Module Identifier GG36720  
Module Title TERRITORY, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER  
Academic Year 2007/2008  
Co-ordinator Matthew Hannah  
Semester Semester 2  
Course delivery Lecture   10 x 2 hours lectures  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Exam2 Hours seen examination  50%
Semester Assessment Coursework paper (3000 words)  50%
Supplementary Exam3 Hours  50%
Supplementary Assessment Resubmission  50%

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
1. Clearly describe and distinguish the different modes of power and resistance at work in the spatial ordering of modern societies;
2. Describe and explain the ways these different power relations interact in specific situations and contexts;
3. Produce detailed political analyses of spaces and places at all scales using the tools provided in Part one of the module;
4. Compare and contrast specific regimes and instances of power with reference to the paradigmatic historical referents covered in Part two of the module;
5. Reflect critically on the ways in which relations of power and resistance shape the spaces and places in which they live their own lives.

Content

Part one: methods of analyzing modern power relations_
1. Capitalism, the state, law, and territorial sovereignty
2. Spatial forms of power/knowledge
3. Democracy, public space, and participatory citizenship

Part two: ideal-typical contexts and contrasts_
4. Colonial power relations
5. Space, knowledge and power in Nazi Germany
6. Radical democracy and social movements

Part three: case studies_
7. The postcolonial construction of national territories
8. Territorial assemblages, sovereignty and globalization
9. Citizenship, movement and security
10. Bodies and neo-sovereign violence since 9/11

Brief description

This course aims to provide a detailed, analytically useful understanding of the interconnections between the structuring of territories, the sources of social and political power, and modern forms of knowledge. The module proceeds from (1) a detailed comparison of three useful methodologies through (2) an exploration of key modern geo-historical contexts in which territorial power relations were given particularly clear or extreme expression, to (3) a survey of issues and case studies amenable to detailed analysis based on the tools provided in parts (1) and (2). The empirical material contained in the readings will cover a range of geographical scales from the individual human body to buildings, cities, and national territories. Students will be encouraged to recognize the similarities and differences in the nature of spatial power relations at different scales, as well as the involvement of these forms of power in constructing scales. Additionally, attention to modes of resistance at different points in the module will emphasize the contestability of modern spatial power relations.

Module Skills

Problem solving Group exercises and discussions will form a part of many of the lecture sessions, and will be heavily oriented toward problem-solving in hypothetical scenarios.  
Research skills The coursework research essay will require students to engage in serious research, use the resources of the library and internet, organize their papers and present their work in a professional way.  
Communication The group work during lecture sessions, as well as individual participation in discussions, will be an occasion for polishing of oral communications skills. The research paper and the exam will both involve written communication.  
Improving own Learning and Performance This goal is not directly addressed in the module, though the required coursework may well have an impact in this area.  
Team work In-class group exercises will require teamwork in the sense of agreeing upon divisions of labour for group projects and mutual consultation.  
Information Technology Students will need to utilize appropriate information technology in the course of their research projects.  
Application of Number Analysis of power relations in buildings (Part one) will require some rudimentary arithmetical work (to measure `hierarchical depth¿ and `surveillance efficiency¿ of buildings). Otherwise numerical proficiency is not required.  
Personal Development and Career planning This goal is not directly addressed in the course.  
Subject Specific Skills Techniques for analysing buildings will equip students with one previously unfamiliar method of analysis that depends upon more than just conceptual facility (see 7. above)  

Reading Lists

Books
** Should Be Purchased
Goswami, M. (2004) Producing India: from colonial economy to national space. University of Chicago Press, London
** Recommended Text
Aly, G. and Heim, S. (2002) Architects of annihilation: Auschwitz and the logic of destruction. Princeton University Press: Oxford
Cohn, B. (1990) An anthropologist among the historians and other essays. The censuses, social structure and objectification in South Asia
Delaney, D. (2005) Territory: a short introduction Blackwell, London
Foucault, M. (Rabinow, P. ed.) (1989) The Foucault reader Penguin Books
Gordon, C. (Burchell, G., Gordon, C. and Miller, P. (eds)) (1991) The Foucault effect: studies in governmentality Governmental rationality: an introduction University of Chicago Press, London
Gregory, D. and Pred, A. (2007) Violent geographies: fear, terror and political violence. Routledge, Abingdon
Hannah, M. (1997) Space and social theory: interpreting modernity and postmodernity Imperfect panopticism: envisioning the construction of normal lives pp. 344-359. Blackwell (Oxford)
Lefebvre, H. (Brenner, N., Jessop, B., Jones, M. and MacLeod, G. (eds.)) (2003) State/Space: a reader. Space and the state pp. 84-100. Blackwell (Oxford)
Markus, T. (1993) Buildings and power: freedom and control in the origin of modern building types. Routledge, London
Mitchell, D. (2003) The right to the city: social justice and the fight for public space Chapter 3: From free speech to People's Park: locational conflict and the right to the city The Guildford Press, London
N. Blomley (1994) Law, space and the geographies of power Legal territories and the 'Golden Metewand' of the law pp. 67-105. The Guildford Press, London
Poulantzas, N. (Brenner, N., Jessop, B., Jones, M. and MacLeod, G. (eds.)) (2003) State/Space: a reader The nation pp.65-83. Blackwell (Oxford)
Sassen, S. (2006) Territory, authority, rights: from medieval to global assemblages Princeton University Press: Oxford
Sofsky, W. (1997) The order of terror: the concentration camp. Part II: Space and time pp. 45-49. Princeton University Press: Oxford
Torpey, J. (2000) The invention of the passport: surveillance, citizenship and the state Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Weizman, E. (2007) Hollow land: Israel¿s architecture of occupation. Verso: London

Journals
Agnew, J. (2005) Annals of the Association of American Geographers Sovereignty regimes: territoriality and state authority in contemporary world politics 95: pp. 437-461.
Blomley, N. (2003) Annals of the Association of American Geographers Law, property, and the geography of violence: the frontier, the survey and the grid 93: 121-141.
Hannah, M. (2006) Annals of the Association of American Geographers Torture and the ticking bomb: the war on terrorism as a geographical imagination of power/knowledge 96. pp 622-640.
Harris, C. (2004) Annals of the Association of American Geographers How did colonialism dispossess? Comments from an edge of empire 94: pp 165-182.
Massey, D. (1995) Environment and planning D: society and space Thinking radical democracy spatially 13: pp. 283-288.
Merriman, P. (2005) Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers Respect the life of the countryside: the Country Code, government and the conduct of visitors to the countryside in post-war England and Wales 30:pp. 336-350.
Mitchell, D. (2005) Political geography The S.U.V. model of citizenship: floating bubbles, buffer zones, and the rise of the 'purely atomic' individual 24:pp. 77-100.
Oza, R. (2007) Environment and planning D: society and space Contrapuntal geographies of threat and security: the United States, India and Israel 00025PP932
Slater, D. (2002) Environment and planning D: society and space Other domains of democratic theory: space, power, and the politics of democratization 20: pp. 255-276.
Sparke, M. (2006) Political geography A neoliberal nexus: economy, security and the biopolitics of citizenship on the border 25: pp. 151-180.
Woods, M. (2003) Journal of rural studies Deconstructing rural protest: the emergence of a new social movement 19: pp. 309-325.

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6