geography degree programme · 2014-02-17 · journal of hydrology 116, 3-10. shaw e m (1992)...

THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH SCHOOL OF GEOSCIENCES

GEOGRAPHY DEGREE PROGRAMME

Options Handbook (for academic year 2014/15)

February 2014

Geography Option Programme

PROVISIONAL Timetable and assessment information For Session 2014-2015

Semester Options Course Organiser

1 Catchment Water Resources N Stuart

2 Cinematic Cities C Johnston

1 Development and Decolonisation in

Latin America J Cupples

2 Divided Cities T Slater

1 Encountering Cities D Swanton

1 Eroding Landscapes: Mountains, Hills

and Rivers M Attal

1 Geographies of Development and

Socionature A Ioris

2 Geographies of Food M Wilson

2 The Geography of Health N Shortt

2 Geographies of the Sea W Hasty

2 Geography of Wine M Summerfield

1 Glacial Processes and Geomorphology P Nienow

2 Ice and Climate D Goldberg

N Gourmelen

2 Landscape Dynamics- techniques and

applications L Kirstein

2 Minorities in Multicultural Society J Penrose

2 People, landscape change and

settlement: the last 15,000 years E Panagiotakopulu

1 Principles of Geographical Information

Science W Mackaness

1 Remote Sensing and Global Climate

Change I Woodhouse

2 Space, Place and Sensory Perception N Morris

1 Values and the Environment E Brady

2 Volcanoes, Environment and People A Dugmore

2 Writing Landscape F MacDonald

GEGR10023 Catchment Water Resources

Course Organiser: Dr Neil Stuart

Lecturers: Dr Neil Stuart and Dr Kate Heal

Contact time: Semester 1, timetable to be confirmed.

Format: Lectures and practicals

Class assessment: As specified in course handouts

Degree assessment: One report on hydrological modelling project (2,000 words) One 2 hour examination (2 questions)

40% 60%

The successful management of water resources requires an understanding of both hydrological processes and the ways in which these processes are affected by human interventions within river catchments. This course shows how knowledge from hydrology, ecology and fluvial geomorphology is used to understand, predict and remediate the affects of human modifications of land use upon river flows and water quality.

Course objectives

To review the basic hydrological and geomorphological processes relevant for river catchment management

To understand how agriculture, mining and urbanisation affect river flow and water quality;

To understand and be able to construct simple simulation models in hydrology;

To understand the principles and structures for sustainable urban drainage;

To appreciate the application of these ideas for river restoration and flood control projects.

Teaching methods

The course will be taught by a series of lectures, supplemented by computer based practical sessions in which students construct a simple conceptual rainfall-runoff model using Excel. There will normally be a field visit, and a series of student-led seminar presentations. Students also have the opportunity to attend additional lectures by hydrologists and river managers.

Key references

Anderson M G and Burt T P (1985) Hydrological Forecasting. Wiley. Chapters 1, 11-13.

Downs P W and Gregory K J (2004) River Channel Management. Arnold.

Hardisty J, Taylor D M and Metcalfe S E (1993) Computerised Environmental Modelling: introduction using Excel. John Wiley.

Kelly M (1988) Mining and the Freshwater Environment. Elsevier Applied Science.

Newson M D (1994) Hydrology and the river environment. Clarendon Press, Oxford. Chapter 3 for basic hydrological processes and the simple conceptual model of the dynamic contributing area; 5: human influence on runoff volumes and times; 9 hydrological models for river management.

Novotny V and Harvey O (1994) Water Quality: Prevention, Identification and Management of Diffuse Pollution. Van Nostrand Reinhold.

Rosenqvist I T (1990) From rain to lake: water pathways and chemical changes. Journal of Hydrology 116, 3-10.

Shaw E M (1992) Hydrology in Practice (2nd edition). chapters 12 and 14. McGraw Hill.

Smith K and Ward R C (1998) Floods: physical processes and human impacts, Chichester: Wiley.

Thorne C R, Hey R D and Newson M D (1997) Applied Fluvial Geomorphology for River Engineering and Management. Wiley, Chichester.

Ward R C and Robinson M (1990) Principles of Hydrology (3rd Ed). McGraw-Hill.

Useful websites

http://www.therrc.co.uk (River Restoration Centre – information on demonstration sites)

http://www.ciria.org.uk/suds/index.html (CIRIA (Construction Industry Research and Information

Association) website on Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) in the UK)

www.suds-sites.net (Database of SUDS sites in UK)

http://www.sepa.org.uk/publications/leaflets/suds/index.htm (SEPA SUDS publications)

http://www.sepa.org.uk/wfd/index.htm and

(Information on the progress of the EU Water Framework Directive from the Scottish Environment

Protection Agency (SEPA) website – many useful links)

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Environment/Water/17316/9088 (Scottish Executive website on

implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive in Scotland

GEGRXXXX – Cinematic Cities

Course Organiser: Dr Caleb Johnston

Lecturer: Dr Caleb Johnston

Contact time and location: Semester 2, timetable to be confirmed.

Format: Lecture, seminar discussion (including film screenings).

Class assessment: As specified in course handbook

Degree assessment: Seminar participation Written assignments on course readings Film Review (750 words) Research Essay (3,000 words)

10% 10% 20% 60%

Introduction

This course examines the complex and longstanding interrelationship and exchange between film and city. Throughout the semester, we will watch and discuss a series of films that animate some of the central hopes and aspirations, anxieties and ruptures that characterize urbanism throughout the 20th and into the 21st century. Facilitating a sensory and critical encounter with cities, film is considered as a mobile representation in which social, geopolitical and cultural meanings are documented, imagined, reassembled, circulated and contested.

Course objectives

Develop an understanding of the interrelationship between film and city, and in doing so, glean some of the great challenges and aspirations that characterize urbanism in the Western and non-Western world.

Acquire knowledge on a range of theoretical approaches to cities and film.

Develop analytical skills to critically engage film as a site of popular cultural production.

Be able to present verbally and constructively debate ideas with colleagues.

Develop written skills in an essay proposal and substantive term paper.

Key readings

Individual lists for each week, readings include:

Agamben, Giorgio. (1998) Home Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Stanford: Stanford University Press,

pp. 1-12; 166-180. Appadurai, Arjun. (2000) Spectral housing and urban cleansing: notes on millennial Mumbai. Public Culture

12(3): 627-651. (Available online) Bazin, André. (2005) An aesthetic of reality: neorealism. In What is Cinema?: Volume II. Berkeley: University

of California Press, pp. 16-40. Benjamin, Walter. (1983) The Flaneur. In Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism.

