Communal Places and the Politics of Multiple Identities: The case of Tanzanian Asians, 1997 (original) (raw)
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This class overviews key concepts and themes in cultural geography, a sub-field of human geography that investigates the relationship between culture, space, and the environment. The course introduces a variety of ways that cultural geographers think about the relationship between human meanings (the way people make sense of the world), practices (the way people engage with the world) and power relations (the forces shaping and constraining social action). This course operates under the assumption that all human affairs are both cultural (concerned with the production and sharing of meanings) and spatial (occurring in, and shaping, places and the material environment). We work toward an understanding of culture as a set of processes which are actively constructed and unequally experienced. In particular, the course investigates the relationship between modes of social difference-particularly race, gender, and class-and the role of cultural meaning-making in contesting or reinforcing spatial power relations. Course Objectives: Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: 1. Discuss the concept of culture, and critically evaluate its various uses as an explanation for socio-spatial dynamics and differentiation. 2. Understand and explain the importance of key debates in cultural geography. 3. Apply the conceptual tools of cultural geography to interpret the relationship between meaning and power in the construction of space and place. 4. Articulate the role of meaning-making practices in the reproduction and contestation of spatial relations.
Applied aspects of human geography. A critical approach to traditionalist views
Journal of Geography, Politics and Society
Traditionally, applied aspects of human geography are mainly associated with economic geography, regional development and spatial planning. In the debate on the application potential of the discipline, a number of important problems of social, political and cultural geography, relevant to various contemporary processes on a global and regional scale, are marginalized. For this reason, the author undertakes a critical rethinking of the current debate on the applied aspects of research in human geography. A brief review of the conceptual and institutional development of applied geography in the world and in selected national schools is made. The author also distinguishes two research orientations: 1) strategic orientation – connected to studies carried out at the international, national and macro-regional spatial levels; 2) operational orientation – concerning applied studies undertook on a scale of separate municipalities, cities, neighbourhoods or even separate str...
"Geography (human and urban)", In Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory, Dec. 2017
2017
The entry begins with a definition of geography and with a description of what the discipline shares with the other social sciences and what makes it distinctive among them. Terminological clarifications are provided with regard to the relationship between human geography and physical geography, and between human geography and urban geography. After a brief history and overview of human geography’s engagement with social theory, the entry offers a discussion of the politicization of contemporary human geography and of how this phenomenon is reflected in theory building and concept development. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118430873.est0464
Ethnogeography and Other Essays on Geography and Geographers
Ethnogeography & Other Essays on Geography and Geographers, 2019
A revolutionary take on getting rid of most of cultural geography and collapsing it into a long-used but revisited term: ethnogeography. Also numerous hard critiques of all the nonsense that pervades the field of geography.
Syllabus: Concepts and categories in human geography (2013)
Concepts and categories form the basis of thought and action. How we categorize the world and the conceptual frameworks we bring to bear in the study of socio-spatial phenomena profoundly shape our understandings of them. This seminar focuses on some of the key spatial concepts that human geographers draw upon in their work—such as place, scale, territoriality, and mobility—as well as the use of such terms as ‘categories of practice’ in everyday life. Participants should note that this is a reading-intensive course, with an average of 7-8 theoretical and empirical readings assigned each week. To ensure close reading of texts you are also expected to write weekly response papers.The primary goal of this course is that through in-depth engagement with the assigned readings, as well as exploration of select suggested works while writing the seminar paper, you will further develop the theoretical tools necessary for advancing your own research agenda, and assessing the use of geographical concepts by others in both practice and analysis.
Cultural geography. Different encounters, encountering difference
Documents D Analisi Geografica, 2007
In the first half of this paper it is argued that cultural geography is a dynamic and diverse field that extends well beyond a single branch of human geography. The boundaries between it and other sub-disciplines are often blurred. People have «different» encounters with cultural geography depending on their sub-disciplinary convergences. People also have different encounters with cultural geography depending on where they live and work. «Place matters» in the construction, production and representation of cultural geography. It takes different forms in different places. In the second half of the paper it is argued that as cultural geography continues to encounter «difference» in many guises, four possible future trends are likely: first, it is probable that there will be continued growth in cultural geography; second, there may be mounting recognition that cultural geography needs to be critical offering possibilities for radical critique and reflection; third, cultural geographers are likely to continue with their efforts to think about what, if anything, might lie beyond representation; and finally, cultural geographers are likely to deepen their reflections on the politics of knowledge production leading to more multi-language publishing practices in this area.
How political geography can challenge dubious socio-spatial practices
Although an increasing number of donors try to improve the living conditions of inhabitants in informal urban settlements, some studies show that only a very limited amount of provided resources reach those impoverished. The inability of projects to change the situation for the better could point to dubious practices. Despite academia trying to produce socially relevant work, it has failed to translate its criticism into actions at the substantive level. Researchers are perturbed from engaging because of meta-theoretical concerns in regard to normativity, among others. The study scrutinises this dilemma and proposes a solution. It reconsiders the core of critical realism and enhances its metaphysical accounts with epistemological ones from both phronetic social science and the French school of *géopolitiques*. It argues that political geography can challenge dubious practices in the socio-spatial world without losing neither philosophical nor scientific rigour. The ideas are assessed in a short study on a development project in Cairo, Egypt, demonstrating their applicability and usefulness.