Geographies of Mediterranean Europe

This edited volume highlights the geographies of six European Mediterranean countries: France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Turkey and Greece. The book provides a balanced overview on what the geographers of these six countries have investigated and reflected in recent decades. This thematically arranged book takes into account the national differences of the authors, but also highlights the main contributions of Mediterranean geographies on a global scale. It reinforces a perception of common problems and debates in Southern Europe. This book appeals to the institutionalized geographical community of Mediterranean countries but also to a global audience of scholars of geography, territorial and spatial studies, social sciences and history. 

List of contents

Preface: Seeking the common arguments of Mediterranean European geographies. (Rubén C. Lois-González).- Section I: The great contributions of Mediterranean geographical thought.- Chapter 1.The construction of geographical discourse in Italy over the past half century (Franco Farinelli).- Chapter 2.A geographical look at the territorial planning utopias of the past two centuries in the Mediterranean region (Jean-Yves Puyo).- Chapter 3.Geography as a social science, education, research and action. The Portuguese case (Joao Ferrao & J.A. Rio-Fernandes).- Chapter 4.Spanish geographical thinking in the present: its influence and original proposals in a context dominated by tradition (Rubén C. Lois-González).- Section II: Relevant topics of study in Mediterranean geography.- A) The landscape and environmental approach.- Chapter 5.Physical geography and environmental issues in Portugal. (Lúcio Cunha).- Chapter 6.The environment in Spanish geography: a decade of research (Jorge Olcina & María Hernández).- Chapter 7.Geographies of the South. The study of the Portuguese landscape: the characterization to  understand the socio-ecological systems that compose it (Teresa Pinto-Correia).- B) Urbanization, diaspora and new economic activities.- Chapter 8.The 'Soft City' of EU power elites: Athens from a neoclassical capital to "Oriental" margin (Lila Leontidu).- Chapter 9.The Great Beauty: tourism and geographical thought in Italy (Caterina.Cirelli).- Chapter 10.National borders and Mediterranean diaspora (Vicenzo Guarrasi).-  Chapter 11.The geography of trade in France: a geography in movement (Nathalie Lemarchand).- Section III. The transactional perspective and comparative studies on Mediterranean countries.- Chapter 12. A model of development of transport between Spain and France: between recovery and mimicry, overcoming divergences. (Jean-Pierre Wolff).- Chapter 13. Urbanization in the Northern Mediterranean in a changing context of economic growth and decline:  the cases of Italian, Spanish and Greek urban systems (Petros Petsimeris).- Section IV: Applied geographic thinking: education and spatial planning.- Chapter 14. Regions, Nationalities, Nations?  A journey Through the contemporary geographic images of  Spain´s regional diversity (Jacobo García-Álvarez).- Chapter 15. Geographical presences and absences. The role of geographers in public territorial debates in Spain (Oriol Nel.lo).- Chapter 16.  Geography and spatial planning in Italy. Piergiorgio Landini

About the author

¿Rubén C. Lois-González has been a Professor of geography of the University of Santiago de Compostela since 2007 (previously Senior Lecturer and Lecturer). His specialties are urban and cultural geography.

Prof. Lois-González authored of over 150 indexed articles in academic journals as Annales de Géographie, Die Erde, Mobilities. European Planning Studies, Land, Use & Policy, Sustainibility, Gender, Place and Culture, Tourism Géographies, Tourism Management Perspectives, Sud-Ouest Européen, Scripta Nova, Boletin de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles, etc. He has been principal investigator of European projects of the ESPON program, RISE, INTERREG and partner of FP5 or Norwegian and French programs.

He has been a visiting Professor at the universities of Le Mans, Caen, Toulouse-Le Mirail (Francia), Bergen (Noruega), Federal de Bahia (Brasil) and Messina (Italy). He  was a member of the Committee of Habilitation in Geography of the MIUR from 2012 until 2014 and evaluated from the ANVUR from 2016 in Italy. He has been the Coordinator of the evaluations of the National Plan of R&D in geography in Spain from 2015 and evaluator of the Romanian and Poruguese research agency.

Rubén Lois-González  is Vice-President of International Geographical Union (IGU) from 2018,  one of the Founders of the Order of Spanish geographers, a Member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Spanish Geographers since 2017 and the Spanish Committee of the IGU today. He was a director of the network of universities Galicia-North of Portugal from 2013 to the end of 2017. 

Product details

• Assisted by: Rubé Camilo Lois-González (Editor), Rubén Camilo Lois-González (Editor), Rubén Camilo Lois-González (Editor)
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 26.12.2021
• EAN: 9783030494667
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3049466-7
• No. of pages: 395
• Dimensions: 155 mm x 18 mm x 235 mm
• Illustrations: VI, 395 p. 65 illus., 46 illus. in color.
• Series: Springer Geography
• Subject: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Geosciences > Geography