Geographic Thought
Code: 107573 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2503710 Geography, Environmental Management and Spatial Planning | OB | 3 |
Contact
- Name:
- Abel Albet Mas
- Email:
- abel.albet@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
A commitment to regularly follow class sessions and actively participate in them is required. Students should be able to read texts in Catalan, Spanish, English, French and Italian.
Objectives and Contextualisation
Academic, scientific, political and ethical proposal:
The subject consists in the study of:
- the fundamental frameworks of geographical thought from the birth of modern geography to present days;
- epistemology and the history of geography;
- theories, concepts and methods in geography;
- geography as a critical and dissident look at the spatial expression of social, political, economic and cultural reality.
It seeks to assume:
- the critical and social commitment of geography: critical geographies as an instrument of interpretation and transformation of the world;
- the ethical commitment on injustices, imbalances and social and spatial inequalities that capitalism and neoliberalism generate in society and in the contemporary world;
- the political positioning in front of attitudes, principles and spatial initiatives that are given in relation to the territory;
- the social implication in the transformation of the territory, as citizens and as scientists;
- the capacity to generate a critical and proper discourse in front of the territorial reality, and in front of the external and dominant discourses.
Learning Outcomes
- CM10 (Competence) Discuss a specific case study, providing solid arguments related to thinking, geographical theory, and the gender perspective.
- KM14 (Knowledge) Define the fundamental frameworks of geographical thought from the birth of modern geography to the present day.
- SM01 (Skill) Analyse the relationship between society and territory applying the conceptual and theoretical framework of human geography.
Content
(Mosty) orientative program
· Geography, the social science of places.
· Classical and pre-scientific geography.
· Institutionalization of geography.
· Environmental determinism.
· French regional geography.
· Theoretical-quantitative geography.
· Critical and radical geographies.
· Anarchist geographies.
· Humanistic geography.
· Geography in the postmodern context.
· Postmodern geographies: redefining the «other» (gender, orientalism, postcolonialism).
· Postmodern geographies: redefining culture, places and landscapes.
· The sumak kawsay and other ancestral worldviews of life.
***
· Contemporary geography in Catalonia and Spain.
· Contemporary geography in Catalonia and Spain.
· Geographers and their professional activity.
· Geography and teaching.
***
· Geography and ideology; the positioning of critical geographies.
· Activism and dissidence; the critical and social commitment of geography.
· Spatial justice and territorial responsibility
· Critical cartographies.
· Critical geopolitics.
· Environmental challenges.
· Urban social movements, squatting, ZTA, the common.
· The need for a critical spatial thinking.
The final program of the subject will be distributed during the first class session of the course.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Practical sessions | 8 | 0.32 | CM10, CM10 |
| Theoretical sessions | 39 | 1.56 | KM14, KM14 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Creative essay | 15 | 0.6 | SM01, SM01 |
| Preparation of activities | 10 | 0.4 | CM10, SM01, CM10 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Autonomous activities | 75 | 3 | SM01, SM01 |
Structure of the course
The presential classes are «theoretical» (exposition by the teacher) and «practical» (readings, debates in forum based on texts).
In the UAB's Virtual Campus there is essential documentation and information for the course, both regarding the organizational aspects of the subject and in relation to the thematic contents of it. It is important to access Moodle often.
Possible teaching-learning strategies developed by the teacher:
- teaching in master classes;
- organization of the forum and debate sessions;
- teaching of practical sessions;
- proposal and guide in mandatory readings;
- tutorials of the essays;
- case development;
- eventually, participation of external speakers.
Activities that, foreseeably, the students will realize:
- unavoidable presence/follow-up to class sessions;
- necessary participation in the forum and debate sessions;
- necessary participation in the practical sessions;
- systematic reading of mandatory texts; presentation of summaries and reviews;
- exercises carried out during class sessions;
- development of a short essay (written, individual, supervised by the teacher);
- preparation and public presentation (oral, in group, tutored by the teacher) of a discussion forum on a topic related to geographical thought;
- a written or oral test.
By imposition, the teaching guide of this course includes the formula of citing some «competences», «hours», «training activities» and «learning outcomes», even though they do not correspond to the teacher's criteria.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual test | 25% | 3 | 0.12 | KM14 |
| Reading summaries; exercises, practices and participation in the classroom | 25% | 0 | 0 | SM01 |
| Short creative essay | 25% | 0 | 0 | SM01 |
| Thematic forum presentation | 25% | 0 | 0 | CM10 |
Evaluation of theoretical classes:
· Short creative essay as research initiation. In due course, the teacher will indicate the thematic orientation of the essay. Individual written work. Extension between 7,000 and 10,000 characters (incl. spaces). Deadline for delivery: to be specified (non-extendable). [The evaluation will assess the appropriate expression, the coherence in the development, the handling of the bibliography, the originality, etc. It accounts for 25% of the final grade].
