors who visited Australia for educational purposes (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012c). International visitors comprise also travellers who are in Australia for working and holiday purposes utilizing the Working holiday visa. In the last years this visa has represented an important opportunity for international tourists (aged between 18 and 30) to visit and experience Australia. The visa gives travellers from 19 countries the right to work and travel in Australia for up to 12 months. It is important to point out that an extension of a second 12 month visa is available for those who have worked in specified industries such as agriculture, horticulture, mining, construction and fishing, in regional Australia for a specific time. According to Tan et al. (2009) “Agriculture, forestry and fishing” was the second industry that employed working holiday travellers.

Figure 7. Agro-tourism in the Canungra Valley. Vineyards and homestead of the O’Reilly family. Source: http://www.discovertamborine.com.au.

5. Conclusions In this paper we have analysed the close links between family farming and the Australian landscape composition with the related educational and social aspects. What emerged is that family farming in Australia has been strongly affected over the years by political and economic changes in the world, and hence in constant evolution. These changes, combined with the Australian geographical features and climate conditions, were responsible for structuring the Australian rural scene and society. Nowadays, as far as the situation of family farming is concerned, consistent intellectual effort has been focusing on its future development and on how new rural economies, populations, social institutions, cultures, and land use will interact with family farming. A new season for Australian family farms is possible. “Rural” should not be synonymous with isolation, segregation, and social disadvantage anymore. In order to do that, “rural” must become a social, economic, and territorial system, wherein inter-territorial integration with urban areas and the complementarity of roles should be the basis of its development. Respecting its specificity, Australian agriculture should also be integrated with the Australian public and private services industry, tourism, and education system. Undoubtedly, rural tourism, represented by agrotourisms, didactic farms or similar activities aiming to achieve a more multi-functional agriculture, should be supported and improved. Besides this in-farm diversification is also a potential way to economically sustain farmers against droughts and other severe climatic events. Since Australian farm families are increasingly relying on off-farm employment, the economic success of these rural communities will depend on the development of new economic engines. A place-based approach to rural policies, according to the “new rural” paradigm, is required. A shift from a sectorial to a territorial policy approach is desirable, including attempts to integrate sector-based policies at regional and local levels and to improve co-ordination of sectorial policies at the central government level. To do so, among the many ways of educating people to use and to look after the territory, a pivotal role should be given to its knowledge. Therefore, every educational activity is an opportunity to develop an agreement for appraising the

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human and environmental resources of the territory, and its cultural heritage. In such a scenario Australian family farming will have to play a main role. A much more complex function than the one of the specialized, basically intensive production, intended for the world market. It must become multipurpose and multifunctional, increasing its awareness of being a natural, social, human and artificial capital, a wealth in terms of defining the development of a territory or a country. A master of landscapes. Acknowledgements

10.

11.

Even if the paper was devised together by the Authors, S. Betti wrote paragraphs 1 and 2, A. Ceccarelli wrote paragraphs 3 and 4.

12. References 1. Alston M., “Who is down on the farm? Social aspects of Australian agriculture in the 21st century”, Agriculture and Human Values, 21, 1, 2004, pp. 37-46. 2. Ashton P., Australian Farming Through 200 Years (in Pictures), Kenthurst, Kangaroo Press, 1988. 3. Atkinson A., “Early Chinese in Western Australia”, Chung Wah 75th Anniversary Magazine 1910-1985, 1985, http://chungwah.org.au/documents/early_chinese.pdf. 4. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Official Year Book of Australia, Canberra, Nos. 57 to 69. 5. Australian Bureau of Statistics, “Year Book Australia”, Canberra, Nos. 70 to 81, http://www.abs.gov.au/. 6. Australian Bureau of Statistics, “Australian Social Trends – Living arrangements: Farming families”, 2003, http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.ns f/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/ cdcd7dca1f3ddb21ca2570eb00835393! OpenDocument. 7. Australian Bureau of Statistics, “Year Book Australia- Farming in Australia”, 2012a, http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/ abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/1301.0 ~2012~Main%20Features~Farming%20 in%20Australia~207. 8. Australian Bureau of Statistics, “Australian Social Trends – Australian Farming and Farmers”, 2012b, Copyright© Nuova Cultura

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19. Ecker S., Clarke R., Cartwright S., Kancans R., Please P. and Binks B., Drivers of regional agritourism and food tourism in Australia, Canberra, ABARE-BRS, 2010. 20. Ellis M.H., John Macarthur, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1955. 21. EUROSTAT, “Farm structure and statistics 2014”, 2014, http://epp.euro stat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/ext ensions/EurostatPDFGenerator/getfile.p hp?file=151.42.47.153_1415827812_65. pdf. 22. Flannery T., The Explorers, Melbourne, The Text Publishing House, 2010. 23. Gammage B., The Biggest Estate on Earth. How Aborigines made Australia, Crows Nest, Allen & Unwin, 2011. 24. Garnaut J. and Lim-Applegate H., People in Farming, ABARE Research Report 98.6, Canberra, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Economics, 1998. 25. Gasson R. and Errington A., The Farm Family Business, Wallingford, CAB International, 1993. 26. Gray I. and Lawrence G., A Future for Regional Australia: Escaping Global Misfortune, Oakleigh, Cambridge University Press, 2001. 27. Hockman B., “The Evolution of Agricultural Statistics in Australia” Asia and Pacific Commission on Agricultural Statistics, 2012, http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/ess/ess_test_folder/Wo rkshops_Events/APCAS_24/APCAS-225_-_Evolution_of_Ag_Statistics_in_ Australia__2_.pdf. 28. Hobbs R.J. and McIntyre S., “Categorizing Australian landscapes as an aid to assessing the generality of landscape management guidelines”, Global Ecology and Biogeography, 14, 1, 2005, pp. 115. 29. Hoppe R.A., Korb P.J., O’Donoghue E.J. and Banker D.E., Structure and finances of US farms: family farm report (No. 59032), Washington, United States Department of Agriculture – Economic Research Service, 2007. 30. Hooper S., Martin P., Love G. and Fisher B.S., “Farm Size and Productivity. Where are the trends taking us?”,

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THE LANGUAGE OF IMAGES Edited by Elisa Bignante and Marco Maggioli

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 3, Dec., 2014, pp. 75-84 DOI: 10.4458/4403-06

Exploring Urban Geography in Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities Rickie Sandersa, Bogdan Jankowskib a

Department of Geography and Urban Studies, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA Independent social scientist, University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland Email: rsanders@temple.edu

Received: October 2014 – Accepted: October 2014

Abstract This paper builds on previous work that explored the contribution of photography to teaching urban geography (Sidaway, 2002; Hall, 2009; Sanders, 2007; Rose, 2006). That work focused on how photography could be used to acquaint university students with the skill of “directed observation”. It argued that teaching geography with photography is not merely asking students to go into the field and take pictures but rather, it is to sensitize them to the process of looking with intention (Sanders, 2007) and appreciating what the camera sees. While the picture taker decides what to photograph and which perspective to capture; the camera’s eye behaves as a curious child whose eye catches a glimpse of everything. Here, we explore a different concern driven by the desire to extend the reach of the photograph beyond where it uncomfortably resides (as one of several tools in a large established toolkit of visual methods (Becker, 2004; Brown, 2011; Harper, 2002; Pauwels, 2010; Pink, 2003; Baetens, 2009) and deploy it as a medium of translation – enabling students to “see” written texts that may be difficult, uninteresting, incomprehensible, or cognitively “invisible”. We refer to this translation, unpacking, or decoding as re-presenting text (Hall, 2010). Re-presenting and interpreting what we read is the essence of building knowledge (Hibbing and Rankin-Erickson, 2003). Accordingly, while camera technology can certainly be used to capture the landscape as it is a receptacle for human ideas and will, we suggest here that it can also be a medium of translation-an intermediary between the landscape of action and the topography of consciousness. In our view this interpretative element that the photograph provides; transforming and visually representing text is as important – if not more – than the act of actually taking the picture. We use the book Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino as fodder for making our case. This process is not unlike what has been referred to in other fields as active learning (Prince, 2004); subjective semiotics (Krogstie et al., 2006); knowledge building (Scardamalia and Bereiter, 2006); and re-engineering (Buchanan, 1998). Keywords: Urban Geography, Photography, Re-presenting Text, Italo Calvino, Geography Education

1. Introduction “Images… once they are fixed in words, are erased. On the other hand, once you have seen what the words say, it is impossible to unsee”.

As noted, we use Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities as our textual playground to demonstrate how the photo can be used to portray, interpret and represent written texts. We deploy a Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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carefully selected group of photos to capture critical elements of specific text. What makes the enterprise valid and successful is the extent to which the photos, if viewed independently as parallel text give rise to the ideas expressed in the written text. This process is mental work, similar to that which accompanies the process of gaining literacy in mathematics or chemistry – recognizing the “right” signs that realize the abstract notions expressed on the page. We also use Calvino’s work because of the provocativeness of the title. Invisible Cities enticed us but as we learned later, Calvino was a true lover of cities – a dreamer of how cities could be and whose dreams often directed the words he put on the page. Thus we are privy to something other than an author’s desire to offer information and explanation. We begin by exploring some of the literature that frames our thinking. This includes semiotics (De Anker, 2012; Cunningham, 2007; Duits, 2012); visual studies (Harper, 2002; Spencer, 2010), artificial intelligence (Davis et al., 1993; Ricoeur, 1991), geography (Sidaway, 2002; Sanders, 2007; Rose, 2006; Rose 2008) and education-particularly reading comprehension (Stokrocki, 1983; Bustle, 2004); Hibbing and Rankin-Erickson, 2003). The common theme running throughout is a concern with representation as a means of understanding how we make meaning and construct knowledge. These ideas are the basis for our assertion that photographs as interpretative devices that represent knowledge can indeed be used to translate written text and thus are essential in knowledge building. Semioticians, designers, artists, and scholars interested in artificial intelligence all rely on signs and codes, going so far as to argue that the world we inhabit is made up of entirely of signs and these speak more than facts (Lurie and Mason, 2007). Active reading, the process under scrutiny here is the practice of simultaneously coding, decoding and encoding. Some would suggest that without the creative, visual activity that asks us to “see” what is on the page and compels our mind’s eye to bring forth images, no understanding can take place. Understanding or misunderstanding what we read owes as much to our willingness to imagineer as it does to the power of the author to evoke imagination. Semioticians (Duits, 2012) Copyright© Nuova Cultura

debate whether or not the foundations of meaning making are structural or subjective. They contend that semiotic analysis has relied too heavily on the role of structuralism in accounting for understanding. What has been lacking (though not fully developed as yet) is a basic existential semiotic analysis that considers the “subjective” experience. “Meaning is not actual or capable of being deployed in the interpretation of signs without understanding and understanding is a cognitive event that takes place within one’s mind (Duits, 2012; Krogstie et al., 2006). Thinking about understanding in this way is insightful. It means that understanding is difficult to investigate (Duits, 2012). However, that is not a reason not to investigate it. Geography is indeed a discipline that is interdisciplinary and informed by curiosity and the ability to synthesize myriad practices and knowledges borrowed from a wide range of scholarship, institutions, and countries. After this, we delve into the truly difficult, and according to Gore Vidal, “the perfectly irrelevant”, task of describing Invisible Cities. As a backdrop to our thinking, we reflect on Calvino’s assertion that a book is a universe where a reader must enter, walk around, and even loose oneself; but ultimately have the possibility to find an exit or even several exits (Viesel, 2002). In this way, Invisible Cities the book is itself like a city simultaneously a product of spatial imagination and the imaginative space of the mind. Ultimately we use this section to suggest that the cities described in the book provide us with the essential nature and destiny of all cities. Finally we provide the visual accompaniment to our work – photographs that we put forth as re-presenting and translating selected passages in Invisible Cities. By attaching these images to selected text from Invisible Cities we construct a parallel text (Viesel, 2002) and engage in the act of putting flesh on the imaginations of Calvino and the dialogue he fabricates between the Emperor Khan and the explorer Marco Polo1. He 1

According to Fan Shen (1989) the idea of attaching images to text is an ancient approach (yijing) which existed in China for many centuries and is still widely discussed. It is the process of creating a pictorial environment while reading a piece of literature. It is Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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links the past and the present and portrays the character and essence of cities as more than material spaces but as sites of our emotional, psychological, and intellectual lives; our hopes, desires, and fears, independent of the peculiarities of time and space. Indeed our photos aim to portray the city as both muse and protagonist asking us to ponder its enduring existence and essential qualities in our imagination and in our photos.

2. Meaning making and semiotics: “seeing, re-presenting and understanding” what we read “Meaning does not become functional without an act of understanding”.

