Undergraduate Course: Critical Approaches to Landscapes, Power and Society (GEGR08015)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 2 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course introduces critical approaches in human geography to understanding landscapes, power and society. Drawing on ideas from cultural, political, and social geographies, this course explores the constructions and interpretations of landscapes and societies, as well as the dynamics between power and place. Through this framework this course applies critical theoretical approaches to investigate how meanings become attached to power, and how these meanings shape the understandings and experiences of landscapes and society. |
| Course description |
This course introduces critical approaches in human geography to understanding the relationships between landscapes, power and society. The critical approaches applied in this course stem from ideas within cultural, political and social geographies which centralise the role of power in socio-spatial dynamics, and how power produces complex relations between society and the landscapes we inhabit. Critical approaches in human geography provide a framework to understand society and landscapes as carrying multiple meanings. We examine society as composed of knowledge, institutions, community dynamics, representations, discourses, inclusions/exclusions, material aspects, and more. Similarly, landscapes are explored in terms of nature, bodies, the imagination, digital realms, technology, everyday experiences, and other dimensions. These various perspectives demonstrate how power imbues landscapes and society with various meanings, and how ideas in human geography can critically analyse the co-production and experiences of landscapes, power and society.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
Human Geography (GEGR08007)
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | This course is open to 2nd year students only.
The course is open to other university students however, priority will be given to students on the Geography Degree Programmes and Sustainable Development (Geography Pathway). Please contact geoset.ug.drummond@ed.ac.uk to check availability. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 130 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 8,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 3,
Other Study Hours 22,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
143 )
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| Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) |
There will be 22 hours of office hours for teaching staff.
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
100% coursework: «br /»«br /»
20% course engagement; «br /»«br /»
30% critical analysis; «br /»«br /»
50% annotated bibliography |
| Feedback |
Students will receive feedback through the following: peers and tutors during tutorial; engaging in lectures and office hours; written formative feedback on formative assessment, as well as written content for tutorial engagement. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Evaluate and examine key concepts, ongoing debates, and critical approaches central to human geography and its sub-disciplines;
- Analyse diverse perspectives through critical analysis and interdisciplinary frameworks;
- Apply course themes to real-world scenarios, building connections between theory and practice;
- Construct and design independent ideas of course themes with clarity and conciseness, through effective oral and written communication skills;
- Examine and organise independent analyses of course themes by interpreting, explaining, and discussing relevant scholarly literature.
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Reading List
| Select readings include: Alderman, D., Brasher, J., and Dwyer, O., 2020. Memorials and monuments in Kobayashi, A., (ed). International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (2nd ed). Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 39-47.; Ferreri, M., and Trogal, K., 2018. 'This is a private-public park': Encountering architectures of spectacle in post-Olympic London. City, 22(4), pp. 510-526.; Hall, S., 1997. The work of representation, in Hall, S. (ed). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: SAGE Publications Ltd., pp. 13-74.; McDowell, L., 2003. Cultures of labour: Work, employment, identity and economic transformations. In Anderson, K., Domosh, M., Pile, S., and Thrift, N. (eds). Handbook of Cultural Geography. London: Sage, pp. 98-116.; McKittrick, K., and Peake, L., 2005. What difference does difference make to geography?, in Castree, N., Rogers, A., and Sherman, D. (eds). Questioning Geography: Fundamental debates. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 39-54.; Mee, K., and Wright, S., 2009. Geographies of belonging. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 41(4), pp. 772-779.; Oswin, N., 2020. An other geography. Dialogues in Human Geography, 10(1), pp. 9-18.; Pinder, D., 2009. 'Everyday life' in Gregory, D., Johnston, R., Pratt, G., Watts, M., and Whatmore, S. (eds). The Dictionary of Human Geography (5th ed). Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 223-225.; Vickers, M., 2022. On swampification: Black ecologies, moral geographies, and racialized swampland destruction. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 113(7), pp. 1674-1681. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Students will be able to engage with, and synthesise ideas across, core concepts and current debates in human geography; apply constructive, interdisciplinary and critical analysis; work effectively, reflexively and respectfully in group (via tutorials) and individual work; write clearly and succinctly; and support their ideas rigourously with scholarly resources. |
| Keywords | ¿¿Cultures; human geography; landscapes; politics; power; societies¿,cultures,humangeography |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Rae Rosenberg
Tel:
Email: Rae.Rosenberg@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Leigh Corstorphine
Tel: (01316) 502572
Email: lcorstor@ed.ac.uk |
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