London: Verso, pp. 35-66. Davis, Mike. (2001) Bunker Hill: Hollywood’s dark shadow. In M Shiel and T Fitzmaurice (eds). Cinema and

the City: Film and Urban Societies in a Global Context. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 33-45. Dikec, Mustafa. (2006) Two decades of French urban policy: from social development of neighbourhoods to

the republican penal state. Antipode 38(1): 59-81. (Available online) Donald, James. (1992) Metropolis: city as text. In Social and Cultural Forms of Modernity. R Bocock and K

Thompson (eds). Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 417-470. Poudeh, R and M Shirvani. (2008) Issues and paradoxes in the development of Iranian national cinema: an

overview. Iranian Studies 41(3): 323-341. (Available online) Rancière, Jacques. (2004) The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible. London: Continuum, pp.

12-19. Reddy, Reid. (1998) Unsafe at any distance. Film Quarterly 51(3): 32-44. (Available online) Yau, Esther. (2001) Hong Kong Cinema in a Borderless World. In E Yau (ed). At Full Speed: Hong Kong

Cinema in a Borderless World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 1-19.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?ie=UTF8&field-author=Andr%C3%A9+Bazin&search-alias=books&text=Andr%C3%A9+Bazin&sort=relevancerank

GEGRXXXX – Development and decolonisation in Latin America

Course Organiser: Dr Julie Cupples

Lecturer: Dr Julie Cupples


Format: Lectures, discussions, and student presentations


Degree assessment: Comparative critique and review Development issue essay Decolonial option essay

20% 40% 40%

Introduction

This course introduces students to key theoretical perspectives in Latin American development geography, including dependency theory, postdevelopment, feminist approaches and the MCD paradigm. Drawing on a wide range of historical and contemporary case studies from across the continent, it will explore the main development challenges facing the region and the diverse and creative ways in which people respond to them.

Course objectives

By the end of the course students will: have a knowledge of key theoretical perspectives in Latin American development and be able to critically evaluate

their significance be able to recognise, analyse, interpret and critique development discourses related to Latin American

development

have a sense of the ways in which the cultural, the economic, the political and the social are entangled in Latin American development practice and theory

understand the importance of everyday media geographies in Latin America in representing, making and contesting development

have an in-depth understanding of the modernity/coloniality/decoloniality research paradigm and be able to apply it to specific development issues

Course Content

Students will also gain an in-depth knowledge of how these processes can be theorized. The course will be delivered through a weekly two hour class meeting that will combine lectures, class discussions, and student presentations. Visual media including documentaries and YouTube clips will be used to illustrate and provoke engagement with core

concepts. Students will gain insights on Latin American development from geography, development studies and cultural studies.

Key readings

Cupples, J. (2013) Latin American Development. London: Routledge Andolina, R., Laurie, N. and Radcliffe, S. (2009) Indigenous Development in the Andes: Culture, Power, and

Transnationalism. Durham: Duke University Press Chant, S. and Craske, N. (2003) Gender in Latin America. London: Latin America Bureau del Sarto, A. Ríos, A. and Trigo, A. (eds) The Latin American Cultural Studies Reader. Durham: Duke

University Press Escobar, A. (1995) Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton :

Princeton University Press

Escobar, A. (2008) Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes. Durham: Duke University Press Franko, P. (2007) The Puzzle of Latin American Economic Development. 3rd ed. Lanham: Rowman and

Littlefield Galeano, E. (1971) Las Venas Abiertas de América Latina. México: Siglo XXI García Canclini, N. (2001) Consumers and Citizens: Globalization and Multicultural Conflicts. Minneapolis:

University of Minnesota Press Panizza, F. (2009) Contemporary Latin America: Development and Democracy Beyond the Washington

Consensus. London: Zed Books Roberts, J. T and Thanos, D. T. (2003) Trouble in Paradise: Globalization and Environmental Crises in Latin

America. London: Routledge Wade, P. (1997) Race and Ethnicity in Latin America. London: Pluto Press

Williamson, E. (2009) The Penguin History of Latin America. London: Penguin Special issue of Cultural Studies on Globalization and the De-colonial Option 21(2-3), 2007

GEGR10106 – Divided Cities

Course Organiser: Dr Tom Slater

Lecturer: Dr Tom Slater


Format: Lectures, discussions, and debates based on key texts and documentaries


Degree assessment: One 2,000 word essay One 2 hour examination (2 questions)

40% 60%

Introduction

This course scans various theoretical approaches to the city and explores salient features of social division, experience, and transformation in a range of metropolitan contexts. We first map out an intellectual history of urban division, before examining in seriatim a range of divisions - the specificity of the ghetto as mechanism of sociospatial exclusion and the transformation of the African-American ghetto in the wake of the Civil Rights era; the growth and salience of European neighbourhoods of relegation (with a specific focus on the stigmatised territories of the French banlieues); the implosion of Chicago’s historic ‘Black Belt’ via neoliberal housing policy; the causes and consequences of the pivotal urban process of gentrification (amplified by a walking tour of Craigmillar that gets to very heart of the phenomenon); the tangled nexus of poverty, crime and violence on the street; the associated rise and ramifying implications of gated communities; the mutation of apartheid in South Africa from its racial origins to its contemporary economic expression; and the city of New Orleans viewed during and after Hurricane Katrina (which offers a glimpse of the fracturing metropolis as a product of vicious urban policies and the struggles against them); and a

consideration of the possibilities of the ‘Right to the City’ movement.

Course aims

To provide a cross-national, critical understanding of the geographies of urban inequality

To provide a set of analytical lenses to understand key concepts relating to urban problems.

Course Content

Each session is anchored by a major writing and assorted books and articles which are dissected and discussed with a view towards identifying the strengths and weaknesses of contending theories of “the city” as social constellation, prism, and laboratory. As we proceed, we probe the parameters, weigh the concepts, and scope the concerns of contemporary urban geography, asking what is distinctive about it as a form of inquiry and consciousness, and what it contributes to our understanding of the urban condition and our present historical predicament.

Key readings

Bourgois, P. (2003) In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio (2nd edition) (Cambridge University Press).

Brenner, N. and Theodore, N. (eds) (2002) Spaces of Neoliberalism (Oxford: Blackwell).

Hackworth, J. (2006) The Neoliberal City (Ithaca: Cornell University Press)

Harvey, D. (2005) A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford University Press)

Lees, L., Slater, T. and Wyly, E. (2008) Gentrification (New York: Routledge)

Leitner, H, Peck, J. and Sheppard, E. (eds) (2007) Contesting Neoliberalism: Urban Frontiers (New York: Guilford Press).

Smith, N. (1996) The New Urban Frontier (New York: Routledge).

*Wacquant, L. (2008) Urban Outcasts: A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality (Cambridge: Polity).

