Franco Farinelli
Western culture interprets travel in various ways. It has done so in the past and continues to do so today. There are different conceptions and modes, each in its own way, that give meaning to one of the oldest activities related to the human experience: that of movement, crossing, going to, and coming from. Through travel, it is possible to analyze and redefine the evolution of modern culture as a human attitude that relates to the surrounding world, whether near or far.
Franco Farinelli has taught in Geneva, Los Angeles (UCLA), Berkeley, and in Paris at the Sorbonne and the École Normale Supérieure. He is currently the director of the Department of Philosophy and Communication Sciences at the University of Bologna, where he teaches Geography. He is the president of the Association of Italian Geographers (AGEI). Among his publications are Geografia del mondo arabo e islamico (Geography of the Arab and Islamic World, Utet, 1993), Geografia. Un'introduzione ai modelli del mondo (Geography: An Introduction to World Models, Einaudi, 2003), L'invenzione della Terra (The Invention of the Earth, Sellerio, 2003), and La crisi della ragione cartografica (The Crisis of Cartographic Reason, Einaudi, 2009).
