Places and Regions in Human Geography
Code: 100333 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2500501 History | FB | 1 |
| 2502758 Humanities | FB | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- Nuria Valdovinos Perdices
- Email:
- nuria.valdovinos@uab.cat
Teachers
- Nuria Valdovinos Perdices
- Ricard Moren Alegret
- Francesc Romagosa Casals
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
Apart from the general knowledge acquired for passing university access exams, the only other general requirement for participating in this course is to have interest for learning about complex issues. This is a general requirement for any university student along the years.
At the start of term, in the group in English, students must demonstrate that they have already acquired, at least, a B2 level in English language. This is a basic requirement in order to be able to participate in this course.
In addition, it can be useful for students have at least basic knowledge in some Romance languages (e.g. Spanish, Catalan, French, Portuguese, Italian) and English to be able to read geographical texts in various languages.
It is recommended to take a course to get to know the Library of Letters
The concrete programmes of some groups may include fieldwork visits and/or field visits on campus.
In case of late enrolment in the course (always for justified reasons), it is the student's responsibility to catch up as soon as possible with the teaching and activities already taught.
Objectives and Contextualisation
This course is mainly devoted to first year students of the BA in History and the BA in Humanities.
The subject constitutes an introduction to the main topics of human geography from a contemporary vision of the social sciences and with preferential attention to the spatial processes that take place there (globalization, economic restructuring, increase in the urban population, emergence of network society, socioecological crisis and the gender perspective, among others).
These issues will be approached from a world perspective, paying special attention to interrelations in the uneven, interrelated and unequal planet that we inhabit.
At the end of the academic term, students will acquire the following:
- Basic and fundamental knowledge on each topic approached.
- A command on the most important concepts in human geography.
- A global vision and some basic interpretative tools about the world order functioning.
- An understanding of the main geographical elements, which form the structure of territories around the world.
- A capacity to analyse and to interpret geographical information and data.
- A capacity to connect in a significant way a variety of topics in the course program.
Competences
- History
- Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
- Humanities
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
Learning Outcomes
- Analysing the main dynamics of today's world from a geographical point of view.
- Contrasting and comparing several interpretations of geographical maps.
- Describing spatial relationships of the physical, economic, social and cultural diversity of territories on different territorial scales.
- Describing the main economic, social and cultural contemporary problems in the world.
- Explaining the structure of today's world from a geographical point of view.
- Identifying the main ideas of a related text and drawing a diagram.
- Interpreting today's main events from physical, economic, social and cultural diversity.
- Presenting the specific concepts of Geography.
Content
- Introduction to Geography. Keywords
- Political geography: a complex and changing world
- A geographical vision of the world economy and development
- Human population: structure and dynamics
- Cultural and Social geography
The lecturers of each group will adapt these contents in a concrete programme that will be explained the first day of the course
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Practicals and/or seminars | 15 | 0.6 | 2, 3, 4, 6 |
| Theoretical classes | 32 | 1.28 | 2, 3, 7 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Practical works | 20 | 0.8 | |
| Tutorial supervision of the course essays | 5 | 0.2 | 2, 7 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Personal study effort | 35 | 1.4 | 3, 4, 5, 7 |
| Preparation of Practical work | 40 | 1.6 | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
The course will be structured based on directed activities, supervised activities and autonomous activities where students will learn to develop interactively with the contents of the subject with the support of the teaching staff
- Directed activities: The faculty will make an exposition of the main concepts and theoretical proposals in each study unit. Specific cases will be explained that exemplify the studied concepts. The intention is to promote debate and discussion on the treated topics. Students can also be encouraged to participate in conferences or academic seminars.
- Supervised activities: The process of learning and acquisition of competences will be supervised by the teaching staff through individual and / or group tutorials. The teachers of the subject will be available to the students to solve the doubts and follow the evolution of the aforementioned process of learning and the acquisition of competences of the students. In addition, there may be a field trip: in this case at the beginning of the course, the teacher will explain the protocol of measures and good practices for field trips.
- Autonomous activities: it will be able individuals or in group, depending on the homework.
- The student must consider the news and information weekly published on the Virtual Campus / Moodle.
- All activities have a deadline that must be met strictly, according to the proposed schedule.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exams | 40% | 3 | 0.12 | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 |
| Practices activities I | 30% | 0 | 0 | 1, 3, 4, 5, 8 |
| Practices activities II | 30% | 0 | 0 | 2, 3, 6, 7 |
Some of the main evaluation activities are the following:
1) Written exams: capacity to interrelate the different geographical issues studied in the course until the moment of each exam.
2) Practical activities that can include: a) practical exercises in the classroom and in the whole campus to solve specific problems. b) course report / essay on reading materials; students should show capacity to search for information, to select it, to synthesise it and to organise it in a rational way. In addition, capacity to submit formally presented, almost impeccable texts, -including the correct citation of all sources of information and data.
At the start of term, the lecturers of each group will indicate further details about evaluation procedures, activities and dates.