GEGR100102- Encountering Cities

Course Organiser: Dr Dan Swanton

Lecturer: Dr Dan Swanton


Format: Lectures, discussions and debates based on key texts and documentary films

Class assessment: As specified in the course handbook

Degree assessment: One 2,000 word essay

One 2 hour examination (2 questions)

40%

60%

Introduction This course explores the everyday geographies of cities through the concept of encounter. Questioning how we understand cities, the course introduces diverse theoretical approaches to the city and examines different modes of researching and representing cities. Using Urban examples as diverse as Bradford and Baghdad, the course is organised around lectures and discussions that address 3 key conceptual concerns: understanding the everyday sociality of cities (the spaces of encounter and mundane interaction that make up so much of urban life); grasping the emotional and affective life of cities (the embodied experiences of inhabiting and using urban spaces); and

appreciating the urban materialities (the often overlooked things, technologies, natures, and infrastructure that are a part of every day life in cities). These conceptual concerns then form the basis for examining a series of important issues facing contemporary cities including; urban multiculture and living with difference; segregation and the sorting of bodies in cities; fear and the city; terrorism and wounded cities. Course aims To provide students with a thorough knowledge of the city To introduce students to a range of different ways of knowing the city To make students aware of how knowledge and understanding of the city is developed through different research

methods and representation

To provide a critical understanding of key concepts including encounters, sociality, emotions, materiality To develop students understanding of a number of substantive, current issues affecting everyday urban life using

case studies from cities around the world To provide students with a detailed understanding of: the social life of cities; the emotional life of cities; and

urban materialities To encourage students to critically identify and analyse complex problems facing the city and to demonstrate

some originality in dealing with these problems Course content The course is organised around lectures, readings, discussions and documentary films to familiarise students with different ways of knowing the city, and to develop an appreciation of some key issues facing cities.

Key readings Amin, A. and Thrift, N. (2002). Cities: Reimagining the Urban. (Cambridge: Polity Press). Caldeira, T. (2000). City of Walls: Segregation and Citizenship in São Paulo. (Berkeley: University of California Press). Donald, J. (1999). Imagining the Modern City. (London: The Athlone Press). Latham, A., McCormack, D., McNamara, k and McNeill, D. (2009). Key Concepts in Urban Geography. (London: Sage).

Lefebvre, H. (1996). Writings on Cities. (Oxford: Blackwell). Pile, S. (2005). Real Cities. (London: Routledge). Watson, S. (2006). City Publics: the (dis)enchantments of Urban Encounters. (London: Routledge).

GEGR10094 – Eroding Landscapes: Mountains, Hills and Rivers

Course Organiser: Dr Mikael Attal

Lecturer: Dr Mikael Attal, Dr Simon Mudd


Format: Lectures, practicals, computer exercises, field trip

Class assessment: 1 Practical or Computer Exercise 100%

Degree assessment: One 2,000 word essay One 2 hour examination

40% 60%

Introduction

Hills and mountains are continuously being denuded and dissected by erosional processes. In non-glaciated landscapes sediment is produced on hillslopes, delivered to channels, and eventually transported to basins. In this course, students will be introduced to the processes that sculpt these upland regions. The processes and their feedbacks will be analyzed at different scales, from particles to mountain ranges and from single transport events (e.g. landslide, flood) to geological time scales. Theoretical, experimental (analogical and numerical) and field studies constitute the basis of this 20-point course. Lectures, practicals, numerical modeling exercises and field work will allow students to understand and quantify hillslope and fluvial processes and to gain knowledge on the interactions between these processes and on their relative importance in driving landscape evolution.

Course aims and objectives

This course aims to provide students with a fundamental knowledge of the physics and dynamics of erosion and landscape evolution in non-glaciated landscapes. At the end of the course students should have acquired the

following:

Subject specific learning objectives An understanding of the physical processes involved in fluvial and hillslope erosion. An understanding of how local erosional processes act and interact to sculpt landscapes at catchment, mountain

range, and continental scales. An ability to quantify both fluvial and hillslope processes in terms of mass conservation, and use this ability to

make predictions about future behavior of landscapes. A knowledge of the tools that modern geomorphologists use to analyze these processes (e.g., topographic

analysis, numerical modeling).

Transferable skill-learning objectives Have developed their skills of critical analysis. Have further developed their ability to produce a written report based on field measurements, applied models,

and library research. Have acquired the ability to apply theoretical and numerical techniques to real world research questions.

Course outline

The course will be structured around the following series of lectures providing a grounding in fundamental hillslope and fluvial processes. The first component is focused on hillslope processes, the second component is focused on fluvial processes. These subcomponents will be illustrated by a one day field exercise; data generated during the lab

and field exercises will constitute the basis for the essay (20 point course).

Week 1: Introduction: Feedbacks between mountain building, erosion and climate. 1- Hillslope processes: Week 2: Introduction to upland landscapes. Sediment moves downhill; why is there a downhill? Week 3: Weathering, the production of mobile sediment and soils. Week 4: Gradual sediment transport in soil mantled landscapes (creep like transport). Week 5: Rapid sediment transport in soil mantled and bedrock landscapes (landslide, debris flow, storm erosion). Week 6: Relation between landscape dynamics and form to individual erosion processes.

2- Fluvial processes: Week 7 Morphology and dynamics of mountain rivers. Week 8: Numerical models of landscape evolution. Week 9: Sediments and bedrock erosion.

Week 10: Quantifying erosion in mountainous landscapes. Week 11: Hillslope+ Fluvial revision session.

Key references

Anderson R.S. and Anderson S.P. (2010), Geomorphology: the mechanics and chemistry of landscapes, Cambridge Univ. Press, ISBN 0-521-51978-6. (if there’s one book that you want to buy, it’s this one!)

Burbank D.W. and Anderson R.S. (2001), Tectonic Geomorphology, Blackwell, ISBN 0-632-04386-5.

Carson M.A. and Kirkby M.J. (1972). Hillslope form and process, Cambridge Univ. Press, ISBN 0-521-08234-X.

Knighton D. (1998), Fluvial Forms and Processes: A New Perspective, Hodder Arnold, ISBN 0-340-66313-8.

Tinkler K.J. and Wohl E.E. (1998), Rivers over rock, AGU Geophysical monograph 107, ISBN 0-87590-090-0.

Willet S.D., Hovius N., Brandon M.T. and Fisher D.M. (2006), Tectonics, Climate and Landscape Evolution, GSA special paper 398, ISBN 0-8137-2398-1.

Particularly useful Journals include Journal of Geophysical Research, Geology, Nature, Nature Geoscience, Science, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, Geomorphology, Water Resources Research and Geophysical Research Letters

GEGR10112 – Geographies of Development and Socionature.

Course Organiser: Dr Antonio Ioris

Lecturer: Dr Antonio Ioris


Format: Lectures, tutorials


Degree assessment: Group presentation One 2,000 word project One two-hour examination (2 questions)

10% 30% 60%

Introduction

Natural ecosystems provide numerous services that underpin human well-being but one consequence of the rapid changes and degradation of ecosystems occurring across the planet is an increase in poverty for vulnerable groups of people. Exploring those tensions between development and environmental management, the course builds explicitly on the socio-political connections between society and the rest of socionature. The course aims to enhance understanding of the multiple, multiscale interconnections between development and socionatural (or socioecological) issues from a geographical perspective. In particular, it considers different approaches to development and various forms of contestation. Examples and case studies will be used to illustrate the contested basis of development, the contrast between development paths and the plurality of alternatives.

Course aims

Understand the evolution of the theory and practice of development at the international, national and local contexts and its multiple connections with environmental (socionatural) issues;

Develop geographical skills on the socionatural basis and repercussions of development, including issues of environmental justice, public participation, group identity and creativity;

Examine the various ways that socionatural relations have shaped (and been shaped) by) social, political and economic processes;

Apply critical thinking to case studies related to development in northern and southern countries.

Course content

The course includes an initial conceptualisation and review of the evolution of development and the socio-cultural meaning of the environment (highlighting the differences between northern and southern countries). It contextualises development as part of Western modernity and part of the expansion of capitalist relations of production and reproduction. It then analyses the experience of development and its environmental consequences in the Post-War period, which coincided with the reconstruction and decolonisation of many countries. The next part of the course is a

discussion of the continuities and differences between the Post-War phase and the more recent neoliberal reform of state and economy. Special attention will be given to the various groups and organisations (local, national and multilateral) involved in promoting development and associated policies. The final part of the course will be an examination of the various forms of protest and contestation of development, as well as local and international alternatives to conventional and neoliberal forms of development. The final session will discuss the short- and long-term prospects of development and its interconnections with socionatural themes. Lectures will be complemented by two tutorials in small groups to

Key references

Detailed reading list will be informed during the course; core reading includes:

- Allen, Tim and Thomas, A. (eds). 2000. Poverty and Development into the 21st century. Open University and OUP: Oxford. (especially Chapters 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 13, 15, 16 and 24)

- Castree, N. and Braun, B. 2001. Social Nature: Theory, Practice and Politics. John Wiley and Sons: Oxford.

(especially Chapters 1, 5, 7, 8)

- Payne, A. and Philips, N. 2010. Development. Cambridge, University Press.

- Peet, R. and Hartwick, E. 2009. Theories of Development: Contentions, Arguments, Alternatives. Guilford Press: New York. (especially chapters 1, 3 and 8)

- Rist, G. 2008. The History of Development: From Western Origins to Global Faith. 3rd edition. Zed Books: London. [electronic resource] (especially Chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, 10, 13 and 14)

- Willis, K. 2011. Theories and Practices of Development. 2nd edition. Routledge: London and New York.

GEGRXXXX – Geographies of Food

Course Organiser: Dr Marisa Wilson

Lecturer: Dr Marisa Wilson


Format: Lectures, discussions and debates based on key texts and documentary films

Class assessment: Food regimes map and timeline, Group fieldwork and presentation

Degree assessment: Degree essay One two-hour examination (2 questions)

40% 60%

Introduction The study of food in all its dimensions offers insights into a wide range of pressing questions in human geography. Food occupies everyone to some extent, connecting people to plantation economies and histories, national and transnational resources, regulations and markets, commodity cultures and alternative economies, and collective understandings of risk, scarcity and abundance.

Course aims Upon completing the course, students will be able to:

1. provide a chronological survey of food regimes that have emerged over the past two centuries and relate them to present relations within and between the global North and South.

2. explain the political economic and social workings of the dominant food system at various scales and demonstrate a knowledge of alternative trends.

3. relate local experiences and practices of food production or consumption to the food policies of Scotland, the United Kingdom, Europe and/or the World Trade Organisation.

Course content The course provides students with a political economic, environmental and socio-cultural understanding of food production, marketing/distribution and consumption, power-laden processes revealed as connected in time and space. Students will gain a holistic understanding of food systems in the global North and South, including current trends that

restructure the North/South divide, complementing other courses with an international development focus. Students will become proficient in the use of qualitative methods to understand, compare and evaluate food-related projects enacted at different scales. Key readings

Bell, D. and Valentine, G. 1997. Consuming geographies: we are where we eat. London and New York: Routledge.

Born, Branden and Mark Purcell. 2006. Avoiding the local trap: scale and food systems in planning research. Journal of Planning Education and Research 2006 26: 195-207.

Counihan, Carole and Penny van Esterik. 2007. Food and culture: a reader (second edition). London and New York: Routledge.

Friedberg, Susan. 2004. French beans and food scares. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Friedmann, Harriet. From colonialism to green capitalism: social movements and the emergence of food regimes. In Fredrick H. Buttel and Philip McMichael (eds) New directions in the sociology of global development (research in rural sociology and development, vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.227-264.

Fuller, Duncan, Andrew E. G. Jonas and Roger Lee. 2010. Interrogating alterity: alternative economic and political spaces. Surrey: Ashgate (esp. chs. 6 and 10).

Guptill, Amy E, Denise A Copleton and Betsy Lucal. 2012. Food and society: principles and paradoxes. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Leyshon, Andrew, Roger Lee and Colin C. Williams. 2003. Alternative economic spaces. London: Sage (selected chapters).

McMichael, Philip. 2009. A food regime analysis of the ‘world food crisis’. Agriculture and Human Values 281-95.

Millstone, Eric and Timothy Lang. 2009. The atlas of food: Who eats what, where and why. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Phoenix, Laurel and Lynn Walter (ed). 2009. Critical food issues: problems and state-of-the-art solutions worldwide. New York: Praeger Press.

Sen, Amartya. Food and Freedom. Available at: http://library.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10947/556/craw3.pdf?sequence.pdf

Whatmore, S. and L. Thorne. 1997. Nourishing networks: alternative geographies of food, in D. Goodman and M. Watts (eds.) Globalizing Food: agrarian questions and global restructuring. New York: Routledge, 287-304.

Wilson, Marisa. 2014. Everyday moral economies: food, politics and scale in Cuba. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell (selected chapters).

http://library.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10947/556/craw3.pdf?sequence.pdf

GEGR10061- The Geography of Health

Course Organiser: Dr Niamh Shortt

Lecturer: Dr Niamh Shortt, Prof Jamie Pearce


Format: Lectures, seminars and group presentations

Class assessment: One class essay (2,000 words) 100%

Degree assessment: One essay on a specialist topic (2,000 words) One 2 hour examination (2 questions) To pass the course an overall mark (degree coursework and examinations) of at least 40 is required.

