Sustainable development and rural policies have pursued strategies where farming has been often regarded as a factor deteriorating the ecosystem. But the current economic, social and environmental problems of the Earth probably call for examples of a positive integration between human society and nature. This research work presents more than a hundred case studies where the historical relationships between man and nature have generated, not deterioration, but cultural, environmental, social and economic values. The results show that is not only the economic face of globalization that is negatively affecting the landscape, but also inappropriate environmental policies. The CBD-UNESCO program on biocultural diversity, the FAO Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems and several projects of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations, as well as European rural policies acknowledge the importance of cultural values associated to landscape. This research intends to support these efforts.

The book deals with the most striking landscapes and landforms of Italy. Attention is given to landform diversity and landscape evolution through time which has been controlled by very diverse geological conditions and dramatic climate changes that have characterized the Italian peninsula and islands since the end of the last glaciation. In addition, various examples of human impact on the landscape are presented. Landscapes and Landforms of Italy contains more than thirty case studies of a multitude of Italian geographical landmarks. The topics and sites described in this book range from the Alpine glaciers to the Etna and Vesuvius volcanoes, taking into account the most representative fluvial, coastal, gravity-induced, karst and structural landscapes of the country. Chapters on the geomorphological landmarks of the cities of Rome and Venice are also included. The book provides the readers with the opportunity to explore the variety of Italian landscapes and landforms through informative texts illustrated with several color maps and photos. This book will be relevant to scientists, scholars and any readers interested in geology, physical geography, geomorphology, landscape tourism, geoheritage and environmental protection.

In an age of digital cameras and computer renderings, the tradition of drawing and assembling an architectural sketchbook seems at once either willfully eccentric and or charmingly retrograde. But its profound importance to architecture and urban planning endures. Italian Cities and Landscapes is a compact and lovely sketch book created by architect William H. Fain during a six month fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. Exploring the Italian city and countryside by bicycle, Fain used colored pencil to sketch scenes of the street life, the magnificent landscapes, and the architectural marvels of Italy. Italian Cities and Landscapes shows that for the creative individual, documenting travels through drawing continues to be a valuable means of learning to see, understand, and design.

Bringing together new writing by some of the field’s most compelling voices from the United States and Europe, this is the first book to examine Italy--as a territory of both matter and imagination--through the lens of the environmental humanities. The contributors offer a wide spectrum of approaches--including ecocriticism, film studies, environmental history and sociology, eco-art, and animal and landscape studies--to move past cliché and reimagine Italy as a hybrid, plural, eloquent place. Among the topics investigated are post-seismic rubble and the stratifying geosocial layers of the Anthropocene, the landscape connections in the work of writers such as Calvino and Buzzati, the contaminated fields of the ecomafia’s trafficking, Slow Food’s gastronomy of liberation, poetic birds and historic forests, resident parasites, and nonhuman creatures. At a time when the tension between the local and the global requires that we reconsider our multiple roots and porous place-identities, Italy and the Environmental Humanities builds a creative critical discourse and offers a series of new voices that will enrich not just nationally oriented discussions, but the entire debate on environmental culture. Contributors: Marco Armiero, Royal Institute of Technology at Stockholm * Franco Arminio, Writer, poet, and filmmaker * Patrick Barron, University of Massachusetts * Damiano Benvegnù, Dartmouth College and the Oxford Center for Animal Ethics * Viktor Berberi, University of Minnesota, Morris * Rosi Braidotti, Utrecht University * Luca Bugnone, University of Turin * Enrico Cesaretti, University of Virginia *Almo Farina, University of Urbino * Sophia Maxine Farmer, University of Wisconsin-Madison * Serena Ferrando, Colby College * Tiziano Fratus, Writer, poet, and tree-seeker * Matteo Gilebbi, Duke University * Andrea Hajek, University of Warwick * Marcus Hall, University of Zurich * Serenella Iovino, University of Turin * Andrea Lerda, freelance curator * Roberto Marchesini, Study Center of Posthuman Philosophy in Bologna * Marco Moro, Editor-in-Chief of Edizioni Ambiente, Milan * Elena Past, Wayne State University * Carlo Petrini, Founder of International Slow Food Movement * Ilaria Tabusso Marcyan, Miami University (Ohio)* Monica Seger, College of William and Mary * Pasquale Verdicchio, University of California, San Diego

"During the last decade, the emergence of Italy as the dominant force in design has had a profound influence in Europe and the Americas. The phenomenon is important not only because of the high quality and diversity of the forms produced, but also because it has generated a lively debate on the sociocultural implications of product design, raising questions of vital concern to designers throughout the world. For many designers, the aesthetic quality of individual objects intended for private consumption have become irrelevant in the face of such pressing problems as poverty, urban decay, and the pollution of the environment now encountered in all industrialized countries. Consequently, they are increasingly shifting he focus of their attention from the well-designed object to man's total environment, seeing the designer's function as one that can mold patterns of behavior by creating new settings for freer, more adaptable lifestyles. Some, however, despairing of effecting social change through design, regard their task as essentially a political one. They therefore abstain from the physical designing of either objects or environments and channel their energies into the staging of events and the issuing of polemical statements. Their approach thus parallels that of many artists in other mediums who view their art in primarily conceptual terms. This publication, issued in conjunction with a major exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, is the first to deal comprehensively with these challenging developments. Over 150 objects of Italian design of the past ten years have been selected for the show and are all reproduced in color and black-and-white, as are the dozen environments by well-known Italian designers specially commissioned for the occasion, and the two awarded prizes in a concurrent competition for young designers under thirty-five sponsored by the Museum. Each environment is accompanied by a statement in which the individual or group responsible for the project clarifies his position regarding the present and future role of design. In addition to essays by Emilio Ambasz, Curator of Design at the Museum of Modern Art and director of the exhibition, the book contains contributions by a number of outstanding Italian critics and art historians. Together, these comprise the first historical survey of contemporary Italian design and a critical analysis of its intellectual and formal positions within the context of international design today." -- Publisher's description

Drawing on the diverse efforts of scholars, dealers, and collectors, Galassi establishes here for the first time the coherence and significance of early outdoor painting in Italy. Building on this foundation, he explores in depth Corot's magnificent landscapes.

Emilio Sereni's classic work is now available in an English language edition. History of the Italian Agricultural Landscape is a synthesis of the agricultural history of Italy in its economic, social, and ecological context, from antiquity to the mid-twentieth century. From his perspective in the Italian tradition of cultural Marxism, Sereni guides the reader through the millennial changes that have affected the agriculture and ecology of the regions of Italy, as well as through the successes and failures of farmers and technicians in antiquity, the middle ages, the Renaissance, and the Industrial Revolution. In this sweeping historical survey, he describes attempts by successive generations to adapt Italy's natural environment for the purposes of agriculture and to respond to its changing ecological problems. History of the Italian Agricultural Landscape first appeared in 1961. At the time of its publication it was a pathbreaking work, parallel in its importance for Italy to Marc Bloc's masterwork of 1931, The Original Characteristics of French Rural History. Sereni invented the concept of the historical "agricultural landscape": an interdisciplinary characterization of rural life involving economic and social history, linguistics, archeology, art history, and ecological studies. Originally published in 1997. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.