52
the urban areas bounded by walls and ring roads with their tolls was still the key to
understanding the mechanisms of the territories.
In Southern Europe, a city is deeply rooted in the territory from which it develops, primarily through the legacy of classical culture with a strong connection to the
place and its foundation. In this light, people hold such a tectonic sense of belonging
to a specific place that one could say that the urban fact grows from some local seed,
embedded on the ground, shaped by physiographic elements – the land, the water –
gradually revealing the fabrics that artificially fabricate the landscape. These are
cultural and societal traits that usually respect the balance and nature of each place.
Youngsters and the elderly learn the importance of bonding with the community and
reinvent the site where they live (Viganò 2010; Dematteis 1995). The community
gives a new meaning to these sites by introducing new practices, values, and actions.
This way the community tightens more closely to the area in which it lives, giving
it a strong sense of place.
A territory is always specific to a place, a landscape, ways of living, and culture.
These circumstances make it possible to recognise and distinguish one area from
another. They allow someone to identify as being “from there”. Hence, giving
importance to the grounds that hold human occupation, over functional schemes,
allows for a better perception of how they evolve in space and time in their morphological, systemic, dimensional coherences (Gaspar 2003). According to various
authors and organisations (e.g. WEF/World Economic Forum), we are currently
experiencing the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where omnicality, the
Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence will provide an augmented perception
of reality or, even, an alienation from specific space and time (Schwab 2015,
pp. 3–11). Hence, when data overcome information and frequently substitute
knowledge, and the media interferes in so many dubious ways in civic and democratic values, is it even possible to implement an active Environmental Citizenship,
and how can it be implemented in some vital societal domains, as cities, landscapes,
and cultural heritage?
These are some of the concerns that the will be further discussed in this and other
chapters, under the scope of Education for Environmental Citizenship.
4.3 Vital Issues of Transportation
Transportation is another major societal issue that plays a vital role in human lives
through the organisation and the development of space. As an activity of the transportation of people, goods, energy, and information from one place to another, this
enables people to satisfy their daily needs and functions (Gasparovic and Jakovcic
2014). Transportation could be defined as one of the fundamental life functions. The
three components of sustainable development could also be addressed through the
impact of transportation, corresponding to Environmental Citizenship. Transportation
is a markedly spatial activity whose influence is visible in space. This influence is
I. Šulc et al.
the urban areas bounded by walls and ring roads with their tolls was still the key to
understanding the mechanisms of the territories.
In Southern Europe, a city is deeply rooted in the territory from which it develops, primarily through the legacy of classical culture with a strong connection to the
place and its foundation. In this light, people hold such a tectonic sense of belonging
to a specific place that one could say that the urban fact grows from some local seed,
embedded on the ground, shaped by physiographic elements – the land, the water –
gradually revealing the fabrics that artificially fabricate the landscape. These are
cultural and societal traits that usually respect the balance and nature of each place.
Youngsters and the elderly learn the importance of bonding with the community and
reinvent the site where they live (Viganò 2010; Dematteis 1995). The community
gives a new meaning to these sites by introducing new practices, values, and actions.
This way the community tightens more closely to the area in which it lives, giving
it a strong sense of place.
A territory is always specific to a place, a landscape, ways of living, and culture.
These circumstances make it possible to recognise and distinguish one area from
another. They allow someone to identify as being “from there”. Hence, giving
importance to the grounds that hold human occupation, over functional schemes,
allows for a better perception of how they evolve in space and time in their morphological, systemic, dimensional coherences (Gaspar 2003). According to various
authors and organisations (e.g. WEF/World Economic Forum), we are currently
experiencing the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where omnicality, the
Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence will provide an augmented perception
of reality or, even, an alienation from specific space and time (Schwab 2015,
pp. 3–11). Hence, when data overcome information and frequently substitute
knowledge, and the media interferes in so many dubious ways in civic and democratic values, is it even possible to implement an active Environmental Citizenship,
and how can it be implemented in some vital societal domains, as cities, landscapes,
and cultural heritage?
These are some of the concerns that the will be further discussed in this and other
chapters, under the scope of Education for Environmental Citizenship.
4.3 Vital Issues of Transportation
Transportation is another major societal issue that plays a vital role in human lives
through the organisation and the development of space. As an activity of the transportation of people, goods, energy, and information from one place to another, this
enables people to satisfy their daily needs and functions (Gasparovic and Jakovcic
2014). Transportation could be defined as one of the fundamental life functions. The
three components of sustainable development could also be addressed through the
impact of transportation, corresponding to Environmental Citizenship. Transportation
is a markedly spatial activity whose influence is visible in space. This influence is
I. Šulc et al.