Introduction
- This is Andy Turner's web page about GEOG2035 Geographies of Economies in the 2013 to 2014 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 2013 to 2014 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 7: Literature review feedback and dissertation preparation
- Preparation
- Develop dissertation ideas.
Tutorial 6: Literature review feedback, economic geography recap and dissertation topic
- Preparation
- Recap on the main points from the economic geography lectures.
- Write down dissertation ideas.
- Familiarisation with School of Geography Research Clusters.
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 / Literature review planning and Essay 1 feedback
- 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: Which Regional Geography
- Background
-
At a certain point in the first half of the twentieth century, geographers began increasingly to think of their discipline in terms of the study of regions (traditionally termed chorology).
This 'turn' took different forms in differing national disciplinary territories.
In different ways, first Paul Vidal de la Blache in France and later Carl Sauer in the US can both be seen as leading exponents of regional geography.
Richard Hartshorne was a champion of regional geography.
In the 1950s, the study of regions became part of geography's 'scientific' turn, and some geographers (and economists and others) began to think of themselves as regional scientists.
Later still, in the 1980s, geographers sought to apply ideas drawn from Marxist approaches to an understanding of the importance of regions in social and economic life, while other geographers saw identity built around culture as the central element shaping regions.
- Preparation
- Review the background for this tutorial preparing to reflect in the tutorial on contemporary understandings of region and what the concept might mean today.
- Read and refer to the following:
-
Use Barnes and Hartshorne to prepare a chronology (timeline) of changing ideas on how geographers have interpreted the concept of region.
-
Use biographies and web sources to inform yourselves about two eminent figures mentioned by Hartshorne but not by Barnes:
- Vidal de la Blache
- Carl Ortwin Sauer
- Use Gilbert's three interpretations of the way geographers use the term 'region' and apply them at different scales:
- Regions as a 'local response to capitalist processes'
- Regions as a 'focus of identification'
- Regions as a 'medium of social interaction'
- Objectives and discussion points
- Establishing a chronology for the concept of region.
- Discuss how this concept is central to the development of Economic Geography for much of the twentieth century.
- Relate Gilbert's three interpretations to our own understandings of what may or may not constitute a 'region' in the contemporary world
- 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.
- Objectives
- Learn about the academic and broader context out of which economic geography developed.
- Examine the approaches adopted by early economic geographers.
- Understand some of the drawbacks of their methods and ideas, especially in the light of contemporary geographical thought and practice.
- To prepare for the next lecture.
- Discussion points
- What are the 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?
- References and further information
- http://www.geog.ubc.ca/~tbarnes
- Barnes, T.J. (2000) Inventing Anglo-American Economic Geography, 1889-1960. [URL] http://www.geog.ubc.ca/~tbarnes/pdf/CHAPTER_Inventing_economic_geography.pdf [Accessed on] 2012-10-08.
- Barnes, T.J. (2003) Inventing Anglo-American Economic Geography, 1889-1960. From Sheppard, E.S. A companion to economic geography (pp. 11-26) Oxford: Blackwell Science.
- Barnes, T.J. (2012) Notes from the Underground: Why the History of Economic Geography Matters: The Case of Central Place Theory. Economic Geography, 88 (1): 1-26.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Chisholm_(geographer)
- Chisholm, G.G. (1889) Handbook of Commercial Geography. London and New York: Longman, Green, and Co. [URL] http://archive.org/stream/handbookcommerc00chisgoog#page/n24/mode/2up [Accessed on] 2012-10-08.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hartshorne
- Hartshorne, R. (1966) Perspectives on the Nature of Geography. Fifth Impression.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Sayer
- Sayer. A (1982) Explanation in economic geography. Progress in Human Geography 6: 68-88
- University of Aberdeen GG3012 (NS) Lecture 3: The rise and fall of Regional Geography (c. 1920 to c. 1960) (Aka: Hartshorne vs. Schaefer; 'Regional' vs. 'Systematic' Geography; 'Idiographic' vs. 'Nomothetic' Geography) [URL] http://homepages.abdn.ac.uk/n.spedding/pages/gg3012/regional.html [Accessed on] 2012-10-08.
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., GEOG1300 People, Place and Politics). List two geographical theories you were introduced to and be ready to talk briefly about them.
- Read
- Graham, E. 2005. Theory and theorizing. In Castree, N., Rogers, A., Sherman, D. (eds.) Questioning Geography. Oxford: Blackwell. Pp. 258-271.
- Objectives
- To take some of the mystery - and the fear factor - out of the term 'theory' through a quick investigation and discussion of definitions.
- To lay the groundwork for the following tutorials by enabling a discussion of some basic questions about theory.
- To recap on related learning at level 1.
- Discussion points
- 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
- Lecturer and Module Manager
- Alex Schafran
- Stuart Hodkinson
- Tutees
- email students
- Alphabetical list
- Sarah Dobsen
- University of Leeds Web Pages
- Edward Halliday
- University of Leeds Web Pages
- Timothy James
- University of Leeds Web Pages
- William Chesner
- University of Leeds Web Pages
- Laura Coe
- University of Leeds Web Pages
Documentation and References