The photograph is but one of a large number of visual mechanisms that contribute to meaning-making and knowledge representation. Not unlike other epistemological approaches that favor ways of knowing based on qualitative (thought to be less replicable) methods, its use in the classroom is very controversial. Much of the controversy centers on whether or not it constitutes a valid, “scientific” research method (Wagner, 1979; Rose, 2006). According to critical theorists, the major shortcoming of the photograph is that it says more about the picture taker than the picture (Rose, 2006). The camera does not act; it has no agency. It is the picture taker who decides what to photograph and which perspective to capture. Our opposition to this is not just the analytical paralysis and frustration associated with “no exit,” but that it runs the risk of depriving the photograph of any potential it might have in the creating knowledge in the classroom. Sociologists and anthropologists (Becker, 2004; Harper, 2002; Pink 2003) suggest that these tensions have created an ever widening gulf between the theoretical/interpretive work independent of the text it is associated with. It is both creative and critical – the process of inducing oneself to create mental pictures in order to reach a unity of nature, the author, and the reader. This nonverbal pictorial exercise is not a process of logical thinking in the Western tradition which involves moving from premises to conclusion. It involves creation on the reader’s part (Shen, 1989). Copyright© Nuova Cultura

undertaken by those engaged in critical reflection and those engaged in the realist practice of actually doing photography. It seems that when the emphasis shifts to the interpretative and evocative qualities of the photograph, interest in doing photography is pushed to a back burner. The result is that photography takes a back seat to other methods of visualization, geovisualization. These discussions are dominated by 3 groups – those who see the limitless potential and legitimacy of photography (and the photograph), those who view it as excessively subjective and arbitrary, and a much smaller, but very passionate group who just love “doing” photography, do it well, and with great success! Aside from the controversy around theoretical/interpretative vs. realist/practice, another discussion hinges on how the photograph can (and should) be used in meaning making; is it the photograph itself that is meaningful – as an artifact situated in a larger socio-cultural context or is it a receptacle for content that renders understanding. Third, there is considerable discussion over how it is read. In other words, what knowledge does it provide? What questions does it prompt? What is it possible to know by re-presenting knowledge through photographs? These questions speak to the issue of whether or not the photograph is a realist document, an iconic document, or an evocative document. For a thoughtful, wellreasoned discussion of this highly charged issue, see Sturken and Cartwright (2001). Beyond these questions, there is the question of how it contributes to knowledge. How does it make meaning and provide understanding. And assuming that it does, how do we evaluate its contribution? It is the latter set of concerns that interest us here. Artificial intelligence, semiotics, computer programming, design studies, education (reading and art education) and visual sociology are helpful. When knowledge is re-presented visually, the cognitive load of meaning making shifts away from that part of the brain that engages in logical-rule, language-based reasoning to another part that draws on the human perceptual, sense-making system. This perceptual system is constituted by visual and spatial skills that have developed over the course of human evolution, Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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e.g. ability to recognize patterns, detect things that stand out, respond to variations in color, shape, and (dis)continuity (Kosslyn, 1980). Researchers at AT&T labs have developed computer software (WordsEye: An Automatic Text-to-Scene Conversion System) that converts written text into representative 3D (animation) scenes. The program “provides a blank slate where the user can literally paint a picture” based on words on a page (Coyne and Sproat, 2001). They employ a set of “depiction rules” that convert the words into a set of “depictors” representing objects, poses, spatial relations, color attributes, etc.2. While the computer program does indeed provide a way to code based on visual features such as color and texture and can succeed in making words visible, it is unable to represent abstract concepts and emotions, e.g. cold, fear, love, desire, anger, curiosity. Human language is so abstract and contains so many subtleties; it is doubtful it will ever be possible for computer programs to fully re-present words in images. Arguably however this is something a photograph(er) can do. Charles Mendelsund when interviewed about his recent book, What we See When we Read, remarked that when reading one becomes aware of the white page and the black marks on it; but that’s… a neutral experience. There is “something” beyond the veil. According to him, going beyond the veil is how we arrive at meaning. “…with music you have a direct sensory input, the sound of the notes. . . with the visual arts (e.g. photography-insertion mine) or dance or architecture you have a direct visual apprehension of the thing that you’re looking at, but with text the sensory information is… limited” (Mendelsund, 2014, p. 3). What this may suggest is that the importance of the photograph for translating and interpreting knowledge does not rest solely on its being precise but rather in the act of thinking about what the text is saying. The essence of meaning making/understanding/knowledge is its ability to 2

For example, “a pose can be loosely defined as a character in a configuration suggestive of a particular action” fighting, running, climbing, or sitting.

support the combined actions of interpreting and producing a re-presentation. In this line of thinking, knowledge is not found in passive presentations of information (e.g. text). Text alone lacks the ability to support action and thus is not meaningful (Krogstie et al., 2006). Only when interpreted and re-presented, does it contribute to knowledge. Education researchers support this and classroom studies have shown that students who are unable to form mental images and re-present what they read suffer from a lack of reading comprehension (Hibbing and Rankin-Erickson, 2003). Classroom teachers seem to understand that images have become a ubiquitous and influential aspect society today (in the form of television, film, advertisements and other mass media). They actively explore ways to incorporate visual representations in their classrooms. The difficulty they run into is recent trends in standardized testing that have not kept pace and have promoted traditional ways of teaching and learning (Bustle, 2004). In part this results from the issue noted previously – failure to fully understand how the visual makes meaning and produces knowledge and understanding. Here, we turn to the work of computer programmers interested in artificial intelligence. Much (some would say all) of the information we receive is symbolic – numbers and texts. What we do when we visually represent information is engage in intelligent reasoning based on perceptual sense-making and visual stimuli (Lurie and Mason, 2007). In other words, we: (a) provide something that is a substitute for the thing itself (the “something” may be material or abstract/conceptual) – we cannot capture the limitless complexity of the real world and therefore must lie, by omission at least; (b) support an ontological commitment (in what terms should I think about the world?) – this means making a decision of what to focus on and what to ignore, keeping in mind that all re-presentations are imperfect; (c) engage in thought (intelligent reasoning) that results in sanctioning and recommending a set of inferences. There is no Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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one correct answer to what constitutes intelligent reasoning. In general, it should be intuitively satisfying, explicit, precise, and the output of accumulated experience; (d) organize information to take action or facilitate making the recommended inferences, and (e) engage in human expression (Davis, Shrobe and Szolovits, 1993). Clearly then re-presenting knowledge can not only be subjective, imperfect, but disappointing. Mendelsund observes the “weird revulsion that we feel toward bearing witness to the reality behind a work of fiction. It’s disappointing to have something rendered that existed purely metaphysically before, and was special because of that”. Despite this, we can still think about how to re-present (Heidegger, 1996).

3. Invisible Cities-the book “…however the city may really be, beneath this thick coating of signs . . . you leave. . . without having discovered it”.

One might conjecture that the city and life in the city is changing dramatically because of the massive demographic, economic, and cultural transformations underway. Interestingly however, a close examination of the images attached to the city and life in cities do not bear this out; rather what we see is often a recycling of the predictable array of metaphors – a jungle, a labyrinth, a cesspool, a spectacle, a machine, an arena, a nightmare, an urban village, or a cesspool – or other depictions that are comfortable skimming the surface. And yet, in spite of this, the city continues to be a focus for scholarly examination and analysis; pregnant with possibility and fullness. Invisible Cities is a novel. It does not deal with recognizable cities – not Cortazar’s Paris or E. B. White’s New York. The cities in the book are all inventions (and all named after women). In an interview shortly before he died, Calvino remarked that the descriptions contained in the book were intended to give rise to reflections which hold for all cities or for the city in general (Calvino, 1983).

He himself singled the book out as the most satisfying of all his work because it allowed him to concentrate on an image of timelessness and inherent complexity. As a result, he has been described as “extraordinarily successful in his unmistakable contemporariness” (Ragusa, 1983). As further proof of its eternal appeal, Invisible Cities continues to receive attention from scholars in a range of fields – architecture, critical theory, geography, art, sociology, and planning. As recently as last year, it was acknowledged as the inspiration for Sacro GRA a documentary film directed by Gianfranco Rosi that depicted life along the Grande Raccordo Anulare (GRA), the ring-road highway that circles Rome3. The text is also lauded as a geography of tensions between the new and the past… the invisible and the unlivable (Chiesa, 2006). Like the work of Bruno (2002), it is seen as a new genre of narrative in which geography is not a cold scientific discipline but rather is in a relationship with psychology and emotion, and except for its avowed rejection of politics, Invisible Cities can be seen as an example of psychogeography. The book chronicles conversations between the aging Emperor Kublai Khan and the youthful explorer Marco Polo where the latter recounts stories and tales of his experiences travelling to 55 cities in Khan’s empire. These short dialogues are provocateurs extraordinaire in their imaginative potential. They are written with a power that allows the reader to feel the rhythm of the city; to grab hold and ride the crest of Polo’s memories and experience the visceral sensations. One can almost taste the roasting cat meat, smell the cornucopia of ginger, nutmeg, and raisins and hear the noises in the marketplaces. Calvino’s work is also noteworthy because of its association with the school of literary work known as Oulipo. The Oulipo movement was a loosely organized gathering of writers and mathematicians who used words and the alphabet to establish patterns and structures that would reveal things that were unanticipated. For those associated with the Oulipo movement, 3

Sacro GRA was the first ever documentary film to win the Golden Lion at the 70th Venice International Film Festival. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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writing was a pleasurable activity and the pleasure was to be found in creating structural puzzles and underlying relationships which would set literary boundaries and create something else that could be seen only as a result of solving the structural puzzles4. This is important here because the Oulipo School was a predecessor of the situationist movement that aimed to create situations and circumstances that would force individuals to critically examine their everyday lives and look beneath the obvious. Thus, the Oulipo movement is also linked to psychogeography. Invisible Cities is divided into 9 chapters. Each chapter begins and ends with a dialogue between the Kahn and Polo, 18 in total. Within each chapter there are descriptions of a select number of the 55 cities and each description focuses on one of 11 themes-cities and memory, cities and desire, cities and signs, trading cities, thin cities, cities and eyes, cities and names, cities and the dead, cities and the sky, continuous cities, and hidden cities. In relating the information he gleaned from his travels around Khan’s empire, the young Polo played a game of charades and improvised pantomimes for the entertainment of the Khan. Each understood the other through visual recognition of gestures and objects. Each charade conjured up an image – a perception of place shaped by memory and desire, as well as by history and language. It soon became clear that each of the fantastic places Polo described was really the same place. Calvino’s “sguardo” in Invisible Cities has been described as myopic – precise when applied to close observation but becoming unfocused as it tries to take in a broad view. Mee (2005) suggests that the visual occupies a central place in Invisible Cities – both in its lack of clarity and focus and at the same time, its acute accuracy of detail. In every interaction between Polo and the Khan, it is the visual which is the center of the experience – 4

In Calvino’s work the number of letters in each of the chapter titles when counted and graphed resemble the repetitive variation associated with an oscillating sine wave or a city’s skyline. Similarly when cities are listed by chapter number and chapter title, they resemble a set of points around a line where the chapter title is directly proportional to the chapter number.

without seeing and drawing interpretations from what each other sees, communication would be impossible. Calvino declared that… the visible is a way of knowing the world but serves as a foundation for questions rather than a way of finding answers; travel is good only for the eyes. In addition to emphasizing the importance of the visual, some (Pilz, 2003) have noted that the dialogue between Polo and the Khan is a form of mapping an epistemological terrain. The Khan and Polo have two diametrically opposed approaches to knowledge and understanding – Khan is rational and ordered while Polo is lyrical and playful. Polo’s whimsical accountings nonetheless provide the empirical data upon which the Khan’s deductions and abstractions are based. Calvino, like Khan and Polo looks and describes what he sees. He has a scientist’s respect for data – the opposite of the surrealist or fantasist. He wants us to see not only what he sees but what we may have missed by not looking with sufficient attention (Vidal, 1985). Ultimately Calvino’s work reminds us that cities exist not just in bricks and mortar but as rhythms, experiences, feelings, imaginaries, and possibilities. Even under the weight of time and the influence of today’s global economic forces characterized by time space compression, hypermobility, and illegibility; the experience of the city remains the same. Taking this a step further, Invisible Cities is a work based on the notion of re-presentation (the communication between the Khan and Marco Polo) and in the manner of all great literature, desires representation. Having explored how visual images are produced, how the mind makes meaning, and provided a review of the book; we now turn to the task of using photographs to re-present Invisible Cities. We have chosen to provide photos that re-present five passages in the book. We italicize words in the five passages that serve as crucial visual markers or “depictors”. The italicized words isolate the elements of the text that we have chosen to visually interpret and in the process of thinking, provide a verbal signpost that directs our gaze. In this way, it is possible to evaluate the success of the representation. Ultimately, re-presentation works (or doesn’t work) for mysterious reasons; but Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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you know when it doesn’t (Harper, 2002). What is clear is that the process of re-interpreting which gives rise to thinking, meaning-making and understanding is a worthy undertaking. In this case, photographs make Invisible Cities visible. Example 1: “...consists of two cities, the rat’s and the swallow’s; both change with time, but their relationship does not change...”. See Figures 1, 2, 3.

Figure 3. Lodz, Poland. Photo: B. Jankowski.

