Introduction
- This is Andy Turner's web page about GEOG2035 Geographies of Economies in the 2012 to 2013 academic year.
GEOG2035 is a Level 2 undergraduate core geography module.
The academic year 2012 to 2013 was the first year the module was run.
- The module spans both semesters and has lectures, seminars, tutorials and assessed work components.
- In Semester 2 there is a focus on dissertation preparation when new Dissertation Support Groups form and dissertation mentoring begins.
- This page reflects Andy's organisation about GEOG2035 in the 2012 to 2013 academic year. It focuses on the tutorial components which were prescribed in module documentation. This is not a substitute for course materials which are primarily linked and stored on the University of Leeds Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
- Contents:
Tutorial 8: Economic geography and your dissertation
- Preparation
- Students required to read a chapter from Tickell et al (2007) and write about 175 words on notes on the methodological issues raised by the author of the chapter
- References and further information
Tutorial 7: Production in consumption
- Preparation
- Think about how places and the data about them affect those experiencing or considering them.
- With the discussion points in mind read Kraft and Adey (2008).
- Discussion points in the tutorial
- If the reading for Tutorial 6 (Baker, 2002) was largely representational, what, broadly speaking, does Kraftl and Adey (2008) propose to add by following a more than representational approach?
- How is the architect/architecture of Nant-y-Cwm understood to be gestural, and why are the kindergarten pupils understood to be particularly receptive to this?
- Who is the main consumer of Nant-y-Cwm (and how are they involved in the production of Nant-y-Cwm)?
- What is the role of potential in the design and hoped-for effects of Nant-y-Cwm, and the Prayer Room at Liverpool John Lennon Airport?
- How are the everyday uses of these places important?
- How important are the initial designs of these places?
- Why might micromanagement of these places be significant?
- How is the Prayer Room at Liverpool John Lennon Airport deliberately distinguished from its surroundings, and how is this thought to be effective?
- How is Nant-y-Cwm deliberately merged with its surroundings, and how is this thought to be effective?
- References and further information
Tutorial 6: Multifaceted cultural geographies
- Preparation
- With the discussion points in mind, read Baker (2002)
- Discussion points in the tutorial
- According to Baker (2002), how should the park affect its visitors (and how will the proposed affects happen?)
- How is the experience of Algonquin altered... without actually altering its physical environment?
- How are commodities created from the geographical spaces of Algonquin?
- Similarly, how do commodities (like canoes) provide particular kinds of experience at Algonquin?
- Can/should the author be criticised for his understanding of the role of class?
- When experiencing a place such as Algonquin, would we see what is "really there", and would we all see the same thing? Or do we inevitably apply our own interpretations as we experience the world?
- References and further information
Tutorial 5: Theorising gentrification and uneven development from a Marxian perspective
- Preparation
- With the discussion points listed below in mind, read and makes notes on Smith (1982)
- Discussion points in the tutorial
- What different theories of gentrification exist?
- What is the Marxist understanding of gentrification and how does it differ from these other theories?
- What does Smith identify as the driving forces of gentrification?
- Why do Marxists see gentrification as an inevitable urban process under capitalism?
- How does the Marxist explanation of gentrification bring together 'class' and 'space'?
- What is uneven development and how does it inform our understandings of 'economic geography'?
- Why do Marxists believe uneven geographical development is inevitable under capitalism?
- What is the relationship between the uneven geographical development of cities and the process of gentrification?
- What role does gentrification play in 'solving' (temporarily) the contradictions of capital accumulation in the built environment?
- Moving out of theory, how relevant is gentrification to urbanisation today, and what are your own experiences of gentrification?
- References and further information
Tutorial 4: Historical Geographical Materialism / Lit Review recap
- Preparation
- With the discussion points listed below in mind, read and makes notes on:
- Harvey (1972).
- Peet (1985).
- How to Write Academic Literature Reviews (Resource on the VLE)
- Discussion points in the tutorial
- Marxist geography section:
- Why did geographers like Harvey turn to Marxist analysis in the early 1970s?
- What was their Marxist critique of spatial science and quantitative geography?
- What are the main ideas of historical materialism and what might a 'geographical' approach add?
- What are the social relations and core driving forces of the capitalist mode of production and how do they shape and produce (a) human behaviour and relations (b) human relationships to nature and (c) spatial relations?
- How do Marxists understand the nature of the 'economy' and how 'economic geographies' are produced?
- Reflecting on the current global economic crisis and the debates over austerity, bankers, inequality, and growth, how would a Marxist explain what is happening? What do you think about this approach?