40% 60%

Introduction

The module provides a theoretical background to the geographical study of health. The content of the course will broadly reflect the research profile of the Centre for Research on Environment Society and Health (CRESH) and large parts of the course will be team-taught to reflect our collaborative working practices. The course address health inequalities and does so whilst employing a socio-ecological framework which acknowledges the importance of social, physical, economic and political environments in shaping health, health behaviours and health outcomes. This course will demonstrate to students how geographical techniques can be applied in related disciplines, such as epidemiology and public health. The course will also include a one day field excursion to the Wester Hailes Health Agency in Edinburgh Lectures will involve the examination of the wider determinants of population health and the inequalities that exist, at both the individual and area level. Focus will be placed on issues such as deprivation, the effects of place, health

behaviours, the physical environment and the broader determinants of health. Students will critically evaluate literature and are encouraged to develop knowledge in a specialist area, both through class debates and individual essays. Furthermore students are encouraged to actively engage with material outside of academia via the course’s twitter feed @healthgeogsedin

Course aims

To identify and define the main geographical concepts related to the study of health;

To evaluate the wider determinants of health and health inequalities;

To examine how geographical analysis can contribute to a greater understanding of the variations in health outcomes;

To develop skills in interpreting health data and geographical information about health.

Course content

What is health geography? Health Inequalities – Macro to Micro Social determinants of health Environmental justice and health Health behaviours – physical activity Health behaviours – smoking and alcohol Migration and health The Scottish Effect Field trip to Wester Hailes

Public Health research and policy in Scotland (Prof John Frank).

Key references (Do not buy a book – we mainly use journal articles).

Curtis S and Taket A (1996) Health and Societies: Changing Perspectives. London: Arnold

Curtis S (2004) Health and Inequality: Geographical Perspectives. London: Sage Publications

Gatrell A (2002) Geographies of Health: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwells

Jones K and Moon G (1992) Health, Disease and Society. London: Routledge

Moon G et al. (2000) Epidemiology: An Introduction. Buckingham: Open University Press

Shaw M, Dorling D and Mitchell R (2002) Health, Place and Society. Harlow: Prentice-Hall

Periodicals: Health and Place, Social Science and Medicine, The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, The British Medical Journal, Environment and Planning A, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers.

Newspapers: Students are expected to keep up to date with current affairs and keep a scrapbook of newspaper clippings for class discussion

EASC10088 - Geographies of the Sea

Course Organiser: Dr William Hasty

Lecturer: Dr William Hasty


Format: Lectures, seminars and group presentations

Class assessment: Group presentation and seminar paper

Degree assessment: One essay on a specialist topic (2,000 words) One 2 hour examination (2 questions)

40% 60%

Introduction

This course introduces students to the emerging field of maritime (human) geographies, focusing particularly on

understanding the role of the sea and different modes of seafaring in the making of global worlds in the past and the present. Through a range of conceptually and empirically engaging examples, students will explore the manifold ways in which the seas have been, and continue to be, important in many aspects of human life, shaping diverse relations between people, societies and cultures. The course will be delivered primarily through a combination of lectures and class discussions, with the addition of a film screening, a field-visit to Leith docks (to be confirmed) and a student-led seminar. The ultimate aim of this course is to provoke in students a more critical attitude towards the place of the sea and seafaring in different historical and contemporary contexts, and thereby foster a greater understanding of the complex social, cultural and political processes that unfold in our world at different scales.

Course aims

To introduce emerging geographical approaches to the study of the seas and seafaring To develop understanding of key social, political and cultural processes at different scales and the key concepts

(such as empire, nation-state, resistance, etc ) that help us make sense of these To encourage students to think about particular contexts in the past and the present through critical engagement

with conceptual lenses from social theory and empirical materials from archives and other sources. To foster analytic, research and writing skills through two classwork projects, one individual report and one group

work presentation based on empirical research.

Course content

1. Introduction

2. All at sea: Theorising the 70%

3. Explorers: Mobility, knowledge and encounter

4. Sugar: Globalisation, capitalism and labour I

5. Pirates: Sovereignty and the limits of law

6. Wreck: The sea’s nature

7. Containers: Globalisation, capitalism and labour II

8. The Forgotten Space: film screening and discussion

9. Seminar: Student presentations

10. Conclusions

Reading While there are no set-texts for this course, the following (and many others besides) will be particularly useful:

Benton, L. (2010) A Search for Sovereignty: Law and Geography in European Empires, 1400-1900 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge). Graham, B. and Nash, C. (Eds) (2000) Modern Historical Geographies (Longman, Harlow). Linebaugh, P. and Rediker, M. (2000) The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic (Beacon Press, Boston). Mack, J. (2011) The Sea: A Cultural History (Reacktion Books, London). Ogborn, M. (2008) Global Lives: Britain and the World, 1550-1800 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge). Peters, K. (2010), Future Promises for Contemporary Social and Cultural Geographies of the Sea, Geography Compass, 4 (9): 1260–1272.

Peters, K. and Anderson, J. (2013) Waterworlds: Human Geographies of the Ocean (Ashgate, Farnham). Steinberg, P. (2001) The Social Construction of the Ocean (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge). Special Issues of Journals: Oceans Connect, 1999, in The Geographical Review 89 (2) Atlantic Geographies, 2005 in Social and Cultural Geography 6 (3) Historical Geographies of the Sea, 2006, in The Journal of Historical Geography 32 (3)

GEGR10078 - Geography of Wine

Course Organiser: Professor Michael Summerfield

Lecturer: Professor Michael Summerfield


Format: Lectures/other media and practical

Class assessment: 1500 word essay


40% 60%

Introduction

The primary aim of the course is to use the geography of wine as an exemplar of the interactions of physical and

human processes in time and space. The cultivation of vines and the production and consumption of wine will be considered in a geographical context through a focus on spatial variations in the relevant physical as well as economic, cultural and social factors in wine production and consumption. Special emphasis will be placed on the physical and cultural dimensions of the concept of 'terroir', the impact of globalisation on wine production and marketing, and the likely future impact of climatic change on the global distribution of wine production.