Example 2: “It is all useless, if the last landing place can only be the infernal city, and it is there that – in ever narrowing circles – the current is drawing us”. “…The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day…” p. 165. See Figures 4, 5.

Figure 1. Brussels, Belgium. Photo: B. Jankowski.

Figure 2. San Francisco, USA. Photo: B. Jankowski.

Figure 4. Brussels, Belgium. Photo: B. Jankowski.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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Figure 5. Chicago, USA. Photo: B. Jankowski.

Figure 7. San Francisco, USA. Photo B. Jankowski.

Example 3: “However the city may really be, beneath this thick coating of signs, whatever it may contain or conceal you leave… without having discovered it” p. 14. See Figures 6, 7.

Example 4: “…in the square there is the wall where the old men sit and watch the young go by… desires are already memories” p. 8. See Figure 8.

Figure 6. Paris, France. Photo: B. Jankowski. Figure 8. Manchester, United Kingdom. Photo: B. Jankowski.

Example 5: “…if for 8 hours a day you work. …your labor gives form to desire takes from desire its form, and you believe you are enjoying… wholly when you are only its slave” p. 12. See Figure 9.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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Figure 9. Milan, Italy. Photo: B. Jankowski.

References 1. Baetens J., “Theorising photography as a social and artistic practice”, Visual Studies, 24, 2, 2009, pp. 93-96. 2. Barthes R., Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography (trans. by Howard R.), New York, Hill and Wang, 1981. 3. Becker H., “Afterword: Photography as evidence, photographs as exposition”, in Knowles C. and Sweetman P. (Eds.), Picturing the social Landscape: Visual Methods and the sociological Imagination, London, Routledge, 2004, pp. 193-197. 4. Brown R., “Photography as process, documentary photographing as discourse”, in Spencer S. (Ed.), Visual Research Methods in the Social Sciences: Awakening Visions, New York, Routledge, 2011, pp. 199-224. 5. Bruno G., Atlas of emotion: journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film, New York, Verso, 2002. 6. Buchanan D., “Representing process: the contribution of a re-engineering frame”, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 18, 12, 1998, pp. 1163-1188. 7. Bustle L.S., “The role of visual representation in the assessment of learning”, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 47, 5, 2004, pp. 416-423. Copyright© Nuova Cultura

8. Calvino I., “‘Italo Calvino on’ Invisible Cities”, Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, 8, 1983, pp. 37-42. 9. Calvino I., Invisible Cities, London, Random House, 2010. 10. Chiesa L., 2006, http://www.questia.com/ library/journal/1G1-159536334/italo-calvino-and-georges-perec-the-multiple [see also “Italo Calvino and Georges Perec: The Multiple and Contrasting Emotions of Cities and Puzzles”, The Romanic Review, 97, 3-4, 2006, p. 401]. 11. Coyne B. and Sproat R., “WordsEye: an automatic text-to-scene conversion system”, Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, New York, Association of Computing Memory, 2001, pp. 487-496. 12. Cunningham D., “Educating the semiotic mind: Introduction to special issue on ‘Semiotics and education’”, Semiotica, 164, 2007, pp. 1-7. 13. Davis R., Shrobe H. and Szolovits P., “What is a knowledge representation?”, Artificial Intelligence Magazine, 14, 1, 1993, pp. 17-33. 14. De Anker K.E., “Review of Søren Brier’s (2008) Cybersemiotics: Why information is not enough”, Semiotica, 192, 2012, pp. 557575. 15. Duits R., “Tarasti’s existential semiotics: Towards a functional model”, Semiotica, 192, 2012, pp. 577-603. 16. Faccioli P., and Pitasi A., “A portrait of Italian visual sociology”, Visual Studies, 10, 1-2, 1995, pp. 50-60. 17. Hall S., “Encoding, Decoding 1”, in Garner R. (Ed.), Social Theory: Power and identity in the Global Era, vol. 2, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2010, pp. 569-599. 18. Hall T., “The camera never lies? Photographic research methods in human geography”, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 33, 3, 2009, pp. 453-462. 19. Harper D., “Talking about pictures: a case for photo elicitation”, Visual studies, 17, 1, 2002, pp. 13-26. 20. Heidegger M., “What is called thinking?”, 1976, http://hermitmusic.tripod.com/heidegger_thinking.pdf. 21. Heidegger M., Being and time: A translation Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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of Sein und Zeit (trans. by Stambaugh J.), Albany, SUNY Press, 1996. Hibbing A.N. and Rankin-Erickson J., “A picture is worth a thousand words: Using visual images to improve comprehension for middle school struggling readers”, The Reading Teacher, 56, 8, 2003, pp. 758-770. Kosslyn S.M., Image and mind, President and Fellows of Harvard College, Harvard University Press, 1980. Krogstie J., Guttorm S. and Jørgensen H., “Process models representing knowledge for action: a revised quality framework”, European Journal of Information Systems 15, 1, 2006, pp. 91-102. Lurie N.H. and Mason C. “Visual representation: Implications for Decision making”, Journal of Marketing, 71, 1, 2007, pp. 160-177. Mee C., “The Myopic Eye: Calvino’s Travels in the USA and the USSR”, The Modern Language Review, 100, 4, 2005, pp. 985-999. Mendelsund C., 2014, http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/08/14/what-we-seewhen-we-read/. Pauwels L., “Visual sociology reframed: An analytical synthesis and discussion of visual methods in social and cultural research”, Sociological Methods & Research, 38, 4, 2010, pp. 545-581. Pilz K., “Reconceptualising thought and Space: Labyrinths and Cities in Calvino’s Fictions”, Italica, 80, 2, 2003, pp. 229-242. Pink S., “Interdisciplinary agendas in visual research: re-situating visual anthropology”, Visual Studies, 18, 2, 2003, pp. 179-192. Prince M., “Does active learning work? A review of the research”, Journal of engineering education, 93, 3, 2004, pp. 223-231. Ragusa O., “Italo Calvino: The Repeated Conquest of Contemporaneity”, World Literature Today, 57, 2, 1983, pp. 195-201. Ricoeur P., From Text to Action (trans. by Blamey K. and Thompson J.), vol. 2, Evanston, Northwestern University Press, 1991. Rose G., Visual methodologies, London, Sage, 2006. Rose G., “Using photographs as illustrations in human geography”, Journal of Geography in

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Higher Education, 32, 1, 2008, pp. 151-160. Sanders R., “Developing geographers through photography: Enlarging concepts”, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 31, 1, 2007, pp. 181-195. Scardamalia M. and Bereiter C., 2006, http://ikit.org/fulltext/2006_KBTheory.pdf. Shen F., “The classroom and the wider culture: Identity as a key to learning English composition”, College Composition and Communication, 40, 4, 1989, pp. 459-466. Sidaway J., “Photography as geographical fieldwork”, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 26, 1, 2002, pp. 95-103. Spencer S., Visual Research Methods in the Social Sciences: Awakening Visions, New York, Routledge, 2011. Stokrocki M., “Interpretation theory: its meaning and application to art education”, Canadian Review of Art Education Research, 10, 1983, pp. 13-25. Sturken M. and Cartwright L., Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001. Suchar C., “Amsterdam and Chicago: Seeing the Macro-characteristics of Gentrification”, in Knowles C. and Sweetman P. (Eds.), Picturing the social Landscape: Visual Methods and the sociological Imagination, London, Routledge, 2004, pp. 147-165. Suchar C.S., “Photographing the changing material culture of a gentrified community”, Visual Studies, 3, 2, 1988, pp. 17-21. Vidal G., “Quote on the back cover of Invisible Cities”, 1974, http://www.worldcat. org/title/invisible-cities/oclc/864230356. Vidal G., “On Italo Calvino”, 1985, http://www.nybooks.com.libproxy.temple.ed u/articles/archives/1985/nov/21/on-italocalvino/. Viesel M., “Invisible Cities Online: An Attempt of Processing of an Artistic Hypertext”, 2002, http://calvino.lib.ru/english/le_citta_files/add_files/full_explanation. html#kontr. Wagner J., “Photographs as Background, Illustration and Data”, in Wager J. (Ed.), Images of information: Still photography in the Social Sciences, Beverly Hills, Sage, 1979, pp. 189-199. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

MAPPING SOCIETIES Edited by Edoardo Boria

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 3, Dec., 2014, pp. 87-100 DOI: 10.4458/4403-07

“Now we need to make Italians”. Semiotics and Semantics in Teaching Cartography Russell Fostera a

School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom Email: russell.foster@newcastle.ac.uk

Received: October 2014 – Accepted: November 2014

Abstract Cartography remains a cornerstone of contemporary pedagogy and everyday life, with a profusion of digital maps, mApps, and navigational tools intersecting in daily life. Included in this are uncounted maps circulating on coins and banknotes within the Eurozone. Yet despite this proliferation of cartography, geography teaching remains excessively focused on a mechanistic method of teaching mapmaking according to mathematics, composition, and components; while geographers who use maps often do so in isolation from maps’ provenance. This article uses the example of maps on euro banknotes to make two arguments. First, that maps do not reflect reality – they create it. Through their banal omnipresence, these maps help construct an identity of “European” which does not reflect the reality of the EU. Second, this paper demonstrates the necessity of a semiotic and semantic approach to teaching maps, map language, and the power of maps to construct identity. This calls for a Lexical Approach in which maps are critically examined as the end process of complex performances which call the map into being, rather than a purely Functional Approach in which maps are treated and taught as neutral, value-free reflections of the world. Keywords: Cartography, Identity, Semiotics, Functional Approach, Lexical Approach, Iconography, Euro

1. Making Sense of Maps In contemporary geography teaching, cartography remains prevalent (Williams et al., 2013). Despite dire predictions of “cartophobia” (Gregory, 1994, pp. 62-64), maps remain a fundamental aspect of teaching (Rossetto, 2013). However, a potential problem remains. Teaching cartography in further and higher education is too frequently absent, or confined to the mechanics of map composition. Scales, projections, GIS, and the myriad of techniques which create today’s computer-generated charts. This is valid, Copyright© Nuova Cultura

yet such forms are only one aspect of cartography. Frequently, the content of maps is less significant than the context in which they appear. The Rome Declaration on Teaching Geography (2013) stresses the fundamental importance of geospatial pedagogy in European education. If this noble aim is to be achieved, geographers must consider that maps are not simply ancillary illustrations of geographical concepts but are, in and of themselves, expressions of geospatial, geopolitical, and Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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political knowledge. Maps have the power to shape and fundamentally alter our worldview, and to effectively teach geography, this essential aspect must be considered. This paper uses the cartographic content of euro banknotes to illustrate how the content of maps is subordinate, in influencing map readers’ worldviews, to the contexts in which they appear. The everyday, banal omnipresence of currency affords the iconography of euro banknotes a political power far beyond that of mere graticules and gradients. Those using cartography in teaching must be aware of, and communicate, this fundamental power: maps do not simply reflect reality – they make it.

2. Making Reality “L’Italia è fatta. Restano da fare gli italiani”1. Massimo d’Azeglio

A map is, quite simply, a form of communication. We create maps to communicate spatial information to others, or to communicate to our future selves by recording information for later reference. Thus the purpose of any map is to convey spatial information, which can be done in a myriad of forms – a map can be drawn, spoken, gestured, performed, and imagined. The most prevalent form of map, though, remains the graphic image via which we navigate our way through a perpetually changing world. As a form of communication, maps are, like any other communicative system, composed of a form of language (Foster, 2013). This specifically visual language is the heart of maps’ inherent power to make identities. Like any other form, visual language is composed of a number of components which merge together. Visual language is, due to its ability to transcend linguistic barriers, a uniquely powerful medium (Earnest and Fish, 2014). Spoken language consists of phonemes, pitches, tones, and other audio clues which, through mutual agreement and convention, have specific meanings within a particular language. Written language consists of symbols which are either arbitrary or lost in the mists of history, and like 1

“We have made Italy. Now we need to make Italians”.

