Geography

Geographies of food are considered principally through long-run and contemporary shifts in the framing of food practices; through shifting power-relations in food networks; and through debates about conceptualizing food-network powers and interests. Animal geographies are considered as a key component in post-humanist, post-environmentalist enquiry in geography, drawing on the co-construction of human/animal spaces and places, practices of human/animal association, and moral and ethical debates from animal welfare to biosecurity. Examination of traditional and contemporary forms of animal representation are examined, leading to an assessment of ideas of hybridity, dwelling, and co-constitutionism.

This course addresses the global/local nexus in the production, consumption, and use of landscapes in the world today. The aim of the course is two-fold. On the one hand, it examines the ways in which different legacies of planning and design produce different types of what we call global or globalizing landscapes. On the other hand, it studies the ways in which the valuation, production, and consumption of these global landscapes as a form of economic, social, and political capital can play a role in planning and design practices. While discussing recent theories adopted in cultural geography, sociology, and (development) economics, the course focuses on the understanding of practices and processes in which planning and design can be played out differently with varied impacts. Case studies of global/globalizing landscapes drawn from all over the world play a central role in this course. Some themes explored in this course include the relationships between landscapes and evolving notions of global cities, heritage, international trade and policy, identity formation, refugee geographies, global health, human-animal relations, and conservation. The implications of each of these themes for the tasks of landscape architecture and spatial planning are explicitly made throughout the course.