121-228 Space, Power, Culture

Students who have completed 121-016 Landscapes of Power and 121-228 Critical Human Geography are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

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

This subject is an introduction to debates and topics within cultural geography, and other disciplinary traditions that foreground cultural processes as constituted by, and expressed through space, place and landscape. General concepts include social construction of places and selves, the exercise of power in and through space, and the inter-relation of local and global processes. Specifically the subject will address topics as diverse as: postmodernity and urban formations; postcolonial politics and places; the contested nature of globalisation; exclusionary practices and cultures of resistance; iconographies of landscape; and geographies of visual and material culture. 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 interpretive analytical methods and critical thinking, be familiar with relevant social theoretical concepts from human geography and elsewhere and be adept at integrating theoretical concepts with empirical case material.

• be capable of critical reading;

• be capable of thinking, writing and speaking in theorectical terms;

• develop skills in written communication;

• develop presentation skills;

• be capable of approaching research problems in the field.

A tutorial presentation of 1000 words 10% (during the semester), a written work arising from field-based practicals of 1000 words 30% (due mid semester) and an essay of 2000 words 60% (due late semester).