the sounds used in spoken language, the shapes and squiggles of writing again work through common convention in order to communicate a particular meaning. Maps’ visual language works in precisely the same format – a collection of shapes, colours, lines, and mostly symbols which have, over the centuries, acquired the ability to convey information simply because we have collectively agreed what these otherwise random icons represent (Foster, 2015). In all of these languages – spoken, written, and visual – particular elements which lack any inherent meaning are given a mutually-agreed convention, and are used in different permutations to communicate information. It can be persuasively argued that maps are no different to speech or writing, and that just as the teacher of letters or rhetoric must instruct their students in how to assemble the basic components of a speech or teach a child how to hold a pen or brush and form the arbitrary shapes which we use to record information in a human writing system, the teacher of geography must simply instruct his or her students the socially-agreed meanings behind map language so that the student, like a child learning to read and write or a person learning a new spoken language, can not only interpret a map to elucidate meaning, but to learn how to assemble the components in different styles in order to communicate their own information. It would be tempting to leave such cartographic instruction at that, and press forward with techniques and philosophies of how best to instruct students in interpreting the bombardment of maps to which we citizens of the twenty-first century are exposed on a daily basis. Maps, after all, are now everywhere. We see them peppering newspapers and TV broadcasts; they (in)conveniently pop up on our smartphones to help us navigate without the dire consequences of asking our fellow pedestrians; they lurk, half-noticed, on currency, passports, letterheads and campus blueprints. Navigating this modern maze of maps composed by professional cartographers is sufficient evidence, it might be argued, that maps in contemporary society are neutral, apolitical, objective representations of the world. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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To explain, let us consider once again the fact that communication is achieved through a particular form of language, in which components are assembled in different orders to convey different meanings. The words on this page are an easy example. You are currently staring at a collection of lines, dots, and semicircles which have meaning to us as a form of writing. In school, we learned what these little shapes represent; learning each symbol, then how these symbols can be formed into basic combinations, then finally how these combinations can be extended to form increasingly complex and elaborate structures whose meaning goes beyond the basic shapes used to express that meaning. We do not read the plays of Shakespeare, or the proclamations of Ramesses the Great, or the philosophies of Confucius, simply on the basis of what each little symbol represents. The symbols used – Latin letters, Egyptian hieroglyphs, or Chinese signs – are merely one component of the information communicated. We do not read writing purely on the basis of what the individual elements mean, but rather how these elements combine to communicate a meaning far more substantial than the sum of the individual components. The message is more than the medium. It is arguable, then, that we do not interpret spoken or written communication purely on the basis of individual components, and that speech or text has the power not merely to communicate information but to create a new form of information. Maps are, ultimately, a form of communication. It is not enough to treat maps in the classroom and the lecture theatre simply as supporting information whose collected symbols convey information. These jumbles of visual and symbolic information can create new information just as effectively – if not more so – than the most lyrical written texts. Crucial to this is the awareness that it is not simply the content of map language which frame our understandings. As semiologist Arthur Berger reminds us, the context of an object, primarily its location, is as much a part of its language as its text, graphics or colour. Just as speech or script can have different meanings

based upon the context in which they are spoken or written, so can maps2. Map language may appear either so obvious that it is not worth examining, or alternatively, so inscrutable that understanding it is a futile quest. Yet as Alan MacEachren (1995, pp. 1-20), Mark Monmonier (1996, pp. 1-4), and Denis Wood (1993, pp. 95-142) demonstrate, map language can be understood through categorisation. The three categories appropriate to cartographic language are semantics, semiotics, and location, and through these methods it is possible to decipher the nuanced language of maps to identify messages embedded within. These embedded messages are discourses of identity and belonging, and thus assembling a framework for identifying them within map language is essential. But before we do this, it is necessary to examine precisely what are the two elements of map language. These are tropes and meta-tropes. Following this, we will investigate the shortcomings of the Functional approach and advocate teaching cartography within the context of the Lexical approach. We begin with tropes.

3. Tropes “Cartography does not qualify as an aesthetic art form... Unless a map bears strong fidelity to reality, the purpose of mapping will not be served” (Robinson, 1995, p. 317).

Arthur Robinson’s above words, in instructional textbook on mapmaking, form a bold statement which is in-keeping with a handbook on constructing charts. Perhaps a little too bold. As Paul Laxton (in Harley, 2001, pp. 14-15) demonstrates, whose version of “reality” it is trying to depict is an altogether different problem. Yet it must be acknowledged that a 2

Berger uses the hypothetical example of a CocaCola can in two different public forums. In a diner in small-town America, that object represents traditional values and patriotism – or just a means of quenching thirst. But in a North Korean propaganda film, that same object would represent foreign aggression and decadence. This is an extreme example, but illustrates how seemingly innocuous objects can, depending on their location, communicate very different messages. See Berger, 2009, pp. 145-152. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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significant aspect of cartography is indeed the symbolisation mapmakers use in their quest to represent the world around us. This is the most obvious form of cartographic language – tropes. Tropes, as David Barnes and James Duncan (1992, p. 5) clarify, are simply the visual symbols we see when we look at a map and are the cartographic equivalent of phonemes or letters in spoken or written language. As we have seen, like verbal and textual language, the individual “words” or symbols of cartographic language have different functions, and are only comprehensible in relation to each other. Some are the equivalent of nouns and adjectives, signifying specific concepts. Others are more nuanced, collecting the whole into an understandable statement. Much has been written on the ontology and origin of cartographic tropes – David Woodward’s and J.B. Harley’s multi-volume monument The History of Cartography offers a richly detailed interrogative narrative tracing the development of icons on the map. And while we may cast a casual eye over the extinct, quaint icons of premodern Western cartography – stylised bumps on the Waldseemüller Map to represent hills (Hodgkiss, 2007), little buildings on the Tabula Peuteringiana to indicate Roman towns (Riffenburgh, 2001, pp. 10-11), and snarling monsters on the Hereford mappamundi to denote non-Christian lands (Howgego, 2009, pp. 36-40) – the principle of such iconography is very much alive today. Admittedly, we are no more likely to find a banknote map which depicts rivers and railways than we are to encounter a one which warns us that “Here be Dragons”. However, a long evolutionary history has seen tropes morph and adapt over the millennia, and while many icons have not survived the evolutionary process, have entirely changed their meanings, or are simply not found on the maps of Brussels and Strasbourg, other tropic elements remain crucial. Tropes are not merely the abstract or stylised icons which we must try and interpret to make sense of the map. Tropes are also the broader aspects or themes which are the foundation of said symbols. Let us return to the analogy of written language. Some elements perform the same function as nouns – for sake of argument, we will simply call these “tropes”. Yet just as a random collection of words written on a page Copyright© Nuova Cultura

has no meaning without a unifying grammar, we cannot make sense of basic tropes without a broader theme to determine their meanings. Some tropes, then, have the function of forming a grammar through which we can make sense of the basics. We will call these broader ones “meta-tropes”. The basic tropes consist of those icons for topographic and anthropographic features such as rivers and cities, and this visual paraphernalia is noticeably absent from EU maps. The metatropes, though, go beyond individual symbols. The first of these are spatial determinatives (Robinson, 1995) which, like linguistic determinatives, are symbols which allow the reader to understand the context of other symbols. These include such aspects as the use of one shade or hue to signify one nation’s territory, and the use of an alternate colour to signify someone else’s. These will inevitably be separated by some sort of line. Also included are legends or labels – the use of written words to expressly denote something. These “signifiers” will be examined in greater detail below. And finally, tropes which remain as important to modern maps as to the cartographers of the Copper Age, are visual signifiers such as shapes and colours. Maps are essentially a visual art form existing at a peculiar crossroads where language, image, function and aesthetics meet. This must form the core of cartographic pedagogy. Yet the map is more than a mere composite of aggregate linguistic components – it is equally powerful as a holistic device. Akerman (2009) reminds us that one of the most potent characteristics of a map is prominent display in order to communicate a grand visual message. Thus an equally important aspect of any map, is its location and intended purpose. It is not merely the contents of a visual medium which are worthy of examination. Location and intended audience are equally crucial. When considering map language, then, we must be conscious of the power of what Denis Cosgrove (1999, pp. 1-23) terms “The Public Gaze”. This latter fundamental is the map’s existence, boldly proclaimed and proudly displayed, within public space. This is a conscious act with the intention of appealing to the public’s inherent scopophilia – the act of finding pleasure in viewing visual images which, as Freud asserts, is acquired subconsciously in Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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childhood (Rose, 2007, p. 107). This power is as old as cartography itself. Maps which appear in public arenas must be comprehensible to a broad readership which, in the case of the Union, is distinctly polyglot. Thus, public maps are not only more simplified and understandable than the esoteric military, commercial, ecological, governmental, and transport maps of specialist users, but by dint of their association with a public body they are transformed into expressions of political discourse which have immense potential. It is clear, then, that the physical location in which a map is displayed conveys a meaning beyond the simple elements which compose the map. Just as the words on this page have a particular meaning in their location, the same words would convey wildly different information were they to appear outside the location of academic text. We have identified, then, two primary aspects of cartographic language – tropes and location. In order to make sense of these areas of study a connecting theory is required, one which addresses the potential power of language. This theory is a combination of semantics and semiotics, which must remain at the heart of map interpretation and cartographic teaching.

4. Semiotics of Map Language “Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What’s Montague? What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet!”. Romeo and Juliet II:1. 83-86

This Shakespearean snippet is perhaps the most widely-used opening to semiotics. As a field of study, semiotics deals with the relationships between the components of languages, seeking to understand how otherwise abstract symbols acquire a meaning in the minds of viewers, and how those meanings are communicated and perpetuated (Cobley and Jansz, 2012). The object being studied remains constant regardless of the language used to study it – Romeo may be from the House of Montague, bitter rivals of her House of Capulet, but the man remains the man regardless of what collection of letters and sounds are used to denote him. Yet language itself, as Juliet Copyright© Nuova Cultura

mournfully muses, can affect our perception of the object and the message(s) it conveys. In his analysis of these symbols and the discourses they communicate, Berger (2009, p. 45) asserts that “nothing has meaning in itself; an object’s meaning always derives from the language and the network of relations in which it is embedded”. Like any object, a map has no intrinsic meaning in and of itself – it is merely an artefact which we must interpret. MacEachren (1995, p. 10) aptly summarises this by stating that “maps are as much a reflection of (or metaphor for) the culture that produces them as they are a representation of the earth or activities on it”. As discursive artefacts, then, maps must be read (and taught) with a clear understanding of the role of semiotics. Semiotics offers a valuable inroad to teaching students the fundamental power of maps. Initially addressing the spoken elements of verbal languages and the graphic symbols of writing, semiotics has been applied to a broad spectrum of disciplines overlapping humanities and the natural and social sciences (Berger, 1991). The origins of semiotics lie in positivist grand theories of Victorian linguistics, and an intellectual hangover continues to linger as a consequence of early semiologists’ attempts to construct a grand theory – a “queen of the interpretive sciences” (Berger, 2009, p. 4) capable of explaining the totality of human existence. Thus, it may appear odd to apply semiotics to critical cartography. Yet the application of semiotics has advanced far beyond the linguistic philosophy of its nineteenth-century pioneers, Ferdinand de Saussure (Sanders, 2004) and Charles Peirce (Almeder, 1980). Semiotics is used to analyse the components of other forms of language – whether the language is verbal, visual, performative, conscious or not – and has been accepted within the social sciences as a contested, debated, but nevertheless valid, approach to phenomena ranging from texts and images to architecture (Flier in Perrie, 2006, p. 390) and illness (Berger, 2009, p. 4). From its acceptance in other social science disciplines, it is evident that semiological analysis offers valuable insights to be made beyond the confines of its linguistic origins. MacEachren (1995, p. 11) flatly asserts that “we cannot eliminate the cultural baggage Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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inherent in any human artifact”, urging mapmakers to consider the implications of their choices of cartographic language when making (and reading) a map. Certainly, these aspects exist. Wood (1993, pp. 17-22) argues that a map is a text which is “read” and interpreted in a similar way to a written piece. Cartographic language consists, like any visual language, of a complex interaction of what de Saussure termed signifiers (the symbols denoting a concept) and signified (the concept being denoted). For Saussure, these are bound together through a semantic “grammar” which enables viewers to combine the various elements of the image into a coherent whole (Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996). As Barber (2005) extensively discusses, this coherent whole – map language – is highly generalised and simplified in order to convey meanings to a broad readership. And like the phonemes and graphemes of any spoken or written language, these stylised symbological signifiers cannot be understood in isolation. They only make sense in unity, and can only be comprehended when structured within a mutually-agreed grammatical convention. Yet with this process, the meaning of the symbols forms a gestalt meaning of its own. The map comes to not just reflect reality, but create it. Map grammar is a holistic process uniting signs and signifiers, and “since nothing has meaning in itself, the relationships that exist among signs (i.e. grammar), are crucial” (Berger, 1991, p. 12). And this grammar, as Charles Peirce argued, is of fundamental importance. In his semiological theory, Peirce identified the grammar uniting three varieties of signs: the iconic sign that signifies meaning through metaphorical resemblance to something else; the indexical sign that signifies meaning through cause and effect; and the symbolic sign that signifies an abstract meaning which must be mutually agreed-upon, and learned. While maps do contain an element of iconic significance in that they (partially) resemble the “real” world around us, this is not automatically inferable to us. Our limited vision prevents us from seeing the world all at once, thus maps must communicate knowledge only through mutuallyagreed grammatical conventions which must be learned – and the only way they can be learned is through immersion in cartographic semiotics. Semiotics, as defined by Flowerdew and Copyright© Nuova Cultura

Martin (2005, p. 191), “is concerned with the way words, things, pictures and actions come to be ‘signs’. That is to convey meanings in particular times and at particular places”, which only become understandable through a semiotic grammar. And as Berger (1991, p. 9) reminds us, the interpretive link between a sign and a signifier “is based on associations we learn and then carry around with us”. These associations – the grammar of visual rhetoric – are acquired through the conscious replication of taught conventions. These conventions are learned in childhood (MacEachren, 1991; Myers and Liben, 2008), and throughout life via the unconscious accumulation of personal experience (Cassirer, 1946, pp. 1, 23, 83-99). Thus it is not only useful to teach semiotics alongside maps, it is indeed fundamental to passing on the knowledge that a map creates its own reality. For when faced with a map, we fall back upon these consciously – and subconsciously-acquired visual understandings in order to read the messages communicated by the map’s visual and symbolic language as “maps are imbued with meaning by virtue of semiotic relationships” (MacEachren, 1995, pp. 213-214). In addition to semiotics, hermeneutics offers a teaching solution; specifically Hans-Georg Gadamer’s theory of the “effective historical consciousness” (Grondon, 1999, pp. 80-83). While the concept of infinite interpretability of a text lies at the heart of hermeneutics, Gadamer’s development of the effective historical consciousness hypothesis merges with semiotics. According to Gadamer’s hypothesis, we interpret a text (all things being “texts”) not in a potentially infinite number of ways, but rather through styles and conventions which are acquired throughout life and which are generalisable among the population (Grondon 1999, pp. 40-57). Taking Gadamer’s theories alongside those of modern semiologists, it is possible to approach map teaching through a “hermeneutic-semiotic” framework. At this point, it might be wondered what relation any of this theoretical material has to teaching cartography. Does pedagogy actually need a focus on map semantics and cartographic semiotics? Arguably yes, as the grammar through which we interpret map information creates information.

