Gwybodaeth Modiwlau

The first section of the module will focus upon the understanding of basic concepts such as place, discourse, state, sovereignty, territory, national identity, democracy, citizenship, security, geopolitical strategy, development, uneven development, core-periphery relations, geoeconomics, and development indicators. The overarching purpose of this section will be to show not only how political geography has been understood but also how its basic categories themselves, and the 'geographical imaginations' they anchor, have been contested through history and in different geographical contexts. Students are thereby equipped to think with, but also to think critically about, political understandings of the world.

Section two introduces a series of case studies showing how the dynamics and divisions of global political geography shape human experiences of particular places, and how places have in turn been key to the construction of political geographic understandings of national identity, geopolitical struggles and varying experiences of development and underdevelopment. Examples are taken from Europe, North America and the Caribbean. The focus here remains partly historical, in order to help explain the emergence of some of the key political and geopolitical actors and arrangements inherited by the 21st century from the 19th and 20th centuries, but it also begins to link to present-day issues.

Section three focuses more centrally upon current issues in global political geography and development, introducing students to recent or ongoing debates that demonstrate the interconnections between the themes and dynamics introduced earlier. Here the importance of contestations in public space and the central role of discourse come to the fore, as students engage with unfolding struggles over what events and trends mean, before any sort of consensus has been reached on their significance. Media literacy is foregrounded here to help equip students more systematically for the exercise of responsible adult citizenship.

The first section of the module will focus upon the understanding of basic concepts such as place, discourse, state, sovereignty, territory, national identity, democracy, citizenship, security, geopolitical strategy, development, uneven development, core-periphery relations, geoeconomics, and development indicators. The overarching purpose of this section will be to show not only how political geography has been understood but also how its basic categories themselves, and the 'geographical imaginations' they anchor, have been contested through history and in different geographical contexts. Students are thereby equipped to think with, but also to think critically about, political understandings of the world.

Section two introduces a series of case studies showing how the dynamics and divisions of global political geography shape human experiences of particular places, and how places have in turn been key to the construction of political geographic understandings of national identity, geopolitical struggles and varying experiences of development and underdevelopment. Examples are taken from Europe, North America and the Caribbean. The focus here remains partly historical, in order to help explain the emergence of some of the key political and geopolitical actors and arrangements inherited by the 21st century from the 19th and 20th centuries, but it also begins to link to present-day issues.

Section three focuses more centrally upon current issues in global political geography and development, introducing students to recent or ongoing debates that demonstrate the interconnections between the themes and dynamics introduced earlier. Here the importance of contestations in public space and the central role of discourse come to the fore, as students engage with unfolding struggles over what events and trends mean, before any sort of consensus has been reached on their significance. Media literacy is foregrounded here to help equip students more systematically for the exercise of responsible adult citizenship.