GEOPOLITICS AND GEOECONOMICS

The course is part of the "Global markets" track. It aims to provide students with the main conceptual and methodological tools of economic and political geography. The fundamental objective of the course is to provide knowledge related to the main geo-economic and geopolitical dynamics, useful for understanding the importance of the geographic perspective in the evolution of the global economic system, also with respect to the concept of sustainable development.

1. Knowledge and understanding
To acquire the basic concepts of economic and political geography and the related reference terminology
To understand the main spatial and territorial dimensions of the action of enterprises, in particular multinationals, of states and of international organizations.
To acquire the main concepts and tools of geopolitical analysis.

2) Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
To acquire the capability to use the basic concepts of economic and political geography and its language to interpret the evolution of the global economic system and its dynamics.
To understand how to use the concepts and tools of geopolitics to interpret the evolution of the system of international economic relations in a synchronic perspective.

3) Ability to judge
To develop the capability to formulate and argue interpretative hypotheses regarding the evolution of possible geo-economic and geopolitical scenarios.
To develop the ability to select the most reliable sources, to constructively criticize reports and papers relevant to the study path.

4) Communication skills
The student must be able to synthesize the acquired knowledge in an efficient and coherent way.

Basic concepts of economics and of international political economics.

- Globalization and place, globalization and space, globalization and time
- Globalizing economic geographies
- Neoliberalism, instability and globalization
- Development, inequality and globalization
- Environment, sustainability and globalization
- Sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda
- Reorienting the governance framework of globalization
- Geopolitical scenarios and international relations: order and disorder in a multipolar world

Students can prepare the exam on the study material/readings listed below:
- W.E. Murray and J. Overton, Geographies of Globalization, Second edition, London and New York, Routledge, 2015, chapters 1-2,3 (pp. 72-93),4-5, 7-10.
- I. Talia, V. Amato, Scenari e mutamenti geopolitici. Competizione ed egemonia nei grandi spazi, Bologna, Pàtron, 2015.
- The class slides that will be made available before the end of the course in the moodle platform.

For all students the exam consists of a written test, with 5 open questions on the topics of the course. The test lasts 120 minutes and it is aimed at verifying the acquisition by students of the basic concepts of economic-political geography and geopolitics, also with reference to the issue of sustainable development, as well as their ability to contextualise these concepts with respect to the evolution of the international economic system.
Each answer is worth a maximum of 6 points (out of 30).

The course is organized with frontal-lectures. In each lesson the final part is destined for discussion with the students, according to modalities consistent with the number of the class.

English

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "International cooperation" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development