· Individual written test (exam). Date: to be determined. [The evaluation will assess the assimilation of knowledge, the ability to analyze, synthesize and interpret. It accounts for 25% of the final grade].
Evaluation of practical classes:
· Presentation of thematic debate based on proposed readings. Collective work (oral and written) led by three/four speakers following the schedule established in the first class session. Once their paper has been presented, the speakers will have one week (non-extendable) to deliver it to the professor in written or graphic format by email. [The assessment will assess the preparation –including compulsory tutoring with the teacher–, the realization and oral presentation –in groups– of the debate, correct and appropriate oral expression, bibliography handling, teamwork, graphic presentation and writing of the results. The assessment of this part accounts for 25% of the final grade].
· Delivery of summaries of the compulsory readings, class participation, exercises and practices. Individual assessment. Regarding the summaries of the readings, the maximum length is 2,000 characters (including spaces) per text; a minimum of abstract blocks must be delivered; delivery date: during the debate on each block of readings (non-extendable). Date of delivery of the rest of the exercises and practicals: during the face-to-face session in which they are carried out. [The assessment will assess the presence, attitude, participation and involvement in the debate forums and theoretical sessions, the comments and contributions in class and in the debates, the delivery of summaries and practices and the ability to synthesis and capture-abstraction of the main ideas. It accounts for 25% of the final grade].
In order to be assessed, it is necessary to have submitted all the assessable parts, to have attended at least 80% of the class sessions and to have actively participated in the class and forum-debate sessions. The non-presentation of any of the assessable parts will result in a «Not assessable» as the final mark. To be able to recover (reassess) a suspended part, you must have presented yourself to all assessable parts. Only the creative essay and the individual test can be recovered (reassessed): in order to pass the subject a minimum grade of 3.5 must be achieved in both the creative essay and the individual test. In the recovery, the overall maximum grade will be a 5. The recovery will not serve, in any case, to «improve the grade». The date for making this recovery will, in principle, be the one proposed by the Faculty.
According to the regulations of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and of the UAB, «the copying or plagiarism of material, both in the case of assignments and in the case of exams, constitutes a crime that will be sanctioned with a zero in the activity. The reproduction, total or partial, of the work of another colleague is considered "copying". "Plagiarism" is the act of presenting all or part of an author's text as one's own, without citing the sources». Those assessment acts in which there have been irregularities (copying, plagiarism) will not be recoverable. If artificial intelligence is used to carry out any of the assessable activities, it must be explicitly mentioned, otherwise it will be considered plagiarism.
This subject does not provide for the single evaluation system.
Bibliography
Some general bibliographic cues:
ALBET, Abel, Núria BENACH (eds.) (2012). Doreen Massey. Un sentido global del lugar. Barcelona: Icaria.
ALFARO, María Belén (et al.) (eds.) (2014). Desafíos de la geografía. Teorías, métodos i perspectivas. Santa Fe: Universidad Nacional del Litoral.
ALLEN, John, Doreen MASSEY (eds.) (1995). Geographical Worlds. Milton Keynes-Oxford: The Open University Press-Oxford University Press.
BAYÓN, Manuel, Nataly TORRES (eds.) (2019). Geografía crítica para detener el despojo de los territorios. Teorías, experiencias y casos de trabajo en Ecuador. Quito: Colectivo Geografía Crítica Ecuador / Ediciones Abya-Yala.
BENACH, Núria, Abel ALBET (eds.) (2019). David Harvey. La lógica geográfica del capitalismo. Barcelona: Icaria.
BENACH, Núria, Manuel DELGADO (2022). Márgenes y umbrales. Revuelta y desorden en la colonización capitalista del espacio. Barcelona: Virus.
BLUNT, Alison, Jane WILLS (2000). Dissident Geographies. An Introduction to Radical Ideas and Practice. Londres: Guilford Press.
BOOKCHIN, Murray (2022). Ecología de la libertad. Surgimiento y disolución de la jerarquía. Madrid: Capitán Swing.
BRET, Bernard (et al.) (eds.) (2016). Justicia e injusticias espaciales. Rosario: Editorial de la Universidad Nacional de Rosario.
CASELLAS, Antònia (ed.) (2022). J.K. Gibson-Graham. Hacia una economía postcapitalista o cómo retomar el control de lo cotidiano. Barcelona: Icaria.
CORREA, Mauricio, Federico ARENAS, Voltaire ALVARADO (eds.) (2018). Ética en Geografía. Reflexiones sobre espacios y territorios para el mundo en que estamos y el que se nos viene. Santiago: Instituto de Geografía, Pontificia Universidad Católicade Chile.
COX, Kevin (2021). Advanced Introduction to Marxism and Human Geography. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
CRESSWELL, Tim (2013). Geographic Thought. A Critical Introduction. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
de SOUSA SANTOS, Boaventura, Teresa CUNHA (eds.) (2022). Economías del buen vivir. Contra el desperdicio de las experiencias. Mèxic: Akal.
