ZA121 Theory and practice in Human geography

Faculty of Science
Autumn 2024
Extent and Intensity
2/1/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
RNDr. Mgr. Pavel Doboš, Ph.D. (lecturer)
RNDr. Ondřej Šerý, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
RNDr. Ondřej Šerý, Ph.D.
Department of Geography – Earth Sciences Section – Faculty of Science
Contact Person: RNDr. Mgr. Pavel Doboš, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Geography – Earth Sciences Section – Faculty of Science
Prerequisites
Ability to read scholarly texts in English.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course explores some of the ways in which geography has been positioned in relation to its various foundations: history; philosophy; science; and culture. During geography’s engagement with these diverse knowledge positions, it has become common to speak of geographical knowledges as “situated knowledges”: always partial, always provisional. We will explore how this change has come about, examine its implications, and see how it helps us to understand geography’s involvements in the shaping of today’s world. This course is going to make a series of “visits” to intellectual sites where human geographers have done some of their most characteristic work. In other words, we will examine some of the key concepts in contemporary geographical inquiry: ideas like “landscape”, “space”, “place”, “time”, “society”, “nature”, “culture”, “representation”, “relations”, “difference”, or “affect”. We will try to understand how they have developed and changed and how they are connected to ideas in other fields. We will explore how they have shaped various paradigmatic and epistemological positions in geographical thought. We will also consider their implications for the ways in which we represent other people and other places: in writing, in visual images and maps, and in numbers and statistics. None of these constructions is innocent. Our concepts are usually freighted with power.
Learning outcomes
After attending to the course students will be able:
- to understand current conceptual debates in human geography;
- to apply research concepts into their human-geographical researches;
- to think critically about spatial cultural, societal and cultural problems of the current world;
- to discuss these problems from the geographical epistemological perspective.
Syllabus
  • 1. Introduction to the course
  • 2. Geographical traditions and their spatio-temporal origin
  • 3. From positivist to post-positivist approaches
  • 4. Geography and modernism: from modern to post-modern thought
  • 5. Radical geographies and the criticism of global political economy
  • 6. Eurocentrism and Orientalism: postcolonial critiques and imaginative geographies
  • 7. Landscape geography and the problem of representation
  • 8. Politics of performance and affect: the imperative of being non-representational
  • 9. Geography, morality, ethics
  • 10. Spatial opportunities that poststructuralism makes possible
  • 11. Geographies of virtual space, big data, and the problem of internet communication
  • 12. Critical cartographies and the cartographic reason
Literature
    required literature
  • Negative geographies, Edited by David Bissell - Mitch Rose - Paul Harrison. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2021. 318. ISBN 9781496227829
  • A place more void. Edited by Paul Kingsbury - Anna Jean Secor. Lincoln: University of Nebrasca Press, 2021, xi, 327. ISBN 9781496222633. info
  • SIMPSON, Paul. Non-representational theory. First published. London: Routledge, 2021, xi, 254. ISBN 9781138552197. info
  • SIMONSEN, Kirsten and Lasse KOEFOED. Geographies of embodiment : critical phenomenology and the world of strangers. First published. Los Angeles: Sage, 2020, 160 stran. ISBN 9781526463593. info
  • Geomedia studies : spaces and mobilities in mediatized worlds. Edited by Karin Fast - André Jansson - Johan Lindell - Linda Ryan Bengtsson - M. First published. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018, ix, 277. ISBN 9780367884659. info
    recommended literature
  • CRESSWELL, Tim. Geographic thought : a critical introduction. First published. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, 290 stran. ISBN 9781405169394. info
  • KITCHIN, Rob and Martin DODGE. Code/space : software and everyday life. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 2011, xi, 290. ISBN 9780262042482. info
  • ADAMS, Paul C. Geographies of media and communication : a critical introduction. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, xvi, 262. ISBN 9781405154147. info
  • David Harvey : a critical reader. Edited by Derek Gregory - Noel Castree. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing, 2006, ix, 324. ISBN 0631235094. info
  • MASSEY, Doreen B. For space. 1st pub. Los Angeles: Sage, 2005, viii, 222. ISBN 9781412903622. info
  • GREGORY, Derek. The colonial present : Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq. 1st pub. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2004, xix, 367. ISBN 9781577180906. info
  • Place, culture, representation. Edited by J. M. Duncan - David Ley. New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 1993, ix, 341. ISBN 0415094518. info
Teaching methods
Presentations and discussions in class, reading of compulsory literature between classes, writing short texts as homework
Assessment methods
Regular attendance in classes and participation in discussions
Five short texts as written homework (30 % of final classification)
Oral examination (70 % of final classification)
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
Teacher's information
The course is going to be affected by the current research experience and research work of the course teacher. If you want to get familiar with these, visit https://geografieznevyhodneni.cz/ or https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pavel-Dobos

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