Browse Hierarchy GEG4003: Geography in the World

This module explores geography as a `worldly¿ subject, both part of and shaped by the wider world, and engaged with key social and environmental issues. We consider the interconnection of society and the environment, addressing key themes such as natural hazards, environmental justice and the climate crisis. Developing a critical geographical perspective on urgent environmental and social issues means considering how geography¿s imperial origins have shaped the subject and are being addressed in on-going efforts to decolonise geography. We consider the use of cartography by powerful groups and maps as tools of resistance and empowerment by marginal groups, including indigenous people, to explore different sorts of geographical knowledges and relationships between knowledge and power. The module thus opens up questions about the politics of knowledge making and considers how racial and other forms of injustice and inequality are being addressed in geography. We apply this critical perspective to address pressing environmental and social issues in the contemporary world, such as: environmental justice and environmental racism; climate change; public space; access to nature; housing injustice; slope stability; political borders and migration; flooding and flood risk; and population growth and control. The module will include a virtual field trip to the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). The Module aims to: ¿ Provide students with a critical geographical perspective for addressing key social and environmental issues, including environmental and climate justice. ¿ Provide knowledge and understanding of the key dimensions of contemporary environmental and social issues and how they are being addressed by geographers and within wider society by governments, institutions and activist groups ¿ Encourage an understanding of how critical perspectives on the origins and development of geography inform the discipline¿s focus on issues of racial and other forms of inequality and injustice."