GG37410

Module Identifier	GG37410
Module Title	NATURE,CULTURE+LANDSCAPE:CONTEMPORARY GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECT
Academic Year	2000/2001
Co-ordinator	Dr Bill Edwards
Semester	Intended For Use In Future Years
Next year offered	N/A
Next semester offered	N/A
Course delivery	Lecture	18 Hours 18 hours of teaching (lectures and discussions) taught within a 10 x 2 hour timetable slot
	Seminars / Tutorials	Students should expect to contribute to the discussion sessions accompanying this programme.
Assessment	Exam	2 Hours Written examination. Four essay questions, complete two within a 2 hour examination. Resit will consist of a 2 hour examination of the same form.	100%

Module Outline (Lecture Themes)
An appreciation of how society, through various cultural constructions, evaluates the natural world and prioritises certain environmental attitudes and values has become a central theme in the late twentieth century. This course explores the way society has constructed a changing vision of the natural world, charts the emergence of environmental groups and institutions seeking to
develop a more sustainable future and examines the consequences of these developments for environmental and landscape policy. Societal attitudes towards landscape are examined and their commodification explored in the values desseminated through 'high' and 'popular' culture. Lectures cover the following themes:

CHANGING PERSPECTIVES ON NATURE AND ENVIRONMENT

Nature, culture, society, and landscape: establishing a context.
Changing attitudes to the natural world.
Society and environment: sustainability and environmental ethics.
Environmental groups in politics.
Environmental and Landscape policy.

CULTURAL CONSTRUCTIONS AND COMMODIFICATION OF LANDSCAPE

Nature, culture, landscape change and protection.
Landscape preference and evaluation 1: traditional approaches.
Current practise in evaluating and conserving landscape in the 1990s.
The representation and construction of heritage landscapes: the great estate and the National Trust - from high to popular culture.
Regional distinctiveness and vernacular landscapes: the character and maintenance of popular heritage.
The conserved and commodified landscape.

Module Aims
To explore changing cultural constructions of nature, environment and landscape with particular reference to UK landscape planning and development.

Module objectives / Learning outcomes
The module enables participants to:

a) Evaluate the cultural forces conditioning and shaping attitudes to nature, environment and landscape.

b) Appreciate various methodologies and techniques used to designate landscapes by planners.

c) Acquire knowledge and understanding of work undertaken by geographers and other social scientists in this field.

d) Develop the skills of cultural awareness and critical reading through the interpretation and evaluation of texts.

Reading Lists
Books
M. Bunce. (1994) The Countryside Ideal: Anglo-American Images of Landscape. Routledge
S. Daniels. (1993) Fields of Vision: Landscape Imagery and National Identity in England and the United States. Polity Press, Cambridge
P. Dickens. (1992) Society and Nature: towards a green social theory. Harvester
D.W. Meinig. (1979) The interpretation of ordinary landscapes. Oxford UP
D. Pepper. (1996) Modern environmentalism: an introduction. Routledge
M. Redcliffe and T. Benton. (1994) Social theory and the global environment. Routledge
P. Selman. (1996) Local Sustainability: managing and planning ecologically sound places. Paul Chapman
John Rennie Short. (1991) Imagined country. Routledge
I.G. Simmons. (1993) Interpreting Nature: cultural constructions of the environment. Routledge
K. Thomas. (1984) Man and the natural world: changing attitudes in England 1500-1800. Penguin
R. Williams. (1975) The country and the city. Paladin