2023
Challenges of the Contemporary World
Name: Challenges of the Contemporary World
Code: GEO13353L
9 ECTS
Duration: 15 weeks/234 hours
Scientific Area:
Geography
Teaching languages: Portuguese
Languages of tutoring support: Portuguese, English
Regime de Frequência: Presencial
Sustainable Development Goals
Learning Goals
Geography is a dynamic discipline which constantly adapts its concerns as a reply to the real world pressures and the internal debates in the discipline. We intend to bring the student to understand the profound changes of the world today and the debates launched by these changes. And to understand the overall questions that Geography has to face, the reasons why different approaches are needed and complementary. In a geography perspective, we analyze the changing processes at the global scale, their interaction and how they condition the changes we observe at regional and local scale.
The student will be able to know and understand
1. Change processes at global level
2. Cause-Effect relations between them
3. The dynamic dimension of these processes
4. The relative importance of such processes for the change at regional and local levels
5. The geographic view on the changing processes
The student will be able to know and understand
1. Change processes at global level
2. Cause-Effect relations between them
3. The dynamic dimension of these processes
4. The relative importance of such processes for the change at regional and local levels
5. The geographic view on the changing processes
Contents
The global world and the relations between the global and the local. A geographical view on the local-global relationship and the ongoing changes. Geography as an integrative approach between the ecological and physical, and the social and economics dimensions.
Population and demography, public intervention
Urban concentration and new urban-rural linkages, new life models and new relations
Economic inequalities and the limits of capitalism as model for society organization
Mobility and transports: a look at the future and the challenges of a world getting smaller
The limits of natural resources, environmental degradation and recuperation: water and soils
The climate change scenarios and impacts, mitigation and adaptation
Food and nutrition sustainability
Sustainability for the 21th century and beyond
Population and demography, public intervention
Urban concentration and new urban-rural linkages, new life models and new relations
Economic inequalities and the limits of capitalism as model for society organization
Mobility and transports: a look at the future and the challenges of a world getting smaller
The limits of natural resources, environmental degradation and recuperation: water and soils
The climate change scenarios and impacts, mitigation and adaptation
Food and nutrition sustainability
Sustainability for the 21th century and beyond
Teaching Methods
Coordination, by a small group of Geographers, who secure coherence of the themes and the geographical perspective on the same.These lecturers present the scientific knowledge and the analysis of the theme. For each theme, invited speakers, from the private and public sector, present their experiences and the way the ongoing changes affect their sector or organization.
The students need to participate in the classes. For each theme, they develop research and need to present their analysis, and how the questions addressed affect the territories they know best. The students work is in groups or individual. The participation in lectures and debates, and the revision of published news for each theme, is also foreseen.
The students need to participate in the classes. For each theme, they develop research and need to present their analysis, and how the questions addressed affect the territories they know best. The students work is in groups or individual. The participation in lectures and debates, and the revision of published news for each theme, is also foreseen.
Teaching Staff
