ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF ARAB COUNTRIES

Within the framework of the course in Language, Politics and Economics of the Arab countries, this teaching aims at studying key topics of the composite political and economic geography of the region through a critical perspective.

Students will acquire the analytical and methodological tools necessary to critically interpret the complex and variegated political and economic geography of the Arab region, by investigating key topics (e.g the labour question; natural resources and environment; agricultural development and agribusiness; the various forms of social contestation that have emerged over the last decade), drawing from several case studies (from North Africa to the Gulf), and taking into account a plurality of sources.

Knowledge of English
Background knowledge of the contemporary history of economic policies in the Arab countries

This teaching will deal with the following topics and corresponding case studies:
i) Agricultural development and agribusiness (case studies: Morocco and Palestinian Territories);
ii) Employment of foreign female workers in the export-oriented textile industry (case study: Jordan) and the domestic service sector (case studies: Gulf countries and Lebanon);
iii) Energy resources and environment geographies;
iii) Forms of social contestation in the context of neoliberal reforms over the last decade (e.g. movements of unemployed in Morocco and Tunisia; the mobilization of trade unions in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia).

The list of readings to prepare the oral examination is available on moodle https://moodle.unive.it/login/index.php (Political and Economic Geography of Arab countries 2020-2021).

Those students who will not attend the classes are kindly requested to get in contact with me.

The issues covered will be examined through group activities at the end of each topic.

The issues covered in the course will be discussed in class, starting from specific questions raised by the professor or daily newspapers connected to the topics covered by the lessons.

- Power-point presentations
- Case study analysis
- Group activities
- Analysis of audio sources and videos
- Analysis of primary sources (interviews, official documents, statistical data..)
- Complementary readings on the covered topics (not compulsory for the exam)

English

oral

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