We are pleased to announce the international seminar Rural beautification. Socio-spatial transformations in rural areas between Colombia, Mexico, and Italy.
The seminar takes place in the aula Parva of Palazzo Fenzi (via San Gallo 10, Florence) on Thursday 16 March (2-5 p.m.), 2023.
The event is organized by LaGeS in the framework of the Master’s Degree in Geography, spatial management, heritage for international cooperation of the University of Florence and the Phd program in Mutamento Sociale e Politico (University of Florence and Turin).
We are delighted to host the following speakers:
- Filippo Barbera, University of Turin, editor of Contro i borghi. Il Belpaese che dimentica i
Paesi (Donzelli, 2022) - Sebastián Villamizar-Santamaría, CUNY University, New York, visiting professor at SAGAS,
Master Degree in Geography, Spatial Management, Heritage for International Cooperation - Eliana del Pilar González Márquez, Cinvestav Unidad Mérida, Mexico City, visiting scholar
at LaGeS
Click here to download the seminar’s poster
Here follows a presentation of the event:
“Across different socio-spatial contexts worldwide, the rediscovery and enhancement of natural and cultural heritage is promoted as a one-way alternative to the marginalization of other-than-urban areas, given the crisis of established agricultural systems. However, the ways in which local resources become invested with (novel) values tend to strongly share the same major characteristics almost everywhere, through the implementation of aesthetical and developmental schemes that might reflect and perform the urban gaze imposed upon the rural world.
Villages, borghi and pueblos become thus beautified, so as to attract both domestic and international capital, visitors/consumers and new residents, while processes of socio-spatial exclusion and cultural commodification are enabled.
Are there possible alternatives for rural areas to marginalization on the one hand, and beautification on the other? Departing from this general question, this seminar aspires to create the ground on which to exchange experiences and reflect upon the implications of transformations in rural areas between Mexico, Colombia and Italy”.
Pics from the event:
