Sessions > Session FSession F.Educating about the World, Learning from it: Construction and Reception of Knowledge about Global SpaceCo-chairs: Anne-Cécile OTT, Nolwenn Azilis RIGOLLET & Romain LECONTE (Géographie-cités)The World is a geographical object, a scale, a space produced by globalisation, and perhaps even a territory (Didelon, 2013; Reghezza, 2015); it is a category of analysis, particularly for geographers, but it is also a category of action for individuals. Generally considered as the highest level of geographical scale –not to mention of political and social thinking (Grataloup, 2011)–, the World is an object of knowledge and thus of learning. Whether we are talking about global issues, questions of Otherness (strange, far-off lands), or about projecting ourselves at the international and global levels (along with the spatial practices this implies), the World is something that must be learned. The aim is thus to examine the role played in this learning process by the various entities that disseminate representations of the World. While schools provide representations that have a strong impact on the way people perceive the World (Clerc, 2002; Rigollet, 2022; Ott, 2020), the process of learning about the World also takes place outside of school, in particular through the ever-increasing access provided by the Internet and social networks (Cicchelli & Octobre, 2017). The media, through its international coverage for example (Grasland et al., 2016), creates images of the World and even helps to create a “collective stock of public spaces” (Beauguitte et al., 2016). The economic and political actors (UN, World Bank, NGOs, transnational firms, etc.) at the heart of the process of globalisation also produce a multitude of representations of the World, which reflect the fact that this entity is the product of specific geographical, historical, social, as well as political determinants. How do these institutional representations interact with more vernacular representations of the World? Do the different ways of (re)presenting global space converge or compete? This session aims to explore the ways in which knowledge about global space is constructed, disseminated and received, and to analyse the various ways in which individuals are taught to relate to the World. Selected Bibliographical ReferencesBeauguitte L., Grasland C., Severo M., 2016, “Espaces géographiques et représentations médiatiques”, L’Espace géographique, 45(1), p. 1-4. |
