CURRENT TOPICS IN GEOGRAPHY (22240)
Language of instruction: English
Professor: Mireia Boya & Antoni Luna
Professor's contact and office hours:
Tuesday 11-12
[email protected]u
Class: Tuesday and Thursday 9-11 (Room 13.001)
Language Requirements: English / Spanish
Course Description: This course introduces the different representations of the world, from the naturalistic point of view to the contemporary discourses about landscapes, conservation and land management, cities and branding, both from a geographical perspective. The clashing and blending of cultures caused by globalization and the new technologies that profoundly alter human environmental experience suggest new geographical narratives and representations that are explored here by a multidisciplinary point of view.
The main goal of the course is to introduce students to various perspectives, both representing different modes of examining the depth and complexity of human meaning attached to landscapes and embedded in the spaces and places of modern life, focusing in some activities like tourism, local rural development or city-branding. The topics covered range widely and include interpretations of the historic relationship between nature and culture, space, place, and landscape in literature and the visual arts, philosophical reflections on geographical knowledge and cultural imagination. The classes will combine thematic and regional approaches as well as some in-depth case studies.
Learning Objectives:
By the end of the course students will be able to:
· Express themselves with criteria about topics tackled in the course verbally and in written form.
Required work and method of assessment: Class participation (10%); Individual Paper I (25%); Individual Paper II (25%); group research project (30%); class presentation (10%);
Students' participation in class is essential and it will be assessed. Students are expected to have an active role in the class, participating in class discussions and fulfilling the required work for each session (readings and other possible materials such as films and documentaries as stated).
Students are also required to give an oral presentation in group on one of the topics of the course, under the professor's guide and instructions. Two individual paper (7 pages long; Time New Roman 12; 1.5 lines) will be written by each student on a topic given by the instructors. The individual papers will be submitted in hard copy and also sent by email to the professor. Students will have to develop in group (2-3 students) a short research project in one of the topics of the course.
Course Workload: readings, lectures, exams, field studies...
Methods of Instruction: Each session will be divided into two parts. Professor will give during the first 50 minutes specific information and readings to use during the rest of the class. So, this class has a seminar session format. Students will have to collaborate if they want to have the Attendance and Participation 10%.
Course Content:
Introduction: course description, required work and methods of assessment. Nature, culture and landscape: stereotypes.
A. Between nature and culture: representations of the world
1. Origins of the idea of Biodiversity. Protection, conservation, management of natural resources, protected areas and local development.
· Reading: defining the modern concept of biological diversity in saving nature's legacy (2010) Timothy J. Farnham. Yale University Press.
2. Traditional ecological knowledge and social representations of nature. Participation and self-management policies.
· Reading: culture and nature, the inextricable link in Cultural and spiritual values of biodiversity. UNEP (1999)
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3. Protected areas: visions and management. The pay for view approach. Nature's conservation near urban areas: from natural oasis to garden's cities.
· Activity: How much are you disposed to pay for natural and cultural heritage preservation?
Field trip (date and place to be confirmed)
B. Envisioning landscapes: different perspectives and approaches
1. Landscape concept, origin and geographical perspectives. The main definitions and approaches: cultural geography, classic geography, integrative approaches, aesthetical perspective, and landscape ecology. The European Landscape Convention.
· Reading: à l'origine du paysage in Carnets du paysage. A. Berque (1998)
2. Landscape issues: conservation, management and intervention. Landscape values. Experiences and qualifications: proximity, sublime, emblematic, nostalgic landscape, patrimonial, touristic resource, generic, typical. Landscape indicators.
· Reading: tranquility as an indicator of landscape quality in landscape indicators, issues and perspectives. Landscape Observatory of Catalonia (2009)
3. Sociocultural characterization of territories. Arts, media and landscape representation. Cinema and landscape. Travel stories and landscape. Publicity and landscape.
· Reading: Putting Pablo Neruda's Alturas de Machu Pichu in its places in envisoning landscapes, making worlds (2011). Routledge.
· Movie: Ararat (Atom Egoyan, 2002) / Frozen river (Courtney Hunt, 2008) / Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)
4. : Social demand of landscape. The landscape project. Case study: Priorat, UNESCO's world heritage landscape candidature
5. Reinterpreted landscapes, from patrimonial sites to contemporary places. Cases study: Igualada's rec, Mont Sant Benet center, old Club Med in Cap de Creus.
Field trip (date and place to be confirmed)
C. Tourism, territorial branding and city-marketing
1. Historic evolution of the landscape representation. Tourists and local population point of view. Landscape as a picture, a resource and a discourse. Case study: the image of Pyrenees.
2. Landscape as a brand. City-marketing strategies. The Spanish context: Madrid, Valencia, Bilbao, etc. Case study: Barcelona city brand.
3. Rural development focused in landscape values: new touristic products, new ways of life. The slow food / slow life movement. Identities and the landscape experience. Selling quality.
Field trip (date and place to be confirmed)
D. Quotidian spaces and landscapes
1. Boundaries between city and countryside. Rurbanism. Paths in the city. City gardens. New public spaces: immigration, gender, children and other topics in the city.