Recent years have witnessed a so-called ‘cultural turn’ within geography as the inter-relations between culture, space and place have been awarded an increased significance. This module critically engages with how geographers have looked at the idea and practice of ‘culture’, and how the geographies of which we are a part are defined by how different cultural groups take and make the places in which we live.

As part of this critical engagement, the module considers how our attachments to place and our exercise of power are crucial components to our cultural identity. The module explores cultures of youth, capitalism, ethnicity, nature, language, and the body through interactive lectures and discussion in seminars. It will appeal to students interested in understanding how culture, identity, and geography are strongly intertwined in our daily lives.

1. Appreciate key theoretical developments in cultural geography;
2. Understand the complex connections between culture, space and place;
3. Understand the ways in which issues of identity, difference, power and resistance are bound up with spatial processes.

The module will be delivered through a combination of lectures and seminars. There will be two sessions per week. Each will be based around a formal lecture complemented by video presentations and group discussions. Lectures will be supplemented with hand-outs and Learning Central (e-learning) support. Video presentations and group discussions are based around key readings. Students are expected to engage in compulsory guided reading associated with each topic to supplement and deepen the taught component. There will also be a Field Study Visit to Stokes Croft, Bristol.

1. Critically review theoretical literatures related to cultural geography;
2. Connect theoretical materials with particular themes and case-studies.

Communicate ideas critically and effectively through discussion and assessments

Students are expected to demonstrate an understanding of the need to appreciate the multiple and contested meanings attached to culture and the ways in which these meanings connect with and are played out in space. Students will be given the opportunity to apply abstract and general ideas to specific case study areas and key subject areas in order to show how ideas can be applied in practice. Central to this module is the development of students’ ability to engage critically with the complex theoretical and empirical connections between culture, space and place. This is assessed through essays or film/photo essays which all students must undertake.

Type of assessment

%

Contribution

Title

Duration
(if applicable)

Approx. date of Assessment

Individual Essay

50%

Critical engagement with theoretical aspects of cultural geography

2000 words

Week 7 Autumn

Film/Photo or Individual Essay

50%

Critical engagement with one or more of ‘subject’ areas of cultural geography

2000 words

Week 12 Autumn

The potential for reassessment in this module

Students are permitted to be reassessed in a module which they have failed, in line with the course regulations. The reassessment will usually take place during the summer.

The module will provide students with the following:

• Historical Development of Cultural Geography
• Cultural constructions of place
• Geographies of Power and Exclusion
• Capitalism Culture and Space
• Youth Cultures, Public Spaces
• Ethnicity, Race, and Place
• Scale, Belonging, and Language
• Natures and Cultures
• Culture and the Body
• Review

Key Text:

Anderson, J. 2015 Understanding Cultural Geography: Places & Traces. Routledge: London & New York. Second Edition

Website: www.spatialmanifesto.com

Anderson, K et al eds. 2003 Handbook of Cultural Geography. Sage: London.

Blunt, A. Wills, J. eds 2003 Cultural geography in practice. Arnold: London.

Cook, I., Crouch, D., Naylor, S., and Ryan, J. (2000), Cultural turns / geographical turns, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Crang, M. 1998 Cultural geography. London : Routledge.

Jackson, P. 1994 Maps of Meaning, London: Routledge.

Mitchell, D. 2000 Cultural Geography: A Critical Introduction. Blackwell: Oxford.

Shurmer-Smith, P. ed. 2002 Doing Cultural Geography. Sage: London.

(An extensive reading list will be made available to students enrolling on this module)

Cresswell, T. 2004. Place. A Short Introduction. Blackwell:Oxford.

Massey, D. (2005) For Space. Sage: London.

Sharp, J. et al (eds) (2000) Entanglements of Power: geographies of domination/resistance. Routledge. London & New York.

Shields, R. 1991 Places on the Margin. Routledge: London.