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5. Reflecting, or Remaking, “Reality”? “Semiotics,” states Umberto Eco (cited in Berger, 1991, p. 10), “is in principle the discipline studying everything which can be used in order to lie”. In spoken and written discourse, lies work because they use the same semantics and conventions that we use to make truthful statements, and it can be extremely difficult to distinguish accuracy from misrepresentation when both use the same mechanisms of communication. Maps are far from exempt from this. Visual language is, like its spoken, written, and mental counterparts, based upon mutually-agreed conventions. And as Kress and van Leeuwen (1996, p. 3) highlight, our interpretations of visual language take place within an established framework. This framework can, in principle, be manipulated by the mapmaker in order to communicate the message that “the world looks like this”, safe in the knowledge that such elements will be interpreted in a uniform manner framed through the visual rhetoric of cartographic semiotics. Indeed, this is precisely how maps work. But as Eco’s statement suggests, this same language can be manipulated in order to communicate a message that is only partially true – part reflection, part recreation. A message which, due to the overwhelming faith we place in maps, is believable. The concept that visual language can be manipulated in this way is neither new (Zanker, 1990, pp. 1-5) nor unique to cartography. Black (1997) discusses historical instances at length, while Kress and van Leeuwen (1996, p. 12) highlight how critical discourse analysis has identified how “apparently-neutral, purely informative discourses of newspaper reporting, government publications, social science reports, and so on, may in fact convey ideological attitudes just as much as discourses which more explicitly propagandize”. Critical cartographers are right to stress the power that maps have, but a philosophical basis is required in order to validate these assertions. Cartography indeed has power, and a semiological methodology enables us to better understand it. Semiology, though, is but one epistemological framework of use to the critical cartographer. The signs and signifiers of map language are not only interpreted as stylised symbols which represent Copyright© Nuova Cultura

geographic features. The language of cartography operates by appropriating symbols in order to be understood – a symbology which is wrapped up in its own web of interpretive connotations which are best approached through appropriate methods of reading map language.

6. Reading Map Language “We live in a world of signs that lie and mislead,” claims Berger (1991, p. 11), “and many of us spend a good deal of effort trying to determine whether or not we are being ‘conned’”. In everyday life, this is arguably so: yet not with cartography. Indeed, Bruno Latour (cited in Akerman, 2009, p. 25) goes so far as to comment that with maps, “there is nothing hidden or convoluted, no shadows, no ‘double entendre’”. But maps lie. They have to, as any attempt to faithfully reproduce everything in the spatial realm results in a map that is either incomprehensible or useless. Indeed, Philip and Julianan Muehrcke (1998, p. 520) are justified in their assertion that “so many perversions of reality are inherent in mapping that the result is best viewed as an intricate, controlled fiction”. Yet despite maps’ having to distort reality, and despite Black’s (2003, p. 9) reminder that “the language of cartography requires careful reading”, the public – and students – retain trust in charts as infallible reflections of reality. The cause of this innate trust is what John Pickles (cited in Gregory et al., 2009, p. 66) terms “cartographic reason”. Cartographic reason, as a theory, argues that maps embody a “functional authority” (Heffernan, 1996) which readers subscribe to, thereby providing the map with immediate legitimation regardless of its content. Kristin Kopp (in Finney, 2006, p. 204) offers a clarification by declaring that “[maps] are not texts whose legitimacy is to be questioned; they are instead rationalized products of the most modern technologies”. The result, as Muehrcke and Muehrcke (1998, p. 520) state, is that “we tend to accept the information on maps without question”. Presuming that maps are neutral mirrors of nature, people retain an innate trust in them and the messages they propagate – and this cartographic reason is precisely what can seduce

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readers into believing that the semi-truths contained within are in fact whole truths. However, the map cannot lie outright. As Barbara Piatti and Lorenz Hurni (2009) discuss in their analysis of the counterfactual cartographies of novels, and as Hurni and Gerrit Sell (2009) assess, maps must contain enough truth to be plausible, or they simply do not work. The consequences for the imperial map are that the politically-motivated chart must portray a plausible semi-reality. While all maps exist in a cartographic limbo between truth and lies, the imperial map distorts its representations sufficiently to become what Benedict Anderson (1991, p. 175) terms “the map-as-logo” and what Johan Fornäs (2012, p. 43) terms the “logotype”. The map recreates reality not through its language, but through the very purpose of its creation, its ability to capitalise upon cartographic reason, and public graphic illiteracy to propagate a vision which, without semiotic analysis, we take to be a faithful depiction of a world which may not necessarily exist. Maps of the EU are no different in that they are interpreted through a metanarrative, a discourse, which helps us understand the subtleties of their language. And these metanarratives can be understood through a combination of the functional and lexical approaches.

7. The Functional Approach There are multiple methodologies of maps, and in recent decades perhaps the most popular trend has been to interpret map language as objective, no more politically-biased than the mathematics, theodolites, and computers which enable their construction. This is what Harley (2001, p. 151) called the “culture of the technics”, and which MacEachren (1995, p. 244) terms the “Functional Approach”. It denotes a methodology of cartography which focuses on the visual symbols of maps and the cognitive processes which our brains utilise to process and understand the abstract language of cartography. Certainly, this is the view encouraged by such cartographers as Judith Tyner (1992, p. 4), who insists that regardless of what they are depicting, whether toposphere, anthroposphere, or even noösphere, maps remain “neutral, value-free” reflections of the world around us. This Copyright© Nuova Cultura

approach to understanding and teaching maps is reassuring in its connotations of neat scientific accuracy, and can appear an attractive alternative to the slow emergence of postmodern studies which have gradually crept – usually with fierce resistance from the cartographic ancien regime – into critical cartography since the 1990s (MacEachren, 1995, pp. 10-11). Even Monmonier (2004, p. 21), arguably the most prolific writer of critical cartography today, hints at this; that “while I may feel like a heretic to say it, too much has been written on the apparent meanings in maps”. There is arguably some truth in this, yet in spite of the tentative appeal of a clinical, objectivist approach to cartography, maps simply cannot be understood in this way. Scientific approaches to cartography are as numerous as maps themselves. Indeed, any respectable modern textbook or course on cartography will devote significant space or time to the mathematics and science of constructing reliable charts, while giving only cursory mention – if indeed any mention at all – to the philosophies underpinning maps (Robinson, 1995). By examining theoretical frameworks which offer insights into the philosophical and theoretical mechanics of mapping, but which are as-yet only gradually beginning to gain acceptance, this thesis seeks to examine not the mechanical nature of map creation, but the mechanisms by which we interpret maps. Traditionally, teaching map language has been dominated by this objectivist offshoot of the same strain of “scientification” that emerged in late-nineteenth century history (Tollebeek, 2004) and early twentieth-century regional geographies (Johnston and Sidaway, 2004, pp. 61-65). Despite the advances of critical cartographers, there remains some scholarly dismissal of maps as “peripheral and irrelevant” (Perkins, 2004), purely objective technologies of scientific inquiry, or awkward relics of contemporary geography’s imperial origins (Godlewska and Smith, 1994). Consequently consigned to a “dry and unfashionable” subset of geography (Perkins, 2004, p. 381), cartography and cartographers have not yet escaped this assumption that maps are, and should be, neutral illustrations casually thrown in to illustrate increasingly esoteric theories. Perkins (2004, p. 384), indeed, draws attention to the multitude of Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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ways in which academics “take an atheoretical view of the map” with little or no consideration of the complex historical, social, and associative contexts of the map in question. But as Trudy Suchan and Cynthia Brewer (2000) highlight, critical cartography has recently seen a methodological shift in which theory-based teaching has gained – and continues to gain – popularity. As the foci of the cartographic analyst are “particular audiences, natural settings for research, and amplified explanation… hallmarks of qualitative research” (Suchan and Brewer, 2000, p. 146), this functional approach is therefore not entirely ideal. For Ron Johnston (in Gregory et al., 2009, p. 608), it is intellectually dishonest and methodologically dangerous to create a false dichotomy between “the apparently mutually opposed techniques of quantitative and qualitative methods”. The same can arguably be said for approaches. Neither exists in isolation, and a purely objectivist approach is arguably neither possible nor desirable, particularly in a discipline already fraught with accusations of over-emphasis on philosophical and theoretical work lacking a foundation in the sort of raw data which characterises the geographer’s trade. A healthy skepticism of purely quantitative methods and objectivism is a hallmark of critical cartography, and by applying the techniques of an analysis which considers not merely the objects and mechanisms of the map but also the power-relations and discourses which underpin cartography, teaching using the functional approach can be avoided. Ultimately, the assessment of imperial cartography can only be properly realised through the application of a flexible, reflexive, and interrogative qualitative methodology. This is what MacEachren (1995) terms the “Lexical Approach”.

8. The Lexical Approach “If our goal”, writes MacEachren (1995, p. 310), “is to make effective maps, a functional approach to map representation offers a method of logical structuring of information. [But] if...we set for ourselves the broader goal of understanding how maps work, a functional approach alone...leaves us well short of that goal”. Certainly, attempting to teach cartography Copyright© Nuova Cultura

without generous use of the lexical approach is at best a waste of time; at worst it actively hinders students’ understanding of the fundamental power of cartography. As the product of a complex, interactive, and subjective construction process, maps are part of the hermeneutic/interpretative path with its focus upon “the reading of texts and literature to explore people’s associations with and understanding of place” (Limb and Dwyer, 2001, p. 4). And as a qualitative method, the lexical approach ensures that we “do not start out with the assumption that there is a preexisting world that can be known, or measured, but instead see the social world as something that is dynamic and changing, always being constructed through the intersection and connection of cultural, economic, social and political processes” (Limb and Dwyer, 2001, p. 4). This is arguably visible in the functional approach, but by adopting a lexical approach it is possible to construct a solution to a perennial problem of critical cartography: the absence of a unifying philosophical framework, or what Robina Mohammed (in Limb and Dwyer, 2004) describes as a “tangled web of loose ends that needs to be woven into coherence”. The value of a lexical approach to teaching cartography is that, as a concept, it does not treat maps in isolation as mere ontological objects, focusing only upon their physical elements. Rather, this approach treats the map as merely one aspect of a multifarious network of relations and contexts in which the purpose, creation, revision, and reproduction of the map – all of which take place not in a neat, mechanistic sequential order, but rather in an almost chaotic tangle of reciprocal relationships and interactive feedback loops – are subject to innumerable perceptions and interpretations. It is what Monmonier (1995, p. 3) terms “carto-anthropology” – the study of maps as institutionalised practises and processes, rather than mere objects. All of these stages are potential sites of manipulation to produce a desired result and desired interpretation among map readers. The map is entirely unobjective, and semiological analysis, not to mention qualitative methods themselves, are inherently subjective processes. We cannot perform what Donna Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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Haraway (in Gregory et al., 2009, p. 683) terms “the god-trick” by examining a map and seeing a single, accurate, reality – assuming that such a thing even exists. To study maps this way is to deceive ourselves. Thus if the study of cartography can, by the very nature of maps’ power, withstand this sort of empiricist vivisection, then the teaching of cartography must acknowledge not the mere utility but the necessity of a Lexical approach. This teaching method must, as has been argued thus far, be grounded in semiology. It may appear subjective in contrast to the apparently crisp, scientific (yet inaccurate) quantitative approaches which dominate so much cartographic thinking, but nevertheless contains, as Haraway (in Gregory et al., 2009, p. 684) identifies, “the possibility of critical promise”. This is not to say, of course, that the functional approach is without merit.

