121-016 Landscapes of Power

Formerly available as 121-207/307. Students who have completed 121-207 or 121-307 are not eligible to enrol in this subject. Available in even-numbered years alternating with 121-026 The Mobile World: Migration and Tourism.

Completion of 100 points of first and/or second-year subjects including at least 50 points at first-year level from approved subjects in your home faculty.

This subject is an introduction to cultural geography and other theoretical traditions that foreground cultural processes as constituted by and expressed through space, place and landscape. General concepts include the social construction of identities in and through place; the exercise of power in and through space; the relationship between globalisation and local formations. Specific themes include Foucault's spatialised concept of power; space and a socio-semiotics; colonial, postcolonial and multicultural spatial politics; identity and space; geographies of resistance; and geographies of exclusion and inclusion. These themes will be elaborated by way of specific examples drawn from Australia and overseas. Students who complete this subject will develop skills in qualitative and interpretative analytical methods and critical thinking; be familiar with relevant social theoretical concepts from cultural geography and elsewhere; be adept at integrating theoretical concepts with empirical case material.