Geography

The course presents fundamental environmental and geographical concepts from the fields of human and physical geography and explores the interconnections, flows, and boundaries across these systems. How these systems have played out in the past, how they are changing, and what the future may hold, is critical to a full appreciation of current and future environmental challenges. This course brings together an understanding of both the biophysical geographic settings and processes that inform all facets of our landscapes, and the social engagement with their components, which present both opportunity and limitation to human development. DP requirements: Attendance of all, and satisfactory completion of all tutorial and practical assignments; students must attain an average mark of not less than 40% for the coursework component. Assessment: Essays, assignments and tutorial work count 60%; one 2-hour theory examination written in November counts 40% (subminimum of 40% required).

This course provides the spatial perspective required to address environmental and social challenges through hands-on training in core geospatial analysis methods. The first half of the course covers foundational concepts and technical skills of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), while the second half engages the class in a group project where they conduct planning, data collection, analysis, and a final presentation of their findings.

The focus of this class is economic growth, technological change and competition in a world where geography matters. It provides an understanding of the postwar history and geography of economic growth. As global production becomes increasingly integrated, workers and firms in different regions are forced more directly into competition with one another. The courses addresses how these firms, and the regions in which they are embedded, compete for the capital and labor required to sustain competitiveness. The dominant strategies of competitive advantage hinge on technology. More specifically, technological change remains one of the primary determinants of profitability and growth. Increasingly, it is recognized that the motors of national economic performance are sub-national technology districts. These innovative regions are characterized by strong ties between firms embedded in institutional structures that reinforce common sets of rules, norms, business cultures and decision routines.

Maps hold power. They represent a reality that is shaped by those creating the map and have been used as instruments of empire, governance and surveillance. This seminar looks at both the embedded power dynamics of maps as well as their contestation. The title of the seminar shall serve as a guidance in which “un-”,“mapping” and “power” are the main foci of the seminar. It starts by understanding how power is embedded in maps and explores how to analyze maps as political instruments. Students then look at various cases of mapping as critical and creative practices that challenge dominant cartographies from around the globe. In addition to building a solid understanding of power dynamics entrenched and contested through practices of (counter-)mapping, the course aims to offer students the opportunity to explore different methods of mapping and provide insight into how they could be used in the study of political science. Therefore, the course incorporates different exercises and group work through which students explores techniques of mapping, counter-maps, critical mapping, mental and narrative maps and get an overview of basic tools.

This course is a survey of current world geography and the relationship between society and the environment. Topics of study include: techniques for analyzing geographic information; resources, risks, and environmental problems; the demographics of overpopulation and migration; geographical plot techniques; urban spaces; networks and transportation systems; the geographic dimension to globalization; geopolitical theory; and current territorial conflicts.

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the complex geographies of gender roles, relations and identities and different type of feminisms in the global South. As well as exploring the theoretical approaches to gender and development thought, and especially different types of feminist thought, the course also examines a series of axes of diversity in relation to people’s lives in the global South. It examines changing social and economic aspects of development on women’s and men’s (and where research exists on trans and non-binary) lives in relation to household transformations, population mobility, poverty, employment, sexualities, gender-based violence, and development policy and practice.

This course is an introduction to political geography. Topics covered include power and states, nationalism, collective mobilization and social movements, elections, and democratization.

This course explores the complex relationships between economic development, poverty, and the environment. Over five, inter-related themes, the course covers a range of critical natural resource and environmental issues in low-and middle-income countries, that is, issues at the interface of environment and development. Using concepts and analytical tools grounded in applied economics, primarily environmental and development economics, the course begins with an examination of the relationship between poverty and environmental change related to resource use, and the role of population growth in this relationship (theme I). It then moves to a discussion of the design and implementation of policies to effect change in conservation and/or development outcomes, in weak institutional settings (theme II). A key institution is that of property rights, with common property playing an important role in resource management and conservation (theme III). Some key conservation and poverty alleviation efforts attempt to address market failures associated with the demand for, and supply of, food and energy (theme IV). While food and energy are typically supplied in rural settings, changes in the extent and compositiion of demand are associated with rapid urbanization, trade, and sectoral shifts in the economy (theme V).

The course examines the interrelationship between humans and nature, with a particular emphasis on how social power relations produce and change socio-physical conditions. The course starts from the premise that nature and society are not separate, but intimately interwoven. They are mutually intertwined and co-evolving. The course draws on a variety of critical theoretical perspectives (Marxist, post-Marxist, feminist, post-colonial) and illustrates the argument with a series of case studies. 

This course examines a range of challenging and controversial population issues facing the world today, including population growth, ageing, the COVID pandemic, immigration, the growth of megacities, the fertility crisis and environmental degradation.