Without the functional approach we might run the risk of being lost in an infinity of interpretations which would, in theory, be equally valid. Few geographers would relish students’ reactions to the idea that maps (and indeed, all communications) exist in an infinite loop of interpretations which can never be resolved. The functional approach has its uses. Yet without the lexical approach to offset it, we would simply replicate the erroneous idea that maps are objective and reducible to mathematical and diagnostic processes. Combining the two offers an intriguing potential teaching method. The lexical approach acknowledges that there are multiple interpretations of map language, yet the functional approach reminds us that these interpretations are not infinite – their validity is directly linked to the actual language. To illustrate these arguments, let us consider the maps adorning euro currency.

Figure 1. € 20 banknote. Source: http://www.ecb.europa.eu.

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9. Making Europeans “Banknotes”, states Barnaby Faull (BBC, 2000), “are an advertisement for a country”. They encapsulate the nation’s history, and governments – particularly those of European nations – treading careful paths in selecting which of their historical figures can and cannot appear on these advertisements of the nation. The currency commissioners of the European Union were keenly aware of this (Fishman and Messina, 2006, pp. 28-31), and in order to avoid controversial figures not merely from current nations but anyone associated with Europe’s quarrelsome past, euro banknotes appear, at first glance, to be the most apolitical produced by any issuing authority in history. The result is what journalist Fareed Zakaria calls “Money for Mars”: cash which is so unrelated to anything human, let alone specifically European, that the banknotes circulating today in Europe look as though they were designed as low-budget props for a 1960s episode of Star Trek (Fishman and Messina, 2006, p. 16). Or indeed, might as well be from another planet. All that is vaguely real is the map – and even this is a half-truth. Let us consider what can be gleaned from a purely Functional approach. The map on euro currency is a generic Van Der Grinten Projection of the western Eurasian landmass, appearing in a monochromatic hue. The map depicts Europe’s physical topography without reference to political divisions. Alongside the map are pictures of architecture and the usual iconography of banknotes, which is deliberately complex and convoluted in an effort to deter forgery (European Central Bank, 2014). A simple Functional Approach, then, would allow us to teach students some technical jargon from cartography, and accomplish little else. Is this enough? The answer, unsurprisingly, is a resounding “no”. The content of the banknotes’ maps can be quickly summarised. Yet the content is meaningless without the context. These maps are not quietly sitting on bookshelves or hanging, halfnoticed, in a frame on a wall. They are constantly circulating between tills, cash machines, purses, and fingers. They are one medium through which a political identity is formed – those who use euros, whether in Porto or Poznan, are to be imagined as belonging to a Copyright© Nuova Cultura

common brotherhood of “Europeans”. Nor are the maps alone. They intersect with fake iconography which claims that the entire continent is to be imagined as a single community. The map may include the entire physical topography of the Western Eurasian landmass, but not all peoples of the Union are represented. As Figure 1 demonstrates, Western and Southern Europeans are represented iconographically but the Union’s Eastern newcomers are utterly absent. We have now identified that euro currency, through maps, spread an imagination of empire. Euro currency maps convey the ideology that all Europeans are part of the same community, but the images entwined with the map exclude those areas of the Union which did not, as Matthias Kaelberer (2004) alludes, experience the same historical epochs as Western and Southern Europe. The map may benignly embrace all Europeans, but a discourse of superiority and inferiority lurks within its images. As Helleiner (in Fishman and Messina, 2006, p. 23) identifies, the sanctioned messages propagated by euro iconography are “transparency, represented by windows; and communication, cooperation, and a forward-looking spirit, represented by doors and bridges”. But the architectural styles represented are unreal. According to the ECB (2014), the notes “feature architectural styles from different periods in Europe's history”, a progressive march towards destiny with the accompanying suggestion that all Europe experienced the same neat path of development at the same time. The discourse communicated by these banknotes, through cartography and unreal iconography, is incapable of being understood using a purely Functional Approach. A Lexical understanding is needed. The imagination of history invoked here is clearly fabricated: history is not a teleological, progressive march towards a pre-defined, Whiggish goal, and not all areas of Europe experienced this neat transition from one period to another – if any did at all. No map can change this essential fact, yet as euro banknotes demonstrate, the context in which a map appears is infinitely more significant than the mere lines and colours which form its content. Kaelberer (2004, p. 170) argues that the iconography “deliberately constructs a common European historical memory” by appealing to common Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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experiences in Europe’s development from the decaying marble temples of Athens to the grim Khrushchevian apartment-blocks of the old Soviet sphere. But this is simply not true. It is quite a stretch to claim that Sweden or Latvia were part of the same Classical world as Greece and Rome, equally problematic to visually proclaim that the eras depicted were single, homogenous affairs. The Industrial Revolution, to cite but one example, was spatially complex and temporally varied across the British archipelago upon which it began, let alone across the entire European landmass. Yet the discourse remains – the proclamation that all Europe has experienced the same history, that all Europe is the same, that all Europe stands in contrast to those beyond the collective – the Russians, the Turks, the North Africans (Kaelberer, 2004) – who did not share in this censored, sanitised, whitewashed version of a communal continental history which never existed, but nevertheless is assembled and appropriated to give the illusion of unity. Entwined with the map, that icon of unity in diversity which is not to be questioned using Functional means, the discourse these notes suggest is powerful indeed. As such, an effective approach to teaching cartography must combine tropes and meta-tropes, and Lexical/Functional approaches.

10. Conclusions The Rome Declaration on Geographical Education in Europe (2013) commences with the unequivocal statement that “Geographical education provides students with essential capabilities and competences needed to know and understand the world… all European citizens need to understand how to deal with it”. It is hard to deny the continuing importance of geography in today’s world, and the role of maps in communicating spatial events. Yet if the Rome Declaration is to be upheld, it is not enough to merely use maps as tools to illustrate concepts. The map itself is a means of communication. The map only works by distilling the world around us into an oversimplified and abstract representation which has the capacity to convey far more significant discourses than merely telling us where things are. A thorough appreciation of the seductive power of cartography can only be Copyright© Nuova Cultura

attained through combined Functional and Lexical methods. Some suggestions for teaching this include: •

introducing geography students to core texts in semiotics, and case studies to illustrate theory;

•

encouraging students to consider the context of maps and their provenance. Where did the map in question come from? When was it made? Who made it? Who was it designed for? Where is it displayed? What other forms of language (writing, iconography, pictures, etc) appear alongside it? Some of these questions may be unanswerable, but they must be considered;

•

ensuring that in courses or texts devoted to teaching cartography, and geography teaching in general, clear emphasis is given to the necessity of a comprehensive, catholic, Lexical Approach in addition to a Functionalist pedagogy.

We return at the end to Massimo d’Azeglio, penning his diary in a Milan study in 1864. A nation-state had been made. But how to make the nation? Arguably one of the easiest mechanisms for this – especially so in Italy (Rossetto, 2013) – is the map. The map communicates its values through a sophisticated web of semiotic and symbological channels which, while capturing our attention with dazzling displays, we may not even realise exist. It is not the place of a teacher of geography to perform detective work or psychic investigations of why a mapmaker acted in a particular way. But it is the task of the geographer to teach students that maps cannot be understood as neutral illustrations, rather that they are socially-constructed texts whose context is far more significant than their content. Thus, the educator must make students aware of the fundamental necessity of semiological and semantic methods. With adjustment, the tools of semantics and semiotics, Functional and Lexical Approaches, and deconstruction, can be used to effectively teach how maps, far from being neutral illustrations of the world devoid of any aesthetic appeal, do not merely reflect reality – they make it.

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Acknowledgements The author wishes to thank Edoardo Boria of Sapienza University of Rome, for inviting the author to present an earlier version of this paper at the IV EUGEO Conference in Rome, September 2013. Gino De Vecchis of Sapienza University of Rome is to be thanked for transmuting the rough manuscript. The author also wishes to thank Hartmut Behr of Newcastle University for his suggestions on an earlier draft, and finally both Daniel Stroe and Thomas Uche Ogah for helping him maintain mens sana in corpore sano during the writing process.

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13. EUGEO, Rome Declaration on Geographical Education in Europe, Rome, EUGEO, 2013, http://www.jreading.org/download/news/declaration. pdf. 14. European Central Bank, “The Euro”, 2014, http://ecb.eu. 15. Fishman R. and Messina A. (Eds.), The Year of the Euro: The Cultural, Social, and Political Import of Europe’s Common Currency, Notre Dame, IN, University of Notre Dame Press, 2006. 16. Flowerdew R. and Martin D., Methods in Human Geography: a guide for students doing a research project, Harlow, Prentice Hall, 2005. 17. Fornäs J., Signifying €urope, Bristol, Intellect, 2012. 18. Foster R., “Tege Imperium! A defence of empire”, Global Discourse, 1, 2, 2009, pp. 2-23. 19. Foster R., “Tabula Imperii Europae: a cartographic approach to the current debate on the European Union as empire”, Geopolitics, 18, 2, 2013, pp. 371-402. 20. Foster R., “Between these two kinds of death”, Global Discourse, 2, 3, 2014, pp. 1-11. 21. Foster R., Tabulae Imperii Europaei: Mapping European Empire, Abingdon, Routledge, 2015 [forthcoming]. 22. Foster R., Edward M. and Johnson M. (Eds.), The Crisis of the Twenty-First Century: Empire in the Age of Austerity, London, Routledge, 2014. 23. Godlewska A. and Smith N. (Eds.), Geography and Empire, Oxford and Cambridge MA, Blackwell, 1994. 24. Gregory D., Geographical Imaginations, Cambridge, MA, Blackwell, 1994. 25. Grondin J., The Philosophy of Gadamer [trans. Kathryn Plant], Paris, Les Editions du Cerf, 1999. 26. Harley JB., The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography, Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. 27. Heffernan M., “Geography, cartography and military intelligence: the Royal Geographical Society and the First World War”,

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Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 21, 1996, pp. 504-533. Hodgkiss A., Discovering Antique Maps, Princes Risborough, Shire, 2007. Howgego R., The Book of Exploration, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 2009. Hurni L. and Piatti B., “Mapping the Ontologically Unreal – Counterfactual Spaces in Literature and Cartography”, The Cartographic Journal, 46, 4, 2009, pp. 333-342. Hurni L. and Sell G., “Cartography and Architecture: Interplay between Reality and Fiction”, The Cartographic Journal, 46, 4, 2009, pp. 323-332. Johnston R.J. and Sidaway J.D., Geography and Geographers: AngloAmerican Human Geography since 1945, London, Hodder-Arnold, 2004. Kaelberer M., “The euro and European identity: symbols, power and the politics of the European monetary union”, Review of International Studies, 30, 2004, pp. 161-178. Kopp K., “Cartographic Claims: Colonial Mappings of Poland in German Territorial Revisionism”, in Finney G. (Ed.), Visual Culture in TwentiethCentury Germany: Text as Spectacle, Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Press, 2006, pp. 199-213. Kress G. and van Leeuwen T., Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, London and New York, Routledge, 1996. Limb M. and Dwyer C., Qualitative Methodologies for Geographers, London, Arnold, 2001. MacEachren A., How Maps Work: Representation, Visualization, and Design, New York and London, Guilford Press, 1995. Monmonier M., Drawing the Line: Tales of Maps and Cartocontroversy, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1995. Monmonier M., How to Lie with Maps, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1996. Monmonier M., Rhumb Lines and Map Wars: A Social History of the Mercator Projection, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2004.

41. Muehrcke P. and Muehrcke J., Map Use: Reading, Analysis, and Interpretation, Madison, JP Publications, 1998. 42. Myers L. and Liben L., “The Role of Intentionality and Iconicity in Children’s Developing Comprehension and Production of Cartographic Symbols”, Child Development, 79, 3, 2008, pp. 668-684. 43. Perkins C., “Cartography: cultures of mapping, power in practice”, Progress in Human Geography, 28, 3, 2004, pp. 1-11. 44. Perrie M. (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Russia: Vol. I, From Early Rus’ to 1689, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006. 45. Riffenburgh B., The Men Who Mapped the World: The Treasures of Cartography, London, Carlton, 2011. 46. Robinson A., Elements of Cartography, New York, Wiley, 1995. 47. Rose G., Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials, London, Sage, 2007. 48. Rossetto T., “Learning and teaching with outdoor cartographic displays: a visual approach”, Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 2, 2013, pp. 69-83. 49. Sanders C. (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Saussure, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004. 50. Suchan T. and Brewer C., “Qualitative Methods for Research on Mapmaking and Map Use”, Professional Geographer, 52, 1, 2000, pp. 145-154. 51. Tollebeek J., “‘Turn’d to Dust and Tears’: Revisiting the Archive”, History and Theory, 43, 2, 2004, pp. 237-248. 52. Tyner J., Introduction to Thematic Cartography, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall, 1992. 53. Williams A., Jeffrey A., McConnell F., Megoran N., Askins K., Gill N., Nash C. and Pande R., “Interventions in teaching political geography: Reflections on practice”, Political Geography, 34, 2013, pp. 24-34. 54. Wood D., The Power of Maps, London, Routledge, 1993. 55. Zanker P., The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus [trans. Alan Shapiro], Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan Press, 1990.

