This module provides an introduction to key concepts and topics in the new field of geographies of Nature. It positions Nature, the environment and natural processes, at the heart of geographical thinking at a time of what is going to be a turbulent and critical century in human-natural relations. What is Nature? Where is Nature? Are we witnessing the end of Nature? Animals, plants, trees, landscapes, our bodies - are they natural? This module will discuss these questions in the context of thinking about the most common practices by which animals, minerals and plants have been considered resources for human consumption. And it will consider broader debates about the role of commerce, science, regulation, and NGOs in the circulation of practical and discursive knowledges about the environment within a global economy.

The module will provide an overview of the theories and concepts used in human geography to discuss the changing nature of human-nonhuman relations in various sites: the city, the countryside, the wild, the ocean, the media. It will provide a theoretically informed analysis of the relations between people and the material world, particularly the living world, and the spatial habits of thought that inform the ways in which these relations are imagined and practiced in the conduct of science, governance and everyday life. The module covers: Social Natures, Social construction of ‘nature’, Nonhuman geographies, Embodied consumption practices, The post-human: biotechnology and inter-species ethics.

A significant part of the module will be dedicated to exploring the new field of animal geographies (wilderness, laboratories, farms, slaughterhouses, oceans) and to address the ways in which the nature/culture divide is enacted. In this way a focus on more-than-human geographies will address today’s most pressing global issues, namely social justice and environmental sustainability.

• evaluate the current geographical research on nature
• understand the key ideas associated with human and nonhuman relations 
• assess the commercial and environmental implications of regulating human use of 'nature' 
• appreciate the interplay between consumption practices, commercial practices and the media 
• recognise the importance of culture in how nature is known
• Debate the role of ‘human exceptionalism’ in informing current policies for protection of engendered species, animal rights and animal welfare
• Assess the risks for environmental sustainability and animal welfare of a range of current practices involving nonhuman animals, the new challenges of scientific innovations and technological development (Bioeconomy, transgenic animals, cloning, organ transplant, pharming).

This module will be taught by a combination of traditional lectures, film and class debates or seminars, 2 workshops and a field-study visit. Each of these teaching methods will involve group exercises, specifically designed to reinforce student learning during the module.

Academic Skills

1. Understand the following key theoretical concepts and debates: (i) Human exceptionalism and post-humanism; (ii)  Animal rights and animal welfare, the role of NGOs, Animal parties advocacy; (iii) risk and precaution; and (iv) environmental and animal ethics (towards the future, towards distant people and towards nature).

2. Assess the merits of different mechanisms that are available to protect nonhuman animals and current animal welfare or conservation policies (regulation, market mechanisms, voluntary agreements and information), and understand the political context of instrument choice.

Subject-Specific Skills

1. Develop and present ideas for human nonhuman animals practices which provide a creative direction for the future and are realistic for implementation (through group exercises used in lectures).

2. Demonstrate effective research and appraisal skills by critically analysing current uses of nonhuman animals  (through lectures and the assessed coursework).

3. Acknowledge the values which underlie different interpretations of human and nonhuman animals sustainable living  and its implications for public policy.

4. Demonstrate awareness of the moral status of nonhuman animals and  ideological basis for current animal rights and animal welfare  policies (i.e. regulation, market mechanisms, voluntary agreements and information).

Employability Skills

1. Develop and present ideas for addressing social justice and human-nonhuman animals relations (through lectures and workshops).

2. Develop group-based advocacy and deliberation skills (through lectures, seminars and workshops).

3. Develop effective group work skills and oral communications skills (through lectures, seminars and workshop).

4. Produce a theoretically informed and empirically based output  that could be a written report or a video (through assessment).

There will be 2 summative assessments supported by a formative assessment (workshop) in the last two weeks: The workshops will be dedicated to the students’ presentation of human/nonhuman animals spaces of co-habitation and to student presentations of films, designs, interviews about human nonhuman animals practices.

Each student will be asked to prepare 10 power point slides and 500 words text to illustrate a case and reflect upon the themes addressed in the lectures.

Summative Methods of Assessment:

• Learning Outcomes 1 and 2 will be assessed through the Exam;
• Learning Outcome 3 and 4 will be assessed through the Written report (or video or other output based on a different medium).

Type of assessment

%

Contribution

Title

Duration
(if applicable)

Approx. date of Assessment

Exam

50

Students will be asked to answer 2 questions out of 6 addressing the topic presented during the lectures.

1.5 hours

After the end of the lectures / (Spring Semester)

Written essay (or video or  podcast, or photo-shop)

50

Description and discussion of a relevant human/nonhuman animal space of co-habitation or practice.

Max 2000 words essay

After the end of the lectures / (Spring Semester)

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 following topics will be covered during this module and are mandatory for all students:

List of lectures:

1. 1) Introducing Geographies of Nature: spaces and practices;
2. 2) The Anthropocene or the End of Nature?
3. 3) Nonhuman worlds;
4. 4) The wild: conservation, preservation and rewilding;
5. 5) Aquatic geographies: fluid worlds and alien life?
6. 6) The countryside: farming, hunting and recreational activities.
7. 7) The city: zoopolis or living with animals;
8. 8) The museum: natural history of human nonhuman cohabitation.

9) Science and Technology and the rise of the post-human world.

10 and 11) Workshop with students’ presentations;

Field Study Visit: Bristol Zoo;

Clark, N. H.  (2011) Inhuman Nature: Sociable Life on a Dynamic Planet, London: Sage.

Hinchliffe, S. (2007). Geographies of Nature, London: Sage. Abstract.

Urbanik, J. (2012) Placing Animals, An introduction to the Geography of Human-Animal Relations, New York and Plymouth: Rownam & Littlefield Publisher, Inc.

Whatmore, S. (2002) Hybrid Geographies: natures cultures spaces, London: Sage.

Wolch, JR and  J Emel, J (eds) (1998) Animal geographies: Place, politics, and identity in the nature-culture borderlands, London: Verso.

Castree, N. (2014) "Geography and the Anthropocene 1: The Backstory." Geography Compass 8, no. 7(2014) : 436-439. DOI:10.1111/gec3.12141

Castree, N. (2014) "Geography and the Anthropocene 2: Current Contributions." Geography Compass 8, no. 7(2014) : 450-463. DOI: 10.1111/gec3.12140

Castree, N. (2014) "Geography and the Anthropocene 3: Future Directions." Geography Compass 8, no. 7(2014) : 464-476. DOI: 10.1111/gec3.12139

"The Anthropocene and the environmental humanities: extending the conversation." Environmental Humanities 5(2014) : 233-260.

Cronon, W. (1991) Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West, New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

DeJohn, V.  (2004) Creature of Empire, How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

DeMello, M. (2012) Animals and Society, An introduction to Human-Animal Studies, New York: Columbia University Press;

Haraway, D. (2008) When Species Meet, Minneapolis: Minneapolis University Press.

Ingold, T. (2011) Being Alive, Essays on movement, knowledge and description, Oxon and New York: Routledge.

Whatmore, S. and S. Hinchcliffe (2008) Hybrid geographies: rethinking the 'human' in human geography. Republished in, Anderson, K., and Braun, B. (eds.) Environment: Critical essays in human geography (Series: Contemporary foundations of space and place). Ashgate.

Willerslev, R. (2007) Soul Hunters, Hunting, Animism, and Personhood among Siberian Yukaghirs, Berkley, California: California University Press.

Wolch J, Emel J, 1995, "Bringing the animals back in" Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 13(6) 632 – 636

Wolch, J. (2002) ‘Anima Urbi’, Progress in Human Geography, December 2002; vol. 26, 6: pp. 721-742