This version of the course guide is provisional until the period for editing the new course guides ends.

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Globalisation and Diversity: North-South Geographical Dynamics

Code: 106206 ECTS Credits: 6
2025/2026
Degree Type Year
Contemporary History, Politics and Economics OT 3
Contemporary History, Politics and Economics OT 4

Contact

Name:
Inmaculada Diaz Soria
Email:
inmaculada.diaz@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

The course has no specific prerequisites.


Objectives and Contextualisation

This course explores how spatial hierarchies and representations of the world are produced from a critical geographical perspective in a globalised context. Through the analysis of the North-South axis, it examines processes of territorialization, political ecologies, and alternative geographical knowledges, with attention to the diversity of scales, landscapes, and subjects in the contemporary world. It adopts a multiscalar and gender-inclusive approach, focusing on feminist geographies, Southern epistemologies, and the ecosocial transition.

Goals:
  • Critically explore spatial hierarchies and world representations through the North–South lens.
  • Analyze territorialization, conflict, and space appropriation from critical and feminist perspectives.
  • Examine ecological, political, and cultural processes through Southern and critical geography.
  • Apply multiscalar geographical tools to interpret socio-environmental conflicts and territorial inequalities.

Competences

    Contemporary History, Politics and Economics
  • Analyse the sociodemographic, geoeconomic and environmental dynamics at different territorial scales.
  • Assess the social, economic and environmental impact when acting in this field of knowledge.
  • Explain and summarise knowledge acquired in English language at an advanced level.
  • Manage and apply data to solve problems.
  • 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 be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Work cooperatively in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams implementing new projects.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Contrasting and comparing several interpretations of geographical maps. And differentiate between different cartographical information systems.
  2. Describing the spatial relationships, on different territorial scales, of the physical, economic, social and cultural territorial diversity.
  3. Examine how different social, economic, political and environmental processes create and transform spaces and social relationships.
  4. Explain and summarise knowledge acquired in English language at an advanced level.
  5. Explaining the structure of today's world from a geographical point of view.
  6. Manage and apply data to solve problems.
  7. Propose viable projects and actions to boost social, economic and environmental benefits.
  8. 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.
  9. Undertake basic image processing, from their acquisition to their use for category-type thematic cartographical use.
  10. Work cooperatively in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams implementing new projects.

Content

This subject is structured in four thematic blocks:

  1. Geographies of Power: Introduction to the North–South axis
  2. Geographies of Diversity: Territorial diversity and Southern ecologies
  3. Conflicts and Territories
  4. Ecosocial transition from a geographical perspective

Gender perspective, intersectional and decolonial perspectives are transversal axis of this subject.


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Classroom activities (PAUL) 10.5 0.42 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10
Interactive lectures (TE) 30 1.2 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Type: Supervised      
Conducting practical tasks 8 0.32 2, 3, 4, 9, 6, 7, 8, 10
Tutorials, monitoring and assessment 3 0.12 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10
Type: Autonomous      
Personal study and readings 60 2.4 3, 4

The methodology includes:

  • Participatory master classes
  • Directed readings and critical debates
  • Analysis of cartographic, audiovisual and academic materials with gender perspective
  • Individual and group tutorials
  • Challenge-Based Learning (CBL): preparation of a multiscale narrative/cartographic project

The project (CBL) will structure the entire semester and provide meaning to the contents and activities.

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
Attendance and participation 5% 2.5 0.1 4, 10
Autonomous activities 25% 15 0.6 1, 2, 4, 5, 6
Essentials test 10% 1.5 0.06 2, 3, 4, 5
Individual essay 30% 1.5 0.06 2, 3, 4, 5, 8
Semester-long project 30% 18 0.72 3, 9, 6, 7, 8, 10

CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT

The continuous evaluation is structured as follows:

  • Theoretical tests (40%) consisting of:
    • An individual essay connected with the theme of the semester-long project (30%). The expected delivery date is mid-November.
    • A test of essential concepts (10%) on January 8.
  • Practical activities (30%) concentrated on a semester-long group project that structures the content of the subject (CBL).This project will be conducted topic by topic, but the final presentation is scheduled for December 18.
  • Autonomous activities (25%) conducted on two special sessions in October about compulsory readings or current issues. They are not mandatory, but not doing them implies not having this part of the evaluation. Attendance is mandatory to be able to deliver these activities.
  • Attendance and active participation in class (5%)

The dates and content of the different evaluation tests will be specified on the first day of class.

On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.

SINGLE ASSESSMENT

To be eligible for the single assessment, the application must be made within the established deadlines. The information can be found on the faculty's website and will be explained on the first day of class.

The single assessment provides for a single delivery date for all assessment evidences.

Students in single assessment must carry out the following activities:

  • Autonomous activities (30%) related to the preparation of compulsory readings or workshops related to current issues that will take place in two sessions in mid-October. The dates will be confirmed on the firstday of class. In single assessment, the student must attend but can make the delivery until the single assessment day.
  • Six-monthly autonomous project (30%). Instructions will be provided during the first week of the course.
  • Final exam (40%).

RECOVERY GUIDELINES

  • To participate in the recovery, the students must have been previously evaluated in a set of activities whose weight equals to a minimum of 2/3 parts of the total grade (CONTINUOUS EVALUATION) or delivered all the evaluation activities (SINGLE EVALUATION).
  • To participate in the recovery process, the student must have obtained a minimum grade of 3.5 in the average of the subject.
  • The half-yearly project and tasks related to daily teaching activity are excluded from the recovery process.
  • The same recovery system will be applied for single assessment as for continuous assessment.

OTHER INFORMATION

NOT EVALUABLE: Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items.

ERASMUS: Erasmus students who request to advance an exam must submit to the teacher a written document from their home university that justifies their application.

COPY AND PLAGIARISM: In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject. Those evaluation activities in which there have been irregularities (copy, misuse of AI, etc.) are not recoverable.

USE OF AI:

This subject allows the use of AI technologies exclusively for support tasks such as brainstorming or support to structure the semester-long project. Other uses or these uses in the rest of the activities are completely restricted. In the semester-long project, the groups must include a section, within the methodology, to explain which parts have been generated using AI technology and which tools have been used. In the conclusions, they must include a critical reflection on how these have influenced the process and final outcome of the activity. Lack of transparency regarding the use of AI in this assessed activity will be considered academic dishonesty; the corresponding grade may be lowered, or the work may even be awarded a zero. In cases of greater infringement, more serious action may be taken.


Bibliography

Agha, Zena; Esson, James; Griffiths, Mark; Joronen, Mikko (2024). Gaza: A decolonial geography. Transactions, 49(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12675

Daigle, Michelle; Ramírez, Margaret Marietta; Werner, Marion; McKittrick, Katherine; Peck, Jamie; Gidwani, Vinay; Kent, Andy; Chatterton, Paul; Larner, Wendy; Chari, Sharad; Jazeel, Tariq; Theodore, Nik; Pickerill, Jenny; Wright, Melissa W.; Heynen, Nik; Antipode Editorial Collective. (2019). Decolonial Geographies. In Keywords in Radical Geography: Antipode at 50 (pp. 78–84). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119558071.ch14

Datta, Anindita, Hopkins, Peter; Johnston, Lynda; Olson, Elizabeth; Silva, Joseli Maria (2020). Routledge handbook of gender and feminist geographies. Routledge, Taylor and Francis.

Dyck, Isabel (2005). Feminist geography, the “everyday”, and local-global relations: hidden spaces of place-making. The Canadian Geographer, 49(3), 233–243. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0008-3658.2005.00092.x  

Fraser, Nancy (2008). La justicia social en la era de la política de identidad. Revista de Trabajo, 4(6), 83-99. https://www.jep.gov.co/Sala-de-Prensa/Documents/Fraser_justicia%20social.pdf

Herrero López, Yayo (2021). Los cinco elementos. Una cartografía de la transición ecosocial. Icaria.

Massey, Doreen (2007). For Space. SAGE.

Massey, Doreen (2004). Lugar, identidad y geografías de la responsabilidad en un mundo en proceso de globalización. Treballs de la Societat Catalana de Geografia, 57, 77-84. https://publicacions.iec.cat/repository/pdf/00000019/00000025.pdf

Mies, Maria; Shiva, Vandana (1993). Ecofeminism. Zed Books.

Merlinsky, Gabriela (2017). Ecología política del agua y territorialización de las luchas sociales. La experiencia del foro hídrico de Lomas de Zamora. Anthropologica35(38), 119-143. https://doi.org/10.18800/anthropologica.201701.005

Norberg-Hodge, Helena; Iglesias Saugar, Jesús (2020). El Futuro es local : pasos hacia una economía de la felicidad (1ª edición en castellano). Pol·len Edicions.

Ojeda, Diana (2022). El punto ciego de la propiedad: Género, tierra y despojo en América Latina / Property’s blind spot: Gender, land and dispossession in Latin America. Revista Trace81, 106-131. https://doi.org/10.22134/trace.81.2022.812

Price, Marie; Rowntree, Lester; Lewis, Martin; William Wyckoff (2019). Globalisation and Diversity: Geography of a Changing World. Pearson.

Santos, Milton (2000). Por una geografía nueva. Ariel.

Stoltman, Joseph P. (ed.) (2011). 21st Century Geography (1st ed.). SAGE Publications, Incorporated.

Svampa, M. (2019). Las fronteras del neoextractivismo en América Latina. Conflictos socioambientales, giro ecoterritorial y nuevas dependencias. UNLP-FaHCE. https://www.memoria.fahce.unlp.edu.ar/libros/pm.5179/pm.5179.pdf.

Zaragocin, Sofia (2019). Gendered Geographies of Elimination: Decolonial Feminist Geographies in Latin American Settler Contexts. Antipode, 51(1), 373–392. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12454


Software

Word, excel, powerpoint.

Story Maps software.


Groups and Languages

Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 51 English first semester afternoon
(TE) Theory 51 English first semester afternoon