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES AND (PRACTICAL) CONSIDERATIONS

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 3, Dec., 2014, pp. 103-104

Between Krakow 2014 and Moscow 2015 Maria Paradisoa a

President of the Italian Committee for the UGI Email: paradiso@unisannio.it

Received: November 2014 – Accepted: November 2014

The regional IGU Conference, Changes, Challenges, Responsibility, was held in Krakow from 18 to 22 August 2014. The main event for the geographical community at world level was attended by 1,335 colleagues, coming from 64 countries, far beyond the forecasts of the Polish organising Committee. The rich and varied programme included keynotes, sessions organised by the IGU Commissions, thematic sessions led by groups of scholars, poster sessions and coordination meetings. About one hundred young researchers took part in the conferences, thanks to the possibility of financing participants coming from developing countries. According to the IGU data, Poland the host country had the greatest number of participants (357). Seven other national groups had over 40 people each in them: Germany (about 100), Japan (79), Czech Republic (60), United Kingdom (59), China (50). Forty participants arrived from Russia, United States, France and Hungary. In total there were 1,171 presentations during the sessions and 227 poster presentations. On the subject of changes the keynotes were given by professors Zbigniew Kundzewicz (Poland) and Julie Winkler (United States), who spoke about climate change and the uncertainties caused by this, and professor Andreas Faludi (Netherlands) on the concept of geographical

place. On the subject of responsibility, professor Gideon Biger (Israel) dealt with the boundaries of the Holy Land as a problem of political geography from a geo-historical and contemporary viewpoint.

Figure 1. Joop van der Schee’s speech during the Special session “Looking for an international strategy for geography education”, organized by IGU, EUGEO and EUROGEO. Photo: M. Tabusi (22.08.2014).

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It is now tradition to foresee special sessions that are dedicated to IGU projects. In this sense the talk by professor Benno Werlen (Germany) was particularly significant, as he is responsible for the complex initiative that aims at the proclamation of the International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the United Nations. This project constitutes an evolution of the original goal proposed by Adalberto Vallega, called International Year of Cultures and Civilisations. The IYGU sets out to strengthen the collaboration between natural, social and cultural sciences, in order to make people understand how local actions can give results on a global scale in daily life experiences. Another current UGI theme was represented by the new stage in the realisation of the common project between IGU, Eugeo (Association of Geographical Societies in Europe). The 2015 Regional Conference, which will be held in Moscow next summer 17-21 August 2015, will have global change as its general theme and will be an opportunity to reflect on these changes in the light of the evolutions of human civilisation in relation to the socioenvironmental pressures.

CopyrightÂŠ Nuova Cultura

The motto of the Conference is Geography, Culture and Society for Our Future Earth.

Figure 2. IGU President, Valdimir Kolossov, is speaking during the 2014 IGU Regional Conference Closing Ceremony. Photo: M. Tabusi (22.08.2014).

Italian Association of Geography Teachers

TEACHINGS FROM THE PAST

Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography (J-READING), 2, 3, Dec., 2014, pp. 107-113

Re-reading Geography as a Pivotal Subject in Education by H. Mackinder Davide Papottia a

University of Parma, Parma, Italy

Reading this speech by the well-known geographer Halford John Mackinder (15 February 1861 – 6 March 1947) can be at the same time reassuring and troubling. Even though it was presented nearly one century ago, some of its words sound incredibly familiar in the current debate about the role of geography in school curricula, and generally in education. In this passionate speech Mackinder tells several stories. The story of the discipline in the school and university systems of the United Kingdom between the end the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century; his personal story as a teacher of geography and champion of the subject; and the story of a subject that has constantly to reaffirm its position, suspended between sciences and humanities. Mackinder, widely known for his geopolitical theories (and especially for the so-called “Heartland theory”) was a major figure in the development of geography in the United Kingdom. Among his many achievements, we can mention the fact that he was one of the founders of the Geographical Association (established in 1895), whose main aim was to promote the role of geography in schools. He was Chairman of the Council of the Association from 1916. In 1895 he was among the founders of the London School of Economics, where he

served as Director from 1903 to 19081. Some further information about the early stages of his career can be found in the very speech we reproduce here below (narrated at times with a perfectly British sense of humour). What is striking in Mackinder’s voice is his autobiographical involvement, a clear mirror of his profound passion for the theses he is discussing and illustrating. Many are the possible suggestions that we, as geographers, can take from Mackinder’s experience as spokesman for the teaching of geography. First of all, I think it is interesting to note that under Mackinder’s presidency the Geographical Society looked for inspiration in the experiences of other countries. The comparative approach (Mackinder speaks explicitly about the admiration for the German experiences in the field of teaching geography, for instance), seems to be a desirable direction, still in our times. Exchanging experiences among different geographical associations in Europe, and learning from them, was useful at the beginning of the 20th century and still appears as a fruitful perspective to be adopted and continued. The European associations of geography, such as EUGEO and EUROGEO, can be useful containers for this kind of experiences. Moreover, Mackinder reassures us in considering interdisciplinarity as a fundamental dimension for the teaching of geography. When he narrates about his intense work of promoting 1

L.M. Cantor, “The Royal Geographical Society and the Projected London Institute of Geography 18921899”, Geographical Journal, 128, 1, 1962, pp. 3035. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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geographical teaching around the country, he openly states that to understand geography one has to know properly both history and natural sciences. If the reference to natural history can appear as a clear tribute to the inclination towards physical geography that characterized the discipline at the beginning of the 20th century, the reference to history is the result of a clear view of the discipline as a potential bridge between humanities and sciences. A third point that Mackinder analyses, and which seems to be of primary relevance still today, is the link between the teaching of geography in schools and the teaching of geography at university level. A real success for the social perception of the discipline can come only from a fruitful integration of the two levels. In Mackinder’s opinion the key to a successful consideration of geographical studies in academia derives from the central role that the secondary school curricula play in shaping the common reputation of the subject (and the recent reforms affecting high school curricula in many European countries, such as Italy for instance, add a current urgency to this perspective). Naturally, some statements and perspectives inevitably show their age, and we cannot but recognize assumptions from time to time that we could not fully undersign nowadays (such as the equivalence between the geographical approach and the regional scale). Nevertheless, the essay by Mackinder is a fresh breath of air from the past, which reassures us about the fact that certain “battles” in defense of the discipline have always been part of the geographers’ tasks. And at the same time, we are relieved to see that the passion for the discipline is the most important ingredient in order to continue its defense in school and university curricula. We cannot but agree with some brilliant statements made by the British geographer nearly one century ago, which are still valid today, such as the following one: “Geography is essentially a mode of thought which has its scientific, artistic, and philosophical aspects”. ---------------------------------------------------------

Geography as a Pivotal Subject in Education2 Halford Mackinder I have come here today as Chairman of the Council of the Geographical Association, the dutiful daughter of this great Society, to ask for your maternal help at a critical juncture in the movement for the wider and better teaching of Geography. The Geographical Association has some 4000 members, nearly all of whom are teachers of Geography. I speak therefore not only from a personal experience of more than thirty years, but also as the representative of an organized branch of the teaching profession. The main point to which I am going to direct your attention is that, whereas there is now a full recognition of Geography by Educational Authorities as regards both pupils under 14 and students over 18, yet Geographical teaching in the four adolescent years between 14 and 18 is starved both in respect of time and of money. In order that you may appreciate the position, it is necessary that I should trace very shortly the progress of the movement for the better teaching of Geography from its small beginning to a widespread promise. Then I will state the view of the Council of the Geographical Association that in the present condition of educational affairs it is in the power of the Board of Education by sympathetic or unsympathetic administration to reap or to blight the harvest of a generation of effort. I will conclude by expressing my view that Geography is now ripe to be a pivotal subject in coherent schemes of secondary education. 2

The present text was taken from the issue of The Geographical Journal where it first appeared (57, 1921, pp. 376-384). The Geographical Journal is published by The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). After the name of the Author, the following information was provided in the original text: “Read at a Meeting held in the Map-room of the Society on Friday, 18 March 1921”. The version presented here keeps the original format of the text (for instance in the use of Italics and brackets, and in the words spelling, as in the case of “to-day” and “to-morrow”). Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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If there be an occasional autobiographical note in what I am going to say I hope you will forgive me, for I must refer to some matters quorum pars fui. In fact, I shall frankly draw on my reminiscences rather than attempt a detached and formal record. It was for a geographical adventure that I was commissioned by this Society just a generation ago and I am going to tell you an explorer’s tale. I have no doubt that the experience of others here present has been parallel. Ex uno disce omnes. As has been the case with other successful careers, our movement made, in the first instance, a false start down what proved to be a blind way. For a number of years in the middle of last century the Royal Geographical Society offered medals annually for competition among the boys of a few of the greater public schools, with the result that two or three boys were each year specially coached by one or two enthusiasts among the masters – notably Mr. Robinson of Dulwich – and nothing more was accomplished. It is interesting, however, to observe that with a sound instinct, as I think, the aim of those days was directed precisely to the later school years. But the entrenchments of the established curricula were impregnable to a frontal attack, and fortunately so, in my opinion, for neither the subject of Geography nor its teachers were then prepared for a principal rôle in education. In the early eighties the Council of this Society began to realize that they were missing their mark, and, under the lead of Mr. Francis Galton and Mr. Douglas Freshfield, they decided to withdraw the offer of the medals and to embark on a better calculated effort. Mr., now Sir John, Keltie was despatched to the continent on a reconnoitring mission, and returned with an eye-opening report and a collection of maps and apparatus gathered from several countries, but principally from the German-speaking lands. The lead of Germany in Atlas cartography and in scientific and philosophical Geography was at that time indisputable and due probably to the military influence in German education. From the days of Humboldt and Karl Ritter there had been professors of Geography in most German universities. In this country, on the other hand, the geologists had captured Physical Geography, and had laid it out as a garden for themselves, while the remnant known as “General

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Geography” was a no man’s land, encumbered with weeds and dry bones. Before British Geography could come into its own again it was necessary to reannex the garden and to clear and cultivate the waste. The universities were obviously the proper agencies for this endeavour. Mr. Keltie’s Exhibition of continental efficiency in the way of maps and apparatus, advertised in the newspapers, attracted my attention, for I had been caned at school for drawing maps instead of writing Latin prose. I came up to London to see it, and though he did not know his young interrogant I had the honour of asking some questions of Mr. Keltie himself. Having just graduated, I naturally proceeded to draw up a set of lectures for the Oxford University Extension, and I gave them the title of “The New Geography”. After all, one of the best ways of learning a subject is to set to work to teach it! The result was that I was sent for by Mr. Bates, then the veteran secretary of this Society, and was told to write a paper on “The Scope and Methods of Geography”. Though that paper contained nothing which would surprise any of us to-day, it divided the Council of this Society into contending and indeed rather angry parties, and the discussion of it occupied two successive evening meetings - there were no afternoon meetings in those days. In that summer, 1887, the Society agreed with the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge to subsidize University Readerships in Geography, and I was appointed to Oxford - the second Reader in Geography to lecture there, the first having been the famous Elizabethan Hakluyt. At my opening lecture there was an attendance of three, one being a Don, who told me that he knew the Geography of Switzerland because he had just read Baedeker through from cover to cover, and the other two being ladies who brought their knitting, which was not usual at lectures at that time. Curiously, the first effect of the new start was felt in the elementary schools. Growth is slow to begin in a university, and as my stipend was not very large, I threw myself into Extension Lecturing, and in three years travelled 30,000 miles and taught several thousand pupils, many of them elementary teachers and students in training colleges. We studied chiefly what

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Huxley had called Physiography, for the great majority of the students were not grounded either in history or natural science, and were therefore not prepared for Geography proper. After a year or two, as the result of an alliance with the Faculty of History, my Oxford classroom began to fill with students of Historical Geography, but Physical Geography still met with a chilling reception. Two facts had become clear: first, that the organization of our universities into faculties of natural science and humane letters rendered it very difficult to enlist students for a hybrid study, half physical and half humane; and secondly, that no teaching of Geography really worthy of a university would be practicable until boys came up from school with a better grounding in the necessary rudiments. The policy indicated, therefore, was to concentrate on training a few post-graduate students who shouid go forth into the schools and prepare pupils to enter the universities with the geographical mode of thinking already established. With this in mind, I seized the chance of a British Association Address in 1895 to plead for the establishment of a University Institute of Geography, in which should be assembled both the physical and the philosophical teaching of the subject. My dream was realized in 1899 in the Oxford School of Geography. The University agreed to grant a Diploma to whole-time students of the school, and I was so fortunate as to obtain the late Dr. Herbertson as my principal assistant – I made an express journey to Edinburgh in order to dissuade him from accepting an American offer which had been made to him, and I took him back with me to Oxford in triumph. About this time a step had been taken the significance of which was not at first recognized. Mr. Dickinson of Rugby had been using lantern slides in his classroom, and wanted to organize a system of exchanging slides between school and school. The Royal Geographical Society referred him to me, and at my invitation the first meeting of the Geographical Association was held at Christ Church, Oxford. Herbertson soon became Secretary of the Association, which under his auspices flourished, and began to publish a journal, the Geographical Teacher.