DÍAZ, Iban, Beltrán ROCA (2021). El espacio en la teoría social. Una mirada multidisciplinar. València: Tirant Humanidades.
EGOZ, Shelley, Karsten JØRGENSEN, Deni RUGGERI (eds.) (2018). Defining Landscape Democracy. A Path to Spatial Justice. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
FARINELLI, Franco (2016). La invenció de la Terra. Barcelona: Societat Catalana de Geografia.
FEATHERSTONE, David (2008). Resistance, Space and Political Identities. The Making of Counter-Global Networks. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
FERRETTI, Federico (et al) (2019). Historical Geographies of Anarchism. Early Critical Geographers and Present-Day Scientific Challenges. Londres: Routledge.
GIBSON-GRAHAM, J.K.; Jenny CAMERON, Stephen HEALY (2017). Retomemos la economía. Una guía ética para transformar nuestras comunidades. Bogotá: Universidad Javierana [t.o.: Take Back the Economy: An Ethical Guide for Transforming our Communities. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013].
HARVEY, David (2007). Espacios del capital. Hacia una geografía crítica. Madrid: Akal [t.o.: Spaces of Capital. Towards a Critical Geography. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001].
HARVEY, David (2014). 17 contradicciones y el fin del capitalismo. Quito: Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales del Ecuador [t.o.: Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism. Londres: Profile, 2014].
HARVEY, David (2020). Razones para ser anticapitalistas. Buenos Aires: CLACSO.
HARVEY, David (2021). Espacios del capitalismo global. Hacia una teoría del desarrollo geográfico desigual. Madrid: Akal [t.o.: Spaces of Neoliberalization: Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2005].
HARVEY, David (2022). Les cròniques anticapitalistes. Manresa: Tigre de Paper [t.o.: The anti-capitalist chronicles. Londres: Pluto Press, 2021].
HENN, Sebastian, Judith MIGGELBRINK, Kathrin HÖRSCHELMANN (eds.) (2022). Research Ethics in Human Geography. Londres: Routledge.
HOLLOWAY, Sarah L., Stephen P. RICE, Gill VALENTINE (eds.) (2003). Key Concepts in Geography. Londres: Sage.
HUBBARD, Phil, Rob KITCHIN, Gill VALENTINE (2004). Key Thinkers on Space and Place. Londres: Sage.
HUBBARD, Phil, Rob KITCHIN, Brendan BARTLEY, Duncan FULLER (2002). Thinking Geographically. Space, Theory and Contemporary Human Geography. Londres: Continuum.
LEFEBVRE, Henri (2013). La producción del espacio. Madrid: Capitán Swing [t.o.: La production de l'espace. París: Anthropos, 1974].
LOBO, Patricia (ed.) (2019). Ser territorio. La geografía y el anarquismo. Madrid: La Neurosis o las Barricadas.
LUNDSTEEN, Martin, María Gabriela NAVAS (coords.). (2022). Espai i... Reflexions sobre el paper de l’espai en les societats contemporànies. Barcelona: Bellaterra Edicions.
MARTÍNEZ, Layla (2020). Utopía no es una isla. Catálogo de mundos mejores. Madrid: Episkaia.
MASSEY, Doreen (2005). For Space. Londres: Sage.
NAREDO, José Manuel (2022). La crítica agotada. Claves para el cambio de civilización. Madrid: Siglo XXI.
PIAZZINI, Carlo Emilio, Vladimir MONTOYA (eds.). (2022). Cartografías, mapas y contramapas. Medellín: Instituto de EstudiosRegionales, Universidad de Antioquia.
ROUTLEDGE, Paul (2017). Space Invaders. Radical Geographies of Protest. Londres: Pluto Press.
SMITH, Neil (2020). Desarrollo desigual. Naturaleza, capital y la producción del espacio. Madrid: Traficantes de Sueños [t.o.: Uneven Development. Nature, Capital and the Production of Space. Athens: University of GeorgiaPress, 1984, 3ª ed., 2008].
SOLANA, Miguel (coord.) (2016). Espacios globales y lugares próximos. Barcelona: Icaria.
SPRINGER, Simon (2019). Las raíces anarquistas de la geografía. Hacia la emancipación espacial. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México [t.o.: The Anarchist Roots of Geography: Toward Spatial Emancipation. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 2016].
TAMBASSY, Timothy, Marcello TANCA (eds.) (2021). The Philosophy of Geography. Cham: Springer.
The Antipode Editorial Collective (ed.) (2019). Keywords in Radical Geography: Antipode at 50. Londres: Wiley.
The definitive bibliography will be announced during the first class session of the course. For each theme of the program, the professor will provide a specific bibliography.
Software
Word processor (MS Word), power-point, Internet access.
Language list
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |