Geography

This course considers the characteristics and political dynamics of the unprecedented geographical construction of the European Union. It is based on the interactive pedagogy of the flipped classroom: students appropriate resources and facts during the week and mobilize them in group work workshops during the course sessions. Students prepare and present serious simulation games.

This course discusses the basic concepts and principles that underpin geomorphic landforms and processes operating at the Earth's surface in a great variety of landscapes around the globe. It presents the significance of time and space scales for recognizing process-form linkages in different environments and the interactions between fluids and sediment transport that result in the formation and development of a variety of landforms.

This course examines tourism as a lens to explore key issues of globalization and economic development and to demonstrate how tourism, a global phenomenon, influences local people’s lives. Course objectives are to 1) introduce key concepts relevant to tourism and globalization; 2) apply theoretical frameworks to the analysis of contemporary issues of the globalization of tourism, and the complex  relationships that link local, regional, national and international processes and patterns of tourism development; 3) explore the relationships between the forces of globalization, multinational tourism corporations, and the state and civil society; and 4) interrogate the economic, political and social ramifications of the systemic sources of power and inequality which are reflected in and sustained by international tourism. Finally, this course will also consider the future of tourism with regard to new sectors and trends such as ecotourism, adventure tourism, and the effects of social media and the Internet, along with what travel will look like in a post-COVID-19 world both in and beyond Hong Kong.

This course examines city systems and theories of urban location; internal spatial structure of the city; commercial and industrial location; social areas; neighborhood and land use change; and urban trends and public policy.

Climate change is not a modern phenomenon, as Earth’s systems are dynamic and rarely stable over extended periods of time. Climate variability occurs across multiple spatial and temporal scales, but we generally lack long enough scientific or historical records to directly measure most long-term patterns of climate change. Palaeoceanography fills this void by providing evidence of past changes in ocean conditions including temperature, salinity, productivity, circulation, and ecology. These variables are typically reconstructed through analyses of the geochemistry, microfossil composition, and organic contents of ancient marine sediments that have either been exposed on land or collected through seafloor drilling. Palaeoceanography offers an opportunity to reconstruct past climate change across timescales, providing a broader context for studying modern climate change.

The course examines the organization of spaces from the point of view of population (i.e. recognition of spatial patterns and dynamics, with population as the focus) and the relevance of the study of population dynamics with special reference to their spatial implications for development. Examples from both the developed and the developing world are be used to treat an introduction to population geography, data, spatial measures and mapping, population characteristics (such as age, sex, nuptiality, households, urban-rural patterns, and socio-economic), components of population change, population distribution, world population growth, and distribution.

This methodological workshop imparts basic reflexes when it comes to thematic cartography. The course focuses on a limited number of skills that are systematically addressed methodologically and then put into practice in subsequent sessions. This dual approach (methodological and practical) develops critical faculties when using, researching, making, and ordering maps, while considering the feasibility and practical difficulties underlying the construction of these images.

How do different actors shape, relate to, sustain or contest the shifting orthodoxies of development? This course is organized as a genealogy of development policy thinking from post-war decolonization onwards. It gives students an essential introduction to the evolution of international development as a global project from its post-World War II origins to the present day. It maps out the key moments (of innovation, crisis, and reinvention) in that evolution and the shifts in thinking that underpin changes in global development agendas/policy.

This course provides an overview of natural hazards such as floods, severe storms, droughts, multi-hazard interrelationships, the perception of natural hazards, and the complex relationship that exists between natural hazards and society. Lectures on specific hazards are addressing the basic theory for the creation and/or existence of each hazards, along with an understanding of some of the primary and secondary effectives (both negative and positive) of each hazard, including case study examples. 

Cities are very important spaces within which complex economic, political, cultural, and environmental processes are produced and experienced. This course introduces students to urbanization from a global perspective. The objective is to understand contemporary processes of urban change in historical perspective from both the global north and the global south. The course draws on case studies and examples from South America, North America, Europe, South Africa, and Asia to exemplify key themes in urban studies including industrialization, suburbanization, global cities, inequality, and sustainability.