Course aims

An awareness of the history of wine production and its influence on the present-day geography of wine production and consumption

A knowledge of the physical requirements of the major vine varieties, and the main elements of vine cultivation

An understanding of the basic elements of wine production and marketing

A broad knowledge of the world's major wine-producing regions and an awareness of the major similarities and differences between them

A critical appreciation of the concept of 'terroir'

An understanding of changes in wine tastes, production and marketing in the broader context of globalisation

An assessment of the likely impact of global warming on the distribution and nature of wine production

An appreciation of how the geography of wine provides an exemplar of the interplay of contingency and process in the interaction of people with the physical environment

Course content

There will be a series of lectures accompanied by the documentary film Mondovino which will examine the geographical dimension and history of wine and viticulture; the elements of viticulture (including grape types and varieties, cultivation techniques, diseases and physical factors); the components of the wine trade (including production techniques, wine types and characteristics, cultural and economic factors and marketing); an analysis of the concept of ‘terroir’ and local and global factors in the wine industry; a region-by-region assessment of major areas of wine production focussing on France (Bordeaux, Loire, Alsace, Burgandy, Rhône), Germany, Italy and the Iberian Peninsula, and the United States and Australasia; and an assessment of the impact on the geography of wine of globalisation and future climatic change..

Key references

Chartres, S. 2006 Wine and Society: The Social and Cultural Context of a Drink (Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford) Demossier, M. 2010 Wine Drinking Culture in France: A National Myth or Modern Passion (University of Wales Press, Cardiff). Goode, J. 2005 Wine Science: The Application of Science in Winemaking (Mitchell Beazley, London). Grainger, K. and Tattersall, H. 2005 Wine Production: Vine to Bottle (Blackwell Publishing, Oxford). Hall, C.M. and Mitchell, R. 2008 Wine Marketing: A Practical Guide (Butterworth, Heinemann, Oxford) Jackson, R.S. 2008 Wine Science: Principles, Practice, Perception 3rd edn (Academic Press, San Diego).

Johnson, H. and Robinson, J. 2007 The World Atlas of Wine 6th edn (Mitchell Beazley, London). McGovern, P.E. 2003 Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ). Paul, H.W. 1996 Science, Vine and Wine in Modern France 1750-1990 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) Robinson, J. (ed.) 2006 The Oxford Companion to Wine 3rd edn (Oxford University Press, Oxford). Unwin, T. 1991 Wine and the Vine: An Historical Geography of Viticulture and the Wine Trade (Routledge, London).

GEGR10075 - Glacial Processes and Geomorphology

Course Organiser: Dr Peter Nienow

Lecturer: Dr Peter Nienow + Guest Lecturers


Format: Lectures, residential weekend field project in the Highlands, student presentations and discussion

Class assessment: Student presentation and paper critique (60%) and field class presentation (40%)

Degree assessment: One 2,000 word essay/project One 2 hour examination (2 questions)

40% 60%

Introduction

This course is designed to introduce students to glacial processes operating in past and present glacial environments. This will involve the study of glacier mass balance, glacier physics, ice motion and hydrology, glacial erosional and depositional processes and the past, present and future of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets. It will draw on

methodologies that use theoretical, field based and remote sensing techniques to infer glacial processes. A field project in the Highlands enhances understanding of the links between process and form in glacial environments.

Course aims and objectives

This course aims to provide students with a fundamental knowledge of the physics and dynamics of glacier ice masses, enabling them to understand what controls glacier formation and the subsequent behaviour of ice masses. It also develops a critical understanding of the processes associated with glacial environments, in both ice-contact and proglacial situations. At the end of the course students should have acquired the following: Subject specific learning objectives

a sound knowledge of glacier morphology and distribution and the dynamics of various ice masses with reference to mass balance, thermal properties, basal conditions and bed materials.

the ability to explain critically the processes controlling meltwater transport through the glacial system, with specific reference to supraglacial, englacial and subglacial hydrology and glacier outburst floods.

a sound knowledge of the processes which control the stability of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets with reference to past, present and likely future scenarios.

Transferable skill-learning objectives have developed their skills of critical analysis through inter-disciplinary study

have further developed their ability to produce a written report based on library research

have further developed their research skills with respect to project design, primary field data collection, group research work and data analysis and presentation skills

Course outline

The course will be structured around the following series of lectures providing a grounding in fundamental glacial processes. The field class to the Cairngorm Mountains will be used to demonstrate both the complexity and importance of linking process to form in the glacial environment.

Week 1: Introduction to physical glaciology, ice mass morphology and distribution.

Week 2: Mass balance and ice formation.

Week 3: Glacier hydrology.

Week 4: Glacier hydrology.

Week 5: Glacier motion.

Week 6: Glacier Motion

Week 7 Ice sheets and the global climate system - the Antarctic.

Week 8: Ice sheets and the global climate system – Greenland and the Arctic.

Week 9: Student presentations and discussion.

Week 10: Student presentations and discussion.

Week 11: Revision session.

Key references

Benn D and Evans D (1988) Glaciers and Glaciation. Arnold.

Hooke R LeB (1998) Principles of glacier mechanics, Prentice Hall.

Knight P (1999) Glaciers. STP.

Paterson W S (1994) The Physics of Glaciers. Pergamon. 3rd edition.

Sharp M, Richards K S and Tranter M (eds), (1998) Glacier Hydrology and Hydrochemistry, Wiley.

Siegert M J (2001) Ice sheets and Late Quaternary environmental change. Wiley.

Particularly useful Journals include Journal of Glaciology, Annals of Glaciology, Nature, Science, Journal of Geophysical Research, Geophysical Research Letters and Geology

GEGRXXXX – Ice and Climate

Course Organiser: Dr Daniel Goldberg and Dr Noel Gourmelen

Lecturer: Dr Daniel Goldberg and Dr Noel Gourmelen

Contact time: Semester, timetable to be confirmed.



Degree assessment: 2 coursework assignments One 2 hour examination

40% (20% each) 60%

Introduction

Ice plays a fundamental role in the climate system, with impacts ranging from watershed control in mountain regions and regulation of ocean circulation and temperatures, to global sea level and the onset and termination of glacial cycles. This course will examine the major components of the cryosphere: glaciers and ice caps, ice sheets, and sea ice. All of these components have undergone recent change, and it is important to understand this change in the context of the larger climate system.

Course aims

Understand the distinguishing characteristics of glaciers, ice sheets, and sea ice; and why, although they are all composed of the same material, they differ greatly in behavior and response to climate change

Understand basic principles behind Earth Observation of the cryosphere. Be familiar with the basic physical mechanisms by which ice evolves

Have experience working with, manipulating, and interpreting Earth Observation data Have experience running computer simulations of ice dynamics and ice-climate interactions, and interpreting the

results Course content Students will learn about the methods of measure and the observations of recent changes affecting the Cryosphere and how they relate to changes in other parts of the climate system, such as air and ocean temperatures. Building on this information, the causes and underlying physical mechanisms behind these changes and interactions will be investigated through governing principles and simplified models, and the implications for ice in the climate system under future global warming scenarios will be discussed.

