Newcastle University

Pre Requisite Comment

None

Co Requisite Comment

None

Aims

This course aims to give students a thorough grounding in the concepts, practices and disciplinary traditions of political geography. In doing so, students will be equipped with the skills to critically analyse the spatialities of political life from local to global scales.

Outline Of Syllabus

LECTURES

Introduction: visions of political geography

Part I: Space and sovereignty
Sovereignty and territory I: making states
Sovereignty and territory II: unmaking states
Indigenous sovereignties
Proto-states, quasi-states and 'non-places'
International boundaries I: making boundaries
International Boundaries II: Trumped! politics and identity

Part II: Geopolitics, classical and critical
Geopolitics, classical and critical: was Sir Halford Mackinder right
Cold War
Popular geopolitics
Geopolitics of the War on Terror I&II
Resource geopolitics
Dividing up the world: geopolitics of regions
Geopolitics, Donald Trump, and peace

Part III: State and citizenship
Geographies of citizenship
Nationalism I&II
Young people, geopolitical agency and participation
Citizen diplomacy and statecraft
The nonviolent revolution
Conclusion/revision

Coursework
1 x practical/seminar on making public interventions: letters-to-editors workshop (assessed essay resulting from this)

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

By the end of the course the student will:

1. Have a sound knowledge and understanding of the tenets and background of political geography and will be able to critically evaluate the position of the sub-discipline in relation to broader geographical enquiry.
2. Have a sound knowledge and understanding of the relationship between sovereignty claims and space and will have a background in a broad range of case studies.
3. Be able to critically assess the production of geopolitical knowledge and will have an understanding of the various means by which this knowledge is communicated and reproduced.
4. Be able to critically evaluate concepts such as state, nation and territory.

Intended Skill Outcomes

By the end of the course the student will have developed:

1. The ability to summarise, assess, explain and critically evaluate different theories and arguments.
2. The ability to formulate, present, defend and revise reasoned arguments in the contexts of individual writing, group discussion, and the public sphere.
3. The ability to engage in public debate by writing letters for publication in national, regional and local newspapers
4. The ability to recognise, interpret and critically evaluate the political geographic content of everyday life, as experienced across a range of quotidian sites including landscapes, news media, films, novels, and places of work.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

N/A

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Exam – will assess knowledge and understanding of political geographic concepts and ability to summarize, assess, explain and evaluate different theories and arguments.

Essay – ‘Political Geography in the Media’ – will assess knowledge and understanding of political geographic concepts and application, and ability to summarise, assess, explain and evaluate different theories and arguments. Twinned to this, students are asked to use this knowledge to interpret and analyses contemporary news stories.

General Notes

As per geography policy, introductory and revision lectures will be recapped and made permanently available. All other lectures will be recapped and made available for a period of two weeks only. This is to allow students to catch up and revisit material at the time, but to prevent reliance on them as a substitute for proper revision and wider reading for assessments.