This volume offers an open, transdisciplinary living space (also green) through which to explore the different connections between Basilicata and Southern Italy, cinema, and ecology, and thus to reflect on the different forms through which the historical, cultural, and social contexts of Southern Italian regions have been variously identified and represented. In order to explore these connections, the volume embraces a wide range of perspectives that may all be grouped under the key term film ecocriticism, offering the reader a thorough analysis not only of the different ways of representing reality but also of the processes of signification through which reality itself can be understood, rethought, and transformed. This is the general framework within which the authors consider film as a proper, effective medium for ecocritical and ecophilosophical reflections concerning not only Basilicata (to which the greater part of the volume is dedicated) but also Southern Italy and, therefore, its history and its territories, communities, and identities. Furthermore, in an even more general sense, Basilicata and Southern Italy reconnects with the very idea of the South, and of all Souths, to which this volume is dedicated.

The ecosystems present a great diversity worldwide and use various functionalities according to ecologic regions. In this new context of variability and climatic changes, these ecosystems undergo notable modifications amplified by domestic uses of which it was subjected to. Indeed the ecosystems render diverse services to humanity from their composition and structure but the tolerable levels are unknown. The preservation of these ecosystemic services needs a clear understanding of their complexity. The role of research is not only to characterise the ecosystems but also to clearly define the tolerable usage levels. Their characterisation proves to be important not only for the local populations that use it but also for the conservation of biodiversity. Hence, the measurement, management and protection of ecosystems need innovative and diverse methods. For all these reasons, the aim of this book is to bring out a general view on the function of ecosystems, modelling, sampling strategies, invading species, the response of organisms to modifications, the carbon dynamics, the mathematical models and theories that can be applied in diverse conditions.

Ecocriticism has emerged as one of the most fascinating and rapidly growing fields of recent literary and cultural studies. From its regional origins in late-twentieth-century Anglo-American academia, it has become a worldwide phenomenon, which involves a decidedly transdisciplinary and transnational paradigm that promises to return a new sense of relevance to research and teaching in the humanities. A distinctive feature of the present handbook in comparison with other survey volumes is the combination of ecocriticism with cultural ecology, reflecting an emphasis on the cultural transformation of ecological processes and on the crucial role of literature, art, and other forms of cultural creativity for the evolution of societies towards sustainable futures. In state-of-the-art contributions by leading international scholars in the field, this handbook maps some of the most important developments in contemporary ecocritical thought. It introduces key theoretical concepts, issues, and directions of ecocriticism and cultural ecology and demonstrates their relevance for the analysis of texts and other cultural phenomena.

CONTENTS: Dialogo Ergo Sum: from a Reflexive Ontology to a Relational Ontology, R. Marchesini – The Party of the Anthropocene: Post-humanism, Environmentalism and the Post-anthropocentric Paradigm Shift, F. Ferrando – From Anthropocentrism to Post-humanism in the Educational Debate, A. Ferrante e D. Sartori – Senseless Distributions: Posthumanist Antidotes to the Mass Hermit, D. Sisto – The Post-human Sound: an Interview with Michelangelo Frammartino, A. Lanfranchi – Against Animal Rights? A Comment on Contro i diritti degli animali? Proposta per un antispecismo postumanista (Against Animal Right? A Proposal to a Post-human Antispeciesism), by R. Marchesini, A.G. Biuso – Posthuman Glasses for Nomadic Subjectivities: a Comment on Il postumanesimo filosofico e le sue alterità (Philosophical Posthumanism and Its Others), by F. Ferrando, A. Balzano – Reviews: LNRZ, Golem (2014); LNRZ, Astrogamma (2015), V. Gamberi – Alessandro Ferrante, Pedagogia e orizzonte post-umanista (2014), C. Palmieri – Davide Sisto, Narrare la morte. Dal romanticismo al post-umano (2013), C. Rebuffo – Wajdi Mouawad, Anima (2015), D. Zagaria – Her (2013), film directed by Spike Jonze, A. Lanfranchi e G. Ravanelli.

Dialogo Ergo Sum: from a Reflexive Ontology to a Relational Ontology, R. Marchesini - The Party of the Anthropocene: Post-humanism, Environmentalism and the Post-anthropocentric Paradigm Shift, F. Ferrando - From Anthropocentrism to Post-humanism in the Educational Debate, A. Ferrante e D. Sartori - Senseless Distributions: Posthumanist Antidotes to the Mass Hermit, D. Sisto - The Post-human Sound: an Interview with Michelangelo Frammartino, A. Lanfranchi - Against Animal Rights? A Comment on Contro i diritti degli animali? Proposta per un antispecismo postumanista (Against Animal Right? A Proposal to a Post-human Antispeciesism), by R. Marchesini, A.G. Biuso - Posthuman Glasses for Nomadic Subjectivities: a Comment on Il postumanesimo filosofico e le sue alterità (Philosophical Posthumanism and Its Others), by F. Ferrando, A. Balzano - Reviews: LNRZ, Golem (2014); LNRZ, Astrogamma (2015), V. Gamberi - Alessandro Ferrante, Pedagogia e orizzonte post-umanista (2014), C. Palmieri - Davide Sisto, Narrare la morte. Dal romanticismo al post-umano (2013), C. Rebuffo - Wajdi Mouawad, Anima (2015), D. Zagaria - Her (2013), film directed by Spike Jonze, A. Lanfranchi e G. Ravanelli.

Contains research project reports arranged by subject with descriptors from the EUDISED Multilingual Thesaurus.