Exploring Dynamic Human Worlds in Geography

1. GE21001 Dynamic Human Worlds Welcome! Dr. Susan P. Mains Geography

2. Course Lecturers • Me • Dr. Fiona Smith (Geography) • Dr. Brian Cook (UNESCO)

3. Course Overview • Level 2 • 20 Credits • Semester 1 • Module Content: • Introducing Human Geography: Power & Inequality (2 lectures) • Political Geography (9 lectures) • Cultural Geography (9 lectures) • Risk and Human Vulnerability (6 lectures)

4. Module Aims • To provide understanding of contemporary human geography, specifically issues of power and inequality. • To make linkages between theories in political, cultural and environmental geography and examples of these processes in practice. • To help students develop skills in geographical analysis and presentation (which are transferable to other disciplines and non-academic spheres).

5. Teaching and Learning Methods • Lectures – where you are expected to listenand take notes. Some lectures may include interactive exercises, e.g. Q&A sessions. • Workshops – where you collect, analyse and interpret data in relation to concepts introduced in the lectures. • On-line blogs and discussion – where you engage and thinkabout topics/videos/questions posed by the lecturer and submit your thoughts to MyDundee or the relevant blog discussion page.

6. Teaching and Learning Methods • Thinking critically • Reading • Viewing • Writing • Speaking

7. Skills • Media and Textual Analysis • Academic Writing • Risk Assessment

8. Assessment • Summary of Assessment • Course work -Individual Media Analysis Report = 16⅔% • Group Oral presentation (10 minutes) = 16⅔% • Risk Assessment (1,000 words) = 16⅔% • Examination—Two hour exam (3 questions) = 50%

9. Understanding Human Geography • Applying concepts and theories to practical examples • Workshops, fieldwork, media analysis

10. Introducing Human Geography: Space, Power & Inequality • Lecture topics: • What is Power & Inequality? • How do Human Geographers investigate Space, Power & Inequality? • Blog: http://dynamichumanworlds.wordpress.com/

11. Political Geography • Lecture topics: • Critical Geopolitics: Political power, space and inequality • Globalisation and space • Development, power and place • Nation, nationalism and territory • Citizenship, space and community • Media and geopolitical geographies • New Social Movements

12. Cultural Geography • Lecture topics • Part 1: Cultural geographies of modern and post-modern cities • Urban cultures in the nineteenth century city • Representing the modern city in cultural texts • Culture and the post-modern city: image is all? • Qualitative methodologies in researching the cultural city

13. Cultural Geography • Lecture topics • Part 2: Cartographies of power - cultural geographies of the colonial and post-colonial world • Reading maps, reading cultures • Becoming colonial: European representations of self and other during colonialism • Post-colonial cultural landscapes: global cultures and hybrid identities

14. Risk and Human Vulnerability • Lecture topics • Part 1: Risk • Risk and the scientific method – ‘patterns in uncertainty’ • Measuring and Monetizing Risk • The Dundee City Council Risk Assessment Approach and Assignment • Part 2: Human Vulnerability • Risk Society – ‘reflexive modernity’ • Cultural Risk Theory • At Risk – ‘the pressure and release model’

15. Fieldwork Semester 2: First week of Easter break Scottish Highlands, based at Aviemore (5 days, incl, travel) Cost: £120 Approx (compulsory for Geography degrees) Enjoy!