Key references

Cuffey, K., and Paterson, W. The Physics of Glaciers, 4th ed. Elsevier, 2010

Campbell, J.B. (2002). Introduction to remote sensing. (3rd edition). Taylor and Francis (or Guildford), London. 622pp.

Rees, W. G., (2001) Physical principles of remote sensing 2nd ed, CUP.

Rees, W. Gareth (2006), Remote Sensing of Snow and Ice, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, pp. 1-22.

Thomas, D., and Dieckmann, G. Sea Ice, 2nd ed. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010

Van der Veen, CJ. Fundamentals of Glacier Dynamics, 2nd ed. CRC Press, 2013.

http://www.climatechange2013.org/images/uploads/WGIAR5_WGI-12Doc2b_FinalDraft_Chapter04.pdf

GEGR10108 – Landscape Dynamics -techniques and applications

Course Organiser: Dr. Linda Kirstein

Lecturers: Dr. Linda Kirstein, Dr. Mikael Attal, Dr. Simon Mudd


Format: Lectures, practical, student presentations

Class assessment: 1 practical, student presentations

Degree assessment: One 2000 word essay One 2 hour examination (2 questions)

40% 60%

Pre-requisites: It is recommended that students have passed Earth Dynamics

Course objectives

The form of terrestrial landscapes results primarily from the competition between tectonic and erosion forces. These forces operate over a variety of spatial and temporal scales. For example, plate tectonics dictate where mountain belts are created but their overall form is controlled by interactions with processes at the Earth’s surface e.g. erosion processes. Exploring how and at what scale these interactions occur is at the centre of understanding key characteristics of Earths landscape. The focus will be primarily on active mountain belts where these interactions are well documented using a variety of approaches. Subject specific learning objectives:

Assess, analyse and understand the temporal and spatial variation of key processes that sculpt the landscape To obtain a critical understanding of key techniques used to obtain rate information and be able to analyse

and interpret results Explore feedbacks in the Earth system

Transferable skill-learning objectives: Develop skills of data analysis and critical analysis Improve presentation skills Develop skills to produce coherent, logical written report based on background reading and library based

research

Course Outline

The course is structured around the following series of lectures and a practical which examine fundamental driving mechanisms and resultant feedbacks in the Earth system that ultimately shape the landscape. A number of case studies from Taiwan, the Himalayas and Apennines will be used to illustrate how recent advances have been made in

understanding the form of terrestrial landscapes. Introduction: tools, approaches, concepts and controversies Long term denudation rates: thermochronology Intermediate to modern denudation rates: cosmogenic isotope analysis, sediment load Landscape evolution in active orogens case study Taiwan Erosion in mountains, isostasy, mountain roots, steady state concept Detrital record of orogenesis – reconstructing the past Fluvial erosion, sediment transport (Attal) Weathering and hillslope processes (Mudd) Extracting tectonic signals from river profiles: case study Apennines (Attal)

Key references

Bierman, P.R., Nichols, K.K. (2004) Rock to sediment-slope to sea with 10Be—rates of landscape change. Ann. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 32, 215–255. Carrapa et al., 2009, Geology, 37, 407-410; Dadson et al., 2004, Geology, 32, 733-736; Molnar, P., England, P. (1990) Late Cenozoic uplift of mountain ranges and global climatic change: Chicken or Egg? Nature, 346, 29-34. Reiners & Brandon, 2006, Annual Reviews Earth and Planetary Science, 34, 419-466; Reiners & Ehlers, 2005, Low Temperature Thermochronology: Techniques, interpretations and Applications, Reviews in Mineralogy & Geochemistry, Volume 58; Willett, Hovius, Brandon, Fisher (2006) Tectonics, Climate, and Landscape Evolution, Geological Society of America Special Paper 398; Whipple, K.X., (2010) Nature Geoscience, 2, 97-104.

GEGR10035 - Minorities in a Multicultural Society

Course Organiser: Dr Jan Penrose

Lecturer: Dr Jan Penrose


Format: Lectures, seminars, films and group presentations



40% 60%

Introduction

The course introduces Canada as a young and territorially enormous country, with a small and highly diversified population. Today, Canada is frequently lauded as an example of successful multiculturalism, and its experiences are often called on to serve as guidelines for a world that is increasingly characterized by cultural diversity. This course looks beneath this comfortable image to explore both conceptions of multiculturalism and the complexities of its manifestations in Canada.

The course begins with a brief historical review – largely of immigration and settlement policies – to show how Canada’s contemporary diversity has been achieved against an unlikely backdrop of racism. After tracing the emergence of dominant groups (French and especially English), it is possible to show how their attempts to build a nation-state involved continuous efforts to balance the desire for cultural (and racial) uniformity with the need for population that would occupy the land and provide the cheap labour that was necessary to transform it into a nation-state.

After establishing how Canada came to be defined as a “multicultural society within a bilingual framework” the course explores how various groups within Canadian society have contributed to, and experienced, this dominant conception of their country. In some cases, this involves the examination of specific groups – e.g. Native Peoples and ‘visible minorities’ - and how they have negotiated their relationships with other elements of society over time. In other cases, particular themes are developed – e.g. institutional racism and the place of organised religion in the state – to illustrate the complexities and inequalities of attempts to accommodate difference. In order to give these groups as much voice as possible, the course relies heavily on archival documents and contemporary film materials.

Course aims

to introduce notions of multiculturalism and to use Canadian experience as a basis for evaluating their usefulness in the contemporary world

to explore how categories of "nation", "race", "gender" and "culture" have been constructed in Canada and to examine power relations within, and between, these groups

to show how representations – and the power to promote them – influence the position of different groups within Canadian society

to identify and analyse disjunctures between formal policies of multiculturalism and experiences of discrimination.

Key references

Breton R (2005) Ethnic Relations in Canada: Institutional Dynamics. McGill-Queen’s University Press: Montreal and Kingston.

Kymlicka W (2001) Politics in the Vernacular. Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and Citizenship. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Li P (2002) Destination Canada: Immigration Debates and Issues. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Mackey, Eva (2000) The House of Difference. Cultural Politics and National Identity in Canada. University of Toronto Press: Toronto.

GEGR10107 – People, landscape change and settlement: the last 15,000 years

Course Organiser: Dr Eva Panagiotakopulu

Lecturer: Dr Eva Panagiotakopulu


Format: Lectures, laboratory classes, group discussions


Degree assessment: One 2,000 word project One two-hour examination (2 questions)

40% 60%

Introduction This course is intended to provide an integrated palaeoecological approach to the origin and evolution of temperate and arctic environments during the Lateglacial and Holocene, with particular reference to the interplay between human and natural landscapes. The intention of the course is to ensure that all participants are familiar with the

general principles of reconstruction of past environments and the broad outlines and limitations of the wide range of techniques available, in particular the evidence gained from studies of invertebrate faunas. The objective is to understand how the data used to reconstruct the dynamic Lateglacial and Holocene environment are acquired.