- Literature Reviews section:
- What are the purposes of doing a literature review? Why do them at all?
- How does a literature review differ from an essay?
- What are the different ways in which a literature review can be structured? E.g. by author, discipline, theme, question, empirical area etc.
- What distinguishes a literature review from an annotated bibliography?
- What makes a literature review 'critical' in terms of analytical approach?
- What should you NOT do when writing a literature review?
- References and further information
- Harvey, D. (1972) Revolutionary and Counter Revolutionary Theory in Geography and the Problem of Ghetto Formation. Antipode 4 (2), 1-13, reprinted in Bauder, H and Engel-Di Mauro, S, (eds) (2008), Critical Geographies: A Collection of Readings, http://www.praxis-epress.org/CGR/11-Harvey.pdf.
- Peet, R. (1985) An Introduction to Marxist Geography. Journal of Geography, 84(1): 5-10, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00221348508979261
- How to Write Academic Literature Reviews (Resource on the VLE)
Tutorial 3: Motivated Histories
- Preparation
- Read: Barnes (2012).
- Do further reading as appropriate to understand any key concepts that are introduced, but not well defined in Barnes (2012).
- Discussion points in the tutorial
- What does Barnes (2012) mean by 'performances of rationality' and 'the underground' (p. 5).
- Barnes (2012) describes a 'messy' approach to historical research (p. 5). What is that? Is Barnes (2012) also messy?
- How were Christaller and Ullman respectively 'hailed', and what personal circumstances enabled this 'hailing' to work?
- How was place reconceived to allow wartime geographies (in both Germany and the United States) to proceed?
- How important are the personal biographies of Christaller and Ullman to the analyses in Barnes (2011)?
- Having read Barnes (2012), does history and how we account for the past seem potentially vulnerable to you? If so, how?
- References and further information
Tutorial 2: Geographical Cornucopia
- Preparation
- Read Barnes (2000) or Barnes (2003), these are essentially the same.
- What does Barnes (2003) write about Chisholm (1889)?
- Read the introduction to Chisholm (1889).
- Note the appendices at the back of Chisholm (1889), for example, the tables showing China and Japan imports and exports.
- List three drawbacks of the Chisholm (1889) approach to economic geography.
- In contrast to the global scale of the Chisholm (1889) work, Hartshorne (1966) introduces a new type of economic geography, one that sought to define the specificity of regions (Barnes, 2003, p. 19). But 'region' is a very slippery concept. Barnes (2003) offers some examples that might accord with the Hartshorne (1966) understanding of a region. Write down for discussion three examples of economic regions in the contemporary world.
- Discussion points in the tutorial
- What are the stated aims of Chisholm (1889), one of which is apparent in the first sentence of the Introduction to the Fourth Corrected Edition, p. xix (p. 25)? Do they differ from the aims that contemporary geographers set themselves, and if so, how?
- Discuss the main drawbacks of the Chisholm (1889) approach to economic geography.
- Discuss what is missing from the Chisholm (1889) account that would figure prominently in the approach that contemporary geographers might adopt.
- Barnes (2003) writes that Chisholm (1889) 'was a celebration of imperial commerce' (p. 15) and that Chisholm (1889) 'constructed imperialism as well as representing it' (p. 15). What is meant by this?
- Discuss the three examples of economic regions in the contemporary world that you have written down. What do they tell you about the term and about the concept of scale?
- References and further information
Tutorial 1: What is Theory?
- Preparation
- Write down your own definition of the word 'theory' and look it up in specialist human geography dictionaries and in general dictionaries.
- Write down in a few sentences comparing these definitions.
- Think back to Level 1 (e.g., GEOG1010 Justice and Difference). List two geographical theories you were introduced to and be ready to talk briefly about them.
- Discussion points in the tutorial:
- What is theory?
- One Grand Theory or lots of little theories?
- How do geographers define theory?
- How would we see the world if we had no theories?
- What do we mean when we talk about theoretical approaches to an issue?
- What theoretical approaches were you introduced to last year?
- References and further information
People
- Paul Waley
- Paul Wright
- Stuart Hodkinson
- Tutees
- email students
- Alphabetical list
- Victoria Maloney
- University of Leeds Web Pages
- Hannah Roberts
- University of Leeds Web Pages
- Annie Robinson
- University of Leeds Web Pages
- Gabriella Salmon
- University of Leeds Web Pages
- Elizabeth Sargent
- University of Leeds Web Pages
- Dylan Thompson
- University of Leeds Web Pages
- Adam Warren
- University of Leeds Web Pages
Documentation and References