Recovery
On the first day of class, each teacher will inform the students of the recovery process, which evaluation activities may be subject to recovery and under what conditions and will publish them on the group's Virtual Campus (Moodle).
Not assessed/Not submitted
The student can receive the grade of "Not assessed" in the event that he / she does not take at least 1/3 of the final written tests or does not do at least 1/3 of the course work required.
Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted assessment items at least than 1/3 of global mark.
VERY IMPORTANT: Partial or total plagiarising will immediately result in a FAIL (0) for the plagiarised exercise (first-year subjects) or the WHOLE SUBJECT (second-, third- and fourth-year subjects).PLAGIARISING consists of copying text from unacknowledged sources -whether this is part of a sentence or a whole text- with the intention of passing it off as the student's own production. It includes cutting andpasting from Internet sources, presented unmodified in the student's own text. Plagiarising is a SERIOUS OFFENCE.Students must respect authors' intellectual property, always identifying the sources they may use; they must also be responsible for the originality and authenticity of their own texts.
In the event that the student commits any irregularity that could lead to a significant variation in the grade of an assessment act, this assessment act will be graded with 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may be instructed. In the event of several irregularities in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade for this subject will be 0.
Bibliography
GENERAL REFERENCES:
Attané, Isabelle; Burgeilles, Carole; Rault, Wilfried (2015). Atlas mondial des femmes. Les paradoxes de l'émantipation, París: Autrement.
Brown, David L. and Schafft, Kai A. (2019). Rural People and Communities in the 21st Century. Resilience and Transformation, Cambridge, UK: Polity.
Davis, Mike (2007). Planeta de ciudades miseria, Madrid: Foca.
Diamond, Jared (2020). Upheaval. How nations cope with crisis and change, London: Penguin.
Dorling, Danny & Lee, Carl (2016). Geography, London: Profile Books.
Durand, Marie-Françoise; Copinschi, Philippe; Martin, Benoît; Placidi, Delphine (2008). Atlas de la globalización. Comprender el espacio mundial contemporáneo, València: Publicacions de la Universitat de València.
Folch, Ramon (2011). La quimera de créixer. La sostenibilitat en l'era postindustrial, Barcelona: La Magrana.
Fouberg, Erin H.; Nash, Alexander J.; Murphy, Alexander B. & de Blij, HarmJ. (2015). Human Geography: People, Place, and Culture, Somerset, NJ: Wiley.
Hiernaux, Daniel; Lindón, Alicia [eds.] (2006). Tratado de geografía humana, Barcelona: Anthropos.
Lacoste, Yves (2010). Geopolítica, Madrid: Síntesis.
Livi-Bacci, Massimo (2002). Historia mínima de la población mundial, Barcelona: Ariel.
Marshall, Tim (2020). Prisioneros: Geografía. El mundo explicado en 12 sencillos mapas, Barcelona: Planeta. (Marshall, T. (2016). Prisoners of Geography, London: Elliot & Thompson)
Marshall, Tim (2021). The Power of Geography, London: Elliot & Thompson.
Marshall, Tim (2023). The Future of Geography, London: Elliott & Thompson.
Méndez, Ricardo (2011). El nuevo mapa geopolítico del mundo, Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch.
Murphy, Alexander B. (2020). Geografía. ¿Por qué importa?, Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
Morén-Alegret, Ricard & Wladyka, Dawid (2019). International Immigration, Integration and Sustainability in Small Towns and Villages. Socio-Territorial Challenges in Rural and Semi-Rural Europe, Londres: Palgrave Macmillan / Springer.
Naím, Moisés (2013). El fin del poder, Barcelona: Debate.
Ortiz, Anna [coord.] (2011). Visions geogràfiques del món, Bellaterra: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Servei de Publicacions.
Pelletier, Philippe (2017). Quand la géographie sert à faire la paix, Lormont: Le bord de l'eau.
Richardson, Douglas et al. (eds.) (2017). The International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology, Chichester, UK; Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Romero, Joan [coord.] (2007). Geografía humana. Procesos, riesgos e incertidumbres en un mundo globalizado, Barcelona: Ariel.
Solana, Miguel [coord.] (2016). Espacios globales y lugares próximos. Setenta conceptos para entender la organización territorial del capitalismo global, Barcelona: Icaria.
Tertrais, Bruno; Papin, Delphine (2018). Atlas de las fronteras, Madrid: Cátedra.
United Nations Development Program / Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (2022). Human Development Report 2022 / Informe sobre Desarrollo Humano 2022, New York: UNDP/PNUD.
Urry, John (2017). Offshore: la deslocalización de la riqueza, Madrid: Capitán Swing.
VV.AA. (2022). Migrations. A history of where we all come from, London: DK / Penguin Random House.
During the course, additional academic books, journal articles and databases will be recommended.
Software
The main computer programs used by students are Word, Excel, Power Point... In addition, the MOODLE platform will be used, as well as, eventually, social networks such as X.
Language list
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 2 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 3 | English | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 4 | Catalan | second semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 2 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 3 | English | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 4 | Catalan | second semester | morning-mixed |