Course aims The course will examine: Some of the sources of palaeoenvironmental data, and the various palaeoecological techniques, including

vertebrate and invertebrate remains, which may be applied to the investigation of environmental change and human activity in the landscape.

The ways in which the palaeoenvironmental record is created and changed by the processes of fossilisation. The interaction of human communities with different facets of the environment and the role of humans as agents

of landscape change and development. The biogeography of disease

Conservation issues The broad pattern of environmental change (both natural and anthropogenic in origin) over the last 15, 000

years.

Course content The Lateglacial and Holocene, approximately the last 15,000 years, is a unique period because of the role of humans. Beginning with fire, and later with domestication of plants and animals and the use of the plough, landscapes were transformed, from the natural to ones in which there are few refuges for natural systems. Everything from the fat of Antarctic penguins to Arctic polar bears shows the impact of human activity; the modern landscape is as much an artefact as pottery or worked stone. By using a series of casebook studies, this course will examine the processes by which some of these changes have come about, and explore the palaeoenvironmental evidence for the interaction between natural and anthropogenic environmental change.

Provisional course topics: Introduction-background to palaeoecological techniques; Late Glacial environments interpreted from insect remains; The development of Holocene forest: closed or open?- The Vera hypothesis and the insect evidence; The development of wetlands-palaeoecology and nature conservation; Holocene environments in the Nile valley and desert; The biogeography of disease, a historical perspective; Late Holocene connections in the Aegean- the case of Akrotiri; Late Holocene environmental change in Northern France and the British Isles- man or climate?; European expansion in the North Atlantic; The end of Norse Greenland.

A limited number of practicals will provide a basic understanding of invertebrates: 1. identification of beetles 2. use of the BUGSCEP database for interpretation 3. identification of molluscs.

Key references Bell, M. and Walker, M.J.C., 2004. Late Quaternary Environments. Physical & Human Perspectives (2nd ed.). Pearson

Prentice Hall, Harlow.

Butzer K W (2005) Environmental history in the Mediterranean world: cross-disciplinary investigation of cause-and-effect for degradation and soil erosion. Journal of Archaeological Science 32: 1773-1800.

Fitzhugh W W and Ward E I (2000) Vikings. The North Atlantic Saga. Smithsonian Institute, Washington.

Greenblatt C and Spigelman M (Eds) (2003) Emerging pathogens. Archaeology, ecology & evolution of infectious disease. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Hodder K H, Bullock J M, Buckland P C and Kirby K J (2005) Large herbivores in the wildwood and modern naturalistic grazing systems. English Nature Research Report, 648. English Nature, Peterborough.

Lowe J J and Walker M J C (1997) Reconstructing Quaternary Environments (2nd ed). Longman, London.

Roberts N (1998) The Holocene. An Environmental History (Second edition). Blackwell, Oxford.

Particularly useful Journals: Antiquity, Archaeometry, Environmental Archaeology, The Holocene, Journal of Archaeological Science, Journal of Biogeography, Journal of Quaternary Science, Meddelelser om Grønland, Quaternary Research, Quaternary Science Reviews. Particularly useful Journals: Antiquity, Archaeometry, Environmental Archaeology, The Holocene, Journal of

Archaeological Science, Journal of Biogeography, Journal of Quaternary Science, Meddelelser om Grønland, Quaternary Research, Quaternary Science Reviews.

GEGR10039 - Principles of Geographical Information Science

Course Organiser: William Mackaness

Lecturer: William Mackaness Contact time: Semester 1, timetable to be confirmed. Format: 9 lectures and 4 practicals

Computer-based practicals

Class assessment: Essay: Set in week 1 Design Document: Set in week 3

Degree assessment: One computer-based GIS project (2,000 words) One 2 hour examination (2 questions)

40% 60%

Many areas of research in the Geosciences benefit from quantitative and spatial analysis techniques. Geographical Information Science (GIS) is concerned with the theory and application of computer based techniques to reason about, and solve, geographical problems. Applications range from network, visibility/terrain analysis, spatial analysis of census data, environmental problem solving – applied across a range of scales – from the local to the global. There are considerable challenges in modelling geographic phenomena; what part of the real world are we trying to model? precisely what data should be recorded? how can different data be integrated? How can we interrogate the data? What types of analysis are appropriate and what generalisations can be inferred from our observations. GIS (like all technology) ‘disrupts’ conventional ways of problem solving. Therefore careful thought needs to be given to the interpretation of the results, and the context in which our decisions are affected by the technology – both in scientific and business environments.

Course aims

By the end of this course students should be able to achieve and demonstrate, the ability to: understand the components and range of methods which make up a geographical information systems and the

field of geographical information science including an appreciation of the history and development of this field;

understand the importance of data modelling in the storage of geographical data within the database;

understand how spatial data are acquired;

appreciate the functionality of the ArcGIS software, including basic expertise in analysis, classification, query, and integration of vector and raster data and visualisation

apply appropriate cartographic principles in the construction of maps (including appreciation of map projections)

develop an integrated practical project, drawing on appropriate source data, providing sensible analysis, output and drawing appropriate conclusions

The course seeks to develop students’ transferable skills, to develop practical techniques in geographical information

science, and to provide training in critical analysis and in written presentation combining results from quantitative analysis.

Course Content

This course provides an essential background for students with limited knowledge of Geographic Information Science and as a foundation for other courses. The module begins by tracing the origins and recent rapid development of GIS and outlines linkages with other related technologies. Principles covered include co-ordinate reference systems, map projections and the different models that GIS employ to represent real-world entities. Also considered are the effects that these models and the analytical functionality of systems have on the information that can be derived. Vector and raster data models are explained and there is an introduction to representing and analysing 3D, terrain data. Various case studies are used to highlight various types of analysis typically performed using GIS. Basic elements of graphic design and communication are reviewed to ensure that output from GIS is comprehensible and effective. The module concludes by addressing the wider social and economic factors that influence the success or failure of GIS in an

institution.

Practical Component The lectures are complimented by a series of computer based practicals and surgery sessions in which a series of ‘hands on’ tutorials will enable students to gain first hand practical knowledge of how to use a GIS system. That knowledge is then used to complete a project in the form of a project design document, and a degree assessed GIS project. No prior knowledge of GIS is expected or required for this course.

Course Text

Heywood I, Cornelius S, Carver S 2011 An Introduction to Geