L'era del compimento del "pensiero per linee globali". Convergenze e contraddizioni in chiave geografica

THE AGE OF COMPLETION OF" THINKING BY GLOBAL LINES". CONVERGENCIES AND CONTRADICTIONS FROM A GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW POINT. In the global age, the world appears to be increasingly complex as a result of the interaction between multiple, contrasting forces of a different nature: economic, social and territorial. This interaction makes any firm interpretation of current social and cultural processes a hard task to achieve. Many attempts to make sense of the complexity of our times often make use of the language and methodological tools typical of geographical studies. However, these are frequently considered to be descriptive in nature. This article discusses the potentials that geographical studies have to identify spatial differences and cultural patterns from a number of observational vantage points. In order to exemplify our arguments, we make use of the topic of international migrations. Migrations are, typically, territorial phenomena which, however, can only be fully understood through the kind of transcalar reading which is typical of geographical studies.