Undergraduate Course: Geography Fieldwork: Foundations (Human): Cape Town (GEGR09016)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 9 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | This is a 10 credit residential field course that will provide MA (Hons) Geography students with valuable insights into:
1) The historical geography of Cape Town within its national and international context- from the legacy of the Dutch East India Company to that of apartheid
2) The contemporary processes driving economic, social and urban inequality in Cape Town and South Africa, and the effectiveness of policies designed to reduce such inequalities
3) The politics of representation in the city, focussing on power struggles over the portrayal of influential people (e.g. Mandela) and major events (e.g. District Six) which have shaped the spaces and places in which Capetonians live.
The emphasis of the course is on research methods and research design, and students will receive foundational instruction and undertake group project work in order to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge for their senior honours year.
***PLEASE NOTE FIELD COURSE LOCATIONS MAY CHANGE FOR A VARIETY OF REASONS, INCLUDING SECURITY RISKS, INCREASED COSTS OR INABILITY TO ACCESS FIELD LOCATIONS. ANY CHANGES TO THE MAIN DESTINATION OF THE FIELD TRIP WILL BE ANNOUNCED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE*** |
| Course description |
This is a week-long residential field course in human geography for 3rd year single honours geography students. The field course is designed to build on and extend the more theoretical work already encountered in pre-honours human geography courses. As well as teaching students about the fascinating geography and history of Cape Town and South Africa, the field course emphasises the development of research design and field research skills in human geography. During the course we will focus on important methodologies currently practised in many subfields of human geography. We examine major elements of the research experience including project design, theoretical frameworks for research, data sources, methods, fieldwork, and analysis. Throughout the course we will ask you to conduct work in small groups. As a small group, you will need to work together carefully and proactively in order to grasp some important principles of research design that will be hugely beneficial to the remainder of your studies.
The course will be structured as follows:
Spring: Introductory session in Edinburgh on the field course, on Cape Town, and what to expect, together with a health and safety briefing.
Autumn (prior to the start of teaching): Field course dates TBA
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | Pay for own lunches and dinners, and some museum admission fees. |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- to understand the relationship between human geographical theories and methods
- to appreciate the wide range of methodologies used in human geography, and critically assess their weaknesses and strengths
- to conduct a small research design project, and in doing so gain experience of teamwork and collaborative research planning
- to understand what it takes to behave safely, ethically and respectfully at all times while in the field, particularly in communities facing the significant challenges of poverty
- to make connections between theoretical concepts in human geography and real case studies
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Reading List
Biko, S. (1978) I Write What I Like (Cape Town: Picador).
Bond, P. (2013) "The Mandela Years in Power"
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/12/06/the-mandela-years-in-power/
Dubow, S. (1992) "Afrikaner Nationalism, Apartheid and the Conceptualization of 'Race', Journal of African History 33, 2: 209-237
Hart, D. (1988) ¿Political manipulation of urban space: the razing of District Six, Cape Town¿, Urban Geography 9 (6) pp603-628.
Mandela, N. (1994) The Long Walk to Freedom (London: Abacus)
Miraftab, F. (2007) ¿Governing Post Apartheid Spatiality: Implementing City Improvement Districts in Cape Town¿, Antipode 39 (4): 602¿626
Morris, M. (2012) The History of Apartheid: Race vs Reason. South Africa 1948-1994 (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball Publishers)
Mwayi L. (2017) "Memory, Oral History and Conservation at Robben Island's Bluestone Quarry", South African Historical Journal, 69:4, 583-597.
Pohlandt-McCormick, H. (2000) "I saw a Nightmare ... Soweto, June 16, 1976", History and Theory, 39, 4: 23-44;
Rassool, C. (2006) ¿Making the District Six Museum in Cape Town¿, Museum International 58(1-2) pp9-18.
Robinson, J. (1996) The Power of Apartheid: State, Power and Space in South African Cities (Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann).
Ross, R. (1994) Beyond the Pale: Essays on the History of Colonial South Africa (Johannesburg: Wits Press)
Smith, D.M. (ed) (1992) The Apartheid City and Beyond: Urbanization and Social Change in South Africa (London: Routledge).
Western, J. (1996) Outcast Cape Town (2nd edition) (Berkeley: University of California Press)
Worden, N. (2000) The Making of Modern South Africa: Conquest, Segregation and Apartheid (London: Blackwell).
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Cape Town,Human Geography,Politics of Representation,Urban Inequality,Power Relations |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Tom Slater
Tel:
Email: tom.slater@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Carry Arnold
Tel: (0131 6)50 9847
Email: Carry.Arnold@ed.ac.uk |
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