Geografie in mutamento. Covid 19 e la metamorfosi del mondo

This second special issue of the “Quaderni del Semestrale di Studi e Ricerche di Geografia” was conceived alongside the evolving COVID-19 pandemic. The dramatic nature of the event has led us to experience firsthand the fragility and interdependence of the world, forcing us to question the relentless narratives of postmodernism. This comes in paradoxical alignment with the shift imposed by neoliberal policies in many parts of the world, which have unraveled the very foundations of symbolic references, essential both in the construction of meaning within social formations and in the shaping of individual subjectivities.
As the Editorial Board of the journal, we have decided to contribute to the debate that the pandemic has triggered in its first year, with an intensity that is almost overwhelming. Our editorial project aims to explore the stakes in the emerging scenarios of new contexts, where it is difficult to discern fault lines or continuities with regard to the processes of late-capitalist globalization. The collective monographic issue we present is not, and cannot be, a uni-versal reading focused solely on the one discipline that most immediately and closely concerns us, but rather a pluri-vocal reading. In line with the founding approach of the journal, we have ensured the participation of scholars from diverse backgrounds, engaging in dialogue with a geographer from time to time to offer, each from their own perspective, a critical contribution—an exchange of different positions. What we aim to foster with this special issue is an initial laboratory of reflection, where social and civic engagement reclaims its citizenship, and in which we can promote the dissemination of ideas and cultural references that are attuned to the concrete realities of the changing dynamics around us. This comes at a time when the catastrophic global crisis triggered by the SARS-CoV-2 virus seems to herald an unpredictable metamorphosis of the 21st-century world.