Meanwhile the subject itself was being reshaped. Suess’s ‘Das Antlitz der Erde’ gave a geographical turn to that department of Geology which is now known as Geomorphology. So revolutionary were his method and outlook that the Royal Society hesitated for years before awarding him a medal. Bartholomew’s Meteorological Atlas, edited by Buchan, gave us in modern form the necessary apparatus for a corresponding geographical trend in what I will describe as Geophysiology. Davis in America clothed the accumulating analysis of river systems with a terminology often laughed at but none the less provocative of fruitful and systematic study. The conception of the distribution of plant and animal associations and not merely of species completed the sequence of ideas needed for a regional, that is to say a truly geographical synthesis. I believe that I was the first habitually to use the expression “regional” in this connection, but Herbertson made a further advance with it in his paper on the “Major Natural Regions of the World”. If the Philosophical or Humane study of Geography lagged behind for a time that was no more than was to be expected, for that study postulates not only developed Regional Geography on the physical side, but also the application of economic and strategical ideas to the past and present distribution of human societies. Here the work of the French geographers and sociologists has been important, and notably in their different ways that of Vidal de la Blache and of Leplay. Not the least incentive to a scholarly geography in the completest sense has been the need of it as a weapon of research for the reconstruction of the early history of mankind as revealed by excavation. Perhaps without being invidious I may name my friend Prof. J. L. Myres as a pioneer in the application of Geography to this purpose. When we remember that the whole of this great academic superstructure is based on an infinite labour of surveying in the field, and that it is only within the present century that we have so far reduced the unknown areas on the globe that we can begin to generalize with a sense of completeness, we obtain some measure of the advance achieved in the last thirty years. The results of all this work – organization, teaching, research, and writing – ripened suddenly to a harvest in the ten years before the Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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war. Professorships and Lectureships in Geography were established in nearly all the universities of the kingdom. Competitors to the Oxford School appeared in several quarters. A place was found for Geography in Pass Degrees, and presently in Honours Degrees. Students began to flock to the classes, and no difficulty was experienced in placing the better of them in posts, usually of course as school teachers. Textbooks appeared in increasing number. A few even of the great public schools began to make Geography the specialty of one of their masters. This was the position when the war came upon us, and then in a rudimentary sort of way the whole people began to think strategically, or in other words geographically. We who were growing old in the cause thought that when the war was over our favourite study would be permanently established in its rightful place. But as with other sanguine war hopes and forecasts the realization, although not contrary to what was expected, has not been complete. True that the classes have never been so crowded with students as at present, and the Geographical Association has never had so many members. Further victories, too, have been won in the curricula for University degrees. During 1920 there were at least ten Summer Schools in Geography in England and Wales, most of them overcrowded with students. But there is none the less a feeling of uncertainty prevalent among teachers of Geography, a feeling that the promise of a rich harvest may after all be disappointed, and a spirit, therefore, of discontent with our Educational Providence. In plain words, it is felt that the secondary schools are the key to the position, that the curricula of those schools are passing more and more under the control of the Board of Education, that the Board in its Secondary Branch is not very sympathetic with the claims of Geography, and that it is in the power of the Board to stop advance just at the time when as the result of a whole generation of endeavour Geography and geographers have been shaped to the purpose of an efficient educational weapon. Let there be no mistake about it, if the upper classes in secondary schools are not allowed, in cases where it is so desired, to make Geography a main subject of instruction, then the University study of Geography will be impoverished for the

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reason that it will be impossible to exact a preliminary knowledge of students entering the classes, and still more for the reason that no adequate scope will be offered for those who graduate in the subject. Once let it be clear that that vicious circle is to be established and it will inevitably follow that the effort to improve the standard of University Geography will be relaxed, and in the long run even the elementary schools will feel the effect. The issue of regulations discouraging to geographers began before the war. It is quite likely that there was no intention to discourage, but we have to deal with the effect. In 1913 the Board of Education (Secondary Branch) issued a Circular (No. 826), still not withdrawn, in which it was stated that “It is not necessary that separate instruction in both History and Geography shouid be given in all forms. In schools in which the pressure on the time-table renders it necessary, a shortened course of geography, terminating at the age of 14 or 15, may be accepted”. As a matter of fact this recommendation had at first very little effect. The movement to improve Geography teaching continued in spite of it, and more and more schools and pupils studied the subject, while the work done was increasingly valuable. In 1917 the Board of Education (Secondary Branch) decided to encourage work in schools beyond the age of 16 (matriculation standard) by initiating what are known as “Advanced Courses” for pupils between 16 and 18. With the principle every one interested in education will agree, but unfortunately some details of the scheme as drafted have proved disastrous to Geography. It is the one and only main subject of a liberal school education, which it is impossible to take as a main subject in any of the Board’s advanced courses. The consequence is that much official pressure is exercised to prevent pupils from making Geography a principal subject between 16 and 18, and the courses are too full to allow of its being taken at all adequately as an extra. Two results follow from this. In the first place, schools naturally encourage pupils between 14 and 16 to concentrate upon subjects which will be important for them between 16 and 18, and Geography is suffering from this in

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a large number of schools. Time-tables are being readjusted against Geography even in schools with really distinguished teachers of the subject. This is now reinforcing the evil influence of Circular 826 quoted above. In the second place, both by the regulations and by the early dropping of Geography, it is suggested that the subject is not of an importance comparable with that of other subjects of the curriculum, and that it can consequently be taught by teachers of a lower grade. Discrimination in detail, as regards status and salary, against teachers of geography, however qualified, is becoming widespread and dangerous. And this is not the worst. As a result of the antagonism to Geography above noticed the subject has great difficulty in claiming any place in the “Second Public Exaininations”, and those universities which have recognized it here have need to act virtually in opposition tp the Board’s schemes as drafted by its Secondary Branch. In the case of some universities, there is undoubted feeling at what is considered the grave indifference of the Board to an essential part of the training of citizens. The case is made more serious now that Government scholarships and scholarships given by university authorities and local authorities as well, are to be awarded in ever-increasing proportion on the result of the “Second Public Examination”. The action of the Board is thus producing a situation in which Geography is to be taught up to the age of 14, but as little as possible to pupils from 14 to 18. The universities clearly wish it to be taught to students over 18, and thus have to deplore the reactionary attitude of the Board’s Secondary Branch. The great point is to secure some recognition of Geography as a subject in the “Advanced Courses”. The Board did recognize, experimentally, courses including Geography at Leytonstone and at Ruabon. These courses were allowed grants on the basis of “grants for experiments”, i.e. £ 250 per annum against £ 400 for advanced courses. I understand that Ruabon School has now set this experiment aside and organized an advanced course with Geography in a subordinate position so as to get the £ 400.

The central idea of these “advanced courses” is the coherency of the subjects chosen, so that they shall form a group of such a nature as to be educationally complete. Every one will agree with this intention. What I wish to submit in conclusion is that if liberally interpreted this very idea should work out in favour of Geography and not against it. Geography is inherently not an elementary but an advanced subject. It postulates both scientific and humane knowledge. No one can appreciate geographical correlations without some mathematical, some physical, some economic, and some historical knowledge. Geography is essentially a mode of thought which has its scientific, artistic, and philosophical aspects. If our aim is to give unity to the outlook of our pupils, and to stop that pigeon-holing of subjects in their minds which has prevailed in the past, then Geography is admirably fitted as a correlating medium. It may very easily be made the pivot on which the other subjects may hang, and hang together. Let me indicate my meaning by two or three examples. I can conceive of a very fine course for boys between 16 and 18 conducted by three masters working in harmony and teaching three major subjects, such, for instance, as Mathematics, Geography, and Greek, and two minor subjects, say, Physics and Latin. The geographical teacher would be able to assume the mathematical knowledge needed for map projections, the physical knowledge needed for the understanding of the air and water circulations, and the historical knowledge which accompanies the modern teaching in Greek and Latin. He would no doubt choose the Mediterranean for his special subject, and would fascinate his students by linking together all their studies in a concrete philosophy. To take only one other illustration, let us assume a similar combination, but with the following components – as major subjects, Chemistry, Geography, and French, and as minor subjects, Botany and Spanish. This would be a commercial course, and the geographer would be able to postulate the chemical and botanic knowledge which lie at the root of economic geography, and on the other hand such a knowledge of the Romance lands as would enable him to take Western Europe and South America for his special regions of study. Italian Association of Geography Teachers

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No doubt it will be urged that History better than Geography would form the pivot between the precision of science and mathematics on the one hand and the human faculties of imagination and expression on the other hand. I desire to make this point in that connection. It is obvious that neither of the outlook subjects – History which looks back through time and Geography which looks out into space – can be studied wholly apart from the other. The question before us, however, is whether our educational perspective shall be based on History with some Geography or on Geography with some History. Now if I were asked why those who have received a university education are so frequently excelled in practical life by those whose main schooling has been won in the world, I should say that it is in no small degree owing to the sterilizing tendency of too strong a historical sense in their mental equipment. Far be it from me to depreciate the statesmanship which is based on the sense of the continuity of events in time. But what matters to the vast majority of people, who must consider today and to-morrow rather than yesterday, is the outcome of history as expressed in the facts of today, and not the process by which that outcome has been effected. Nothing is more noticeable in the present working-class demand for education, as illustrated for instance by the Workers’ Educational League, than the call for economic, legal, constitutional, and geographical information. If the educated classes are not to lose their grip and their influence over the half-educated proletariat, they must strive for a sense of “actuality” in the French meaning of that word. In other words, Mahommed must be thought of as embodied in the still greater fact of Islam in the world of to-day and not merely as a romantic figure of the past. So with Buddha, and Augustus, and Charlemagne, and William the Conqueror, and Shakespeare. Now Geography in its full scope not only deals with the physical environment of human societies but also with those societies themselves, for they are geographical facts. This is the principle which I have ventured to describe as “momentum” in Geography. Geographical analysis alone is not enough to explain the greatness of many centres of urban life. You must include “compound interest” on the original geographical “capital”. You may analyze the position of London, and show that it was founded on a defensible hill with a water supply in its gravel top and tidal

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creeks for boat-harbours, but you have only so explained a big village on the site. The financiers and merchants of the world resort to London to-day, not because of these physical advantages in the little clay plateau beside the Thames bank, but because eight million people dwell here, and there is established among them the market with the greatest “good will” in the world. In other words, however fascinating it may be to investigate the beginnings of London, we must recognize that the little streams, hills, woods, and marshes, which before the houses were built shaped the site of the city, have very little actually to do with the persistence of the London money market and entrepôt trade. It is in short an independent geographical fact that you have beside the Thames in these days a “stratum” of human beings comparable with a stratum of coal or of soil; a “deposit” of human energy, skill, and habit of working together, which it would be impossible to move to a distance without destroying. Thus the results of history are embodied in geographical facts in a manner quite analogous to the determination of the physical geography of a country by its geology. Everything depends upon the point of view. As I said in 1887, in my paper on the “Scope and Methods of Geography”, the distribution between Geography and Geology lies in this, that the geologist looks at the present in order that he may interpret the past, whereas the geographer looks at the past in order that he may interpret the present. We shall make an equally clear working distinction if we say that the historian uses Geography in order to interpret the past, whereas the geographer uses History in order to interpret the present. And I believe that the geographer’s standpoint is vitally important to-day. I have only one more thing to say. Do not let it be supposed that we geographers are asking for a “soft option” in the curricula of secondary education. By all means let there be the most stringent requirements in regard both to the qualification of the teachers and in the exaction of mental effort from the pupils. All that we are demanding at the present time is that when these conditions are satisfied the pupils and the schools which select Geography as a principal subject of education shall be under no penalty either financial or in the examinations.

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Associate Editors: Cristiano Giorda (Italy), Cristiano Pesaresi (Italy), Joseph Stoltman (USA), Sirpa Tani (Finland)

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JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND DIDACTICS IN

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND DIDACTICS IN GEOGRAPHY

GEOGRAPHY

Editorial Board: Riccardo Morri (Chief), Sandra Leonardi (Assistant Chief), Miriam Marta (Assistant Chief), Victoria Bailes, Daniela De Vecchis, Assunta Giglio, Daniele Ietri, Matteo Puttilli

Dipartimento di Scienze documentarie, linguistico - filologiche e geografiche

J - READING

Sponsoring Organizations:

UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI TORINO Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Educazione

Association of European Geographic Societies

With the support of:

978886812440_100_TFB

J - READING

Vol. 2, Year 3, December, 2014

Editor in Chief: Gino De Vecchis (Italy)

2014

GEOGRAPHY JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND DIDACTICS IN

ITALIAN ASSOCIATION OF GEOGRAPHY TEACHERS (ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA INSEGNANTI DI GEOGRAFIA)

ISSN online 2281-5694 ISSN print 2281-4310