Undergraduate Course: Frontiers in Human Geography: Capital, Land & Power (GEGR10121)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course aims to grapple with many of the 'big' themes in political and economic geography- nationalism, globalisation, financialisation, neoliberalism, and so on- but rather than deal with these in the abstract sense, or based on case studies far away, we will consider how they are manifest in the spaces around us. Each lecture will be based on a specific landscape in Scotland, the making of which amounts to an epochal 'moment' in the formation of contemporary society and space. By attending to the power struggles evident at these moments- and how they spill into the present- the students will be encouraged to adopt a critical 'way of seeing', where we strive to explain and understand the environments in which we live.
The course will place particular emphasis on putting theoretical insight together with contextual detail, and the importance of using one to support the other. This will build on the philosophical questions of how knowledge is created, processed and politicised. |
| Course description |
The content of the course will range in focus from the 18th century right up to the present day. Whilst the course is specifically focussed on Scotland, the theoretical lens is far wider, and the course should appeal to those with an interest in political and economic geography more broadly
Week 1: Introduction- Looking at Landscape Politically
Week 2: The Isle of Barra- The Highland Clearances, 'So-Called Primitive Accumulation' and the shifting ecologies of absence
Week 3: Coatbridge: Industrialisation, Urbanisation and Class Struggle
Week 4: Glasgow- The Rise and Fall of Public Housing
Week 5: The Isle of Skye and the City of Edinburgh- Branding Place through the Tourist Gaze
Week 6: Field Trip to Granton- De-Industrialisation, Stigmatisation and the Growth Machine
Week 7: Grangemouth- Powering the Infrastructural State
Week 8: The Landownership Debate
Week 9: Forsinard Flows- The Contested Politics of Conservation and Wilderness
Week 10: Scotland- the resurgence of 'civic' nationalism
Week 11: Revision Session
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | Bus Day Return Ticket for Fieldtrip |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2015/16, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: 40 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
| Course Start Date |
11/01/2016 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Fieldwork Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
174 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
60 %,
Coursework
40 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Research Essay (40%): 2,000 words. Students will be asked to pick a landscape of their choice and reflect on the processes that have 'produced' it«br /»
Degree Examination (60%): Two hour exam where students are asked to answer two out of six questions |
| Feedback |
Students will be given feedback on their assessed work.
Summative feedback will be given for tutorial participation (in small groups, students will be assigned a week to introduce the key readings, with a summary of main points and discussions) |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
|
| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | Frontiers in Human Geography: Capital, Land & Power | 2:00 | |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- gain an insight into key debates in the formation of contemporary Scottish politics and society, from landownership to place-marketing and identity building
- use critical theory at the macro level to explain contextual detail at the micro level, and vice versa
- understand why 'the production of space' matters
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Reading List
Blaikie, A (2010), 'Retrieving "that invisible leeway": landscapes, cultures, belonging' in 'The Scots Imagination and Modern Memory', Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp 136-173
Craig, D (1197) 'On the Crofter's Trail: In Search of the Clearance Highlanders', Pimlico Press, London
Davidson, N (2001), 'Marx and Engels on the Scottish Highlands', 'Science and Society' 65 (3): 286-326
Gray, N and Mooney, G (2011), 'Glasgow's new urban frontier: "Civilising" the population of "Glasgow East"', 'City' 15 (1), 4-24
Harvey, D (2006), 'Neoliberalism as Creative Destruction', 'Geografiska, Annaler, Series B: Human Geography' 88 (2), 145-158
Hughes, G (1999), 'Urban revitalisation: the use of festive time strategies', 'Leisure Studies' 18 (2): 119-135
MacLeod, L (2008), 'Life among Leith plebs: of arseholes, wankers and tourists in Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting', 'Studies in the Literary Imagination' 41 (1), 89-106
Marx, K (1990), 'So-called Primitive Accumulation' in 'Capital-Volume 1', Penguin: London, pp 873-895
Massey, D (1994), 'Uneven Development: Social Change and Spatial Divisions of Labour' in 'Space, Place and gender', Cambridge: Polity Press, pp 86-114
Mitchell, D (2008), 'New Axioms for Reading the Landscape: Paying Attention to Political Economy and Social Justice' in Westcoast, J and Johnston, D (eds), 'Political Economies of Landscape Change', Dordecht: Springer, pp 29-50
Madgin R and Rodger, R (2013), 'Inspiring Capital? Deconstructing Myths and Reconstructing Urban Environments, Edinburgh, 1860-2010', 'Urban History' 40 (3): 507-529
Mooney, G and Poole, L (2005), 'Marginalised voices: resisting the privatisation of council housing in Glasgow', 'Local Economy' 20 (1): 27-39
Penrose, J and Cumming, C (2011), 'Money Talks: Banknote iconography and symbolic constructions of Scotland', 'Nations and Nationalism' 17 (4): 821-942
Rolnik, R (2013), 'Late Neoliberalism: the Financialisation of Homeownership and Housing Rights', 'International Journal of urban and Regional Research' 37 (3): 1058-1066
Rose, G (1997), 'Looking at Landscape: the Uneasy Pleasures of Power' in McDowell, L and Sharp, J. P. (eds), 'Space Gender, Knowledge: Feminist Readings', pp 193-200
Smith, N (2010), 'Uneven Development: Nature, Capital and the Production of Space', Verso, London
Wightman, A (2010), 'The Poor Had No Lawyers: Who Owns Scotland and How They Got It' Birlinn Ltd, Edinburgh |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Geography,Politics,Production of Space,Landscape,Capitalism |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Hamish Kallin
Tel: (0131 6)50 2533
Email: H.Kallin@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Faten Adam
Tel: (0131 6)50 5850
Email: geography@ed.ac.uk |
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