Political Geographies: Local to Global
| Module title | Political Geographies: Local to Global |
|---|---|
| Module code | POC2108 |
| Academic year | 2024/5 |
| Credits | 15 |
| Module staff | Dr Delacey Tedesco (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 10 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 50 |
|---|
Module description
Our political identities, communities, debates, and activities both take place and make place. The conditions we live in, and our sense of alternatives, are shaped by the specifics of the places in which we are located. And how we navigate these conditions and pursue these alternatives – how we engage in politics – give material and symbolic shape to the world we inhabit. Drawing on critical feminist and decolonial contributions, this module engages the politics of how we position ourselves in the world, in our research and in everyday life. This module begins by introducing debates about the language of local and global space, place and politics. Similarly, it introduces interdisciplinary ‘methods’ by examining the politics of knowledge: how we define, feel, understand, and communicate politics, space and place, not only through writing but also through aesthetics and images, sensory encounters, and outdoor activities. The module then examines the dominant modern political geography of the state, from which we get specific versions of individual, local, regional and international space. Finally, we will use current political issues – such as (but not bound to) decolonization movements, urban development battles, refugee claims, climate emergency and Indigenous sovereignty claims – to assess how contemporary political life might generate different forms of space and place. We will read across disciplines of politics and IR, geography and geopolitics, and environmental, feminist, Indigenous, and postcolonial political geographies. By the end of the module, you will be able to describe and critically engage different accounts of political space and place, and the forms of political subjectivity, political community, and political analysis that emerge from these accounts.
No prior knowledge skills or experiences are required to take this module, and it is suitable for specialist and non-specialist students. This module is suitable for students studying Politics, International Relations or Geography.
Module aims - intentions of the module
In this module, you will be introduced to critical approaches to the relationship between politics, place, and space, and you will develop analytical tools for engaging the complicated geographies of contemporary politics. We will examine how thinking about politics and geography together generates important areas of research and understanding, in both content and methods. You will learn how modern definitions of space and place helped to constitute the world in the familiar (but contingent) form of domestic politics and international relations, and you will learn about the spread of this form around the world through histories of colonization and settler colonization. You will get to explore the distinctive critical political geographies of the body, the local, the municipal, and the urban; of the state, borders, and diverse boundary practices; and of the international, the world, and the globe. This module provides an essential introduction to critical approaches to modern and contemporary political geography. It will give you the grounding necessary to integrate spatial and place-based analyses into your research and to understand the political stakes of geographical claims and projects.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Describe and competently assess ways that definitions of politics, space, and place (political geography) give rise to specific forms of subjectivity, identity, community, culture, and economy.
- 2. Argue for and/or against particular approaches to understanding political geography, on both theoretical and practical grounds.
- 3. Analyze the political geographies invoked and debated in specific empirical sites or case studies and critically discuss some of the implications of these debates.
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 4. Synthesize and competently assess two or more related fields of interdisciplinary research.
- 5. Demonstrate the capacity to extend and revise disciplinary concepts to account for new fields of theoretical and empirical research.
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 6. Work independently and in informal groups to engage in spontaneous discussion and defence of arguments in class, to prepare topics for class discussion, and to contribute to a productive classroom.
- 7. Work independently to research, formulate, write, and present critical analyses that engage an appropriate mix of theoretical and empirical content.
- 8. Develop a self-reflexive academic practice that integrates reading and research, explores practical or creative modes of expression, and engages productively with peer and instructor feedback.
Syllabus plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics, through both theoretical and practical approaches:
Beginning Where We Are
- Politics, Space and Place in the Everyday
- Approaches to Interdisciplinary Knowing: Methods, Forms, and Practices
Modern Political Geography
- The Space of the State and the International
- Territory and Place
- Borders and Boundaries
“We Have Never Been Modern”: Spaces Against the State
- Feminist and Queer Spaces
- Coloniality, Racialisation and Post-/Decolonial Political Geographies
- Urban Geographies
Contemporary Challenges: Selected Studies in Reterritorialization (different every year)
- Migrations, Refugees, Camps, and Sanctuaries
- Indigenous Sovereignty Claims
- Transnationalism and Social Movements
- Anthropocene, Ecology, and Global Climate Change
- Spaces of Security: Geopolitics and Urban Geopolitics
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | 130 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 20 | 10 x 2 hour seminars |
| Guided Independent Study | 50 | Private study students are expected to read suggested texts and make notes prior to seminar sessions. More specifically, students are expected to devote approximately: 48 hours to weekly readings and seminar preparation |
| Guided Independent Study | 10 | Formative activities and reflecting on assessment feedback |
| Guided independent study | 40 | Independent research, reading, and writing |
| Guided independent study | 10 | Portfolio preparation and reflection |
| Guided independent study | 20 | Critical research essay preparation, editing, peer reviewing |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay Plan | 200 words + 2 annotated sources | 1-5, 7 | Written |
| Portfolio Informal Discussion | 5 minutes | 1-6, 8 | Written |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio | 30 | 600 words + 1 image | 1-5, 7 | Written |
| Portfolio Reflection | 20 | 400 words | 1-8 | Written |
| Critical Research Essay | 50 | 1,800 words | 1-5, 7, 8 | Written |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio (600 words + 1 image) | Portfolio (600 words + 1 image) | 1-5, 7 | August/September reassessment period |
| Portfolio Reflection (400 words) | Portfolio Reflection (400 words) | 1-8 | August/September reassessment period |
| Critical Research Essay (1,800 words) | Critical Research Essay (1,800 words) | 1-5, 7, 8 | August/September reassessment period |
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
Basic reading:
Agnew, J. 2003. Geopolitics: Revisioning World Politics. London: Routledge.
--------. 1994. The territorial trap: The geographical assumptions of international relations theory. Review of International Political Economy (RIPE) 1: 53-80.
Amoore, L. (2006) Biometric borders: Governing mobilities in the war on terror. Political Geography, 25, 336-351.
Blomley, N. K. 2004. Unsettling the city: Urban land and the politics of property. New York: Routledge.
Crampton, J. W. 2003. The political mapping of cyberspace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Cresswell, T. 1996. In place/out of place: Geography, ideology, and transgression. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Fall, J. J. 2010. Artificial states? On the enduring geographical myth of natural borders. Political Geography, 29(3): 140-147.
Flint, C. and P.J. Taylor 2007. Political Geography: World-system, nation-state and locality. Fifth Edition. New York: Pearson.
Johnson, C., R. Jones, A. Paasi, L. Amoore, A. Mountz, M. Salter & C. Rumford. 2011. Interventions on rethinking 'the border' in border studies. Political Geography, 30, 61- 69.
Kuus, M., and J. Agnew. 2008. “Theorizing the State Geographically: Sovereignty, Subjectivity, and Territoriality.” In K. Cox, M. Low, and J. Robinson (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Political Geography. California: Sage, pp. 95-106.
Magnusson, W. 1985. Urban politics and the local state. Studies in Political Economy 16: 111-142.
Mountz, A. 2003. Human smuggling, the transnational imaginary, and everyday geographies of the nation-state. Antipode, 35(3): 621-44.
Newman, D., and A. Paasi. 1998. Fences and neighbours in the postmodern world: boundary narratives in political geography. Progress in Human Geography 22 (2): 186-207.
Newman, D. 2006. The Lines that Continue to Separate Us: Borders in our ‘borderless’ world. Progress in Human Geography 30: 143-161.
Ó Tuathail, G. 2006. “Introduction, Overview Part I.” In G. O Tuathail, S. Dalby, and P. Routledge (Eds.). 2006.The Geopolitics Reader. Second Edition: London: Routledge, pp: 1-12; 17-30.
Sharp, J. 2007. Geography and gender: finding feminist political geographies. Progress in Human Geography 31 (3): 381-387.
Taylor, P. J. 1995. Beyond Containers: Internationality, Interstateness, Interterritoriality. Progress in Human Geography 19 (1): 1-15.
———. 1994. The State As Container: Territoriality In The Modern World-System. Progress in Human Geography 18 (2): 151-162.
Tesfahuney, M. 1998. Mobility, Racism and Geopolitics. Political Geography 17: 499-515.
| Credit value | 15 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 7.5 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 5 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 23/01/2018 |
| Last revision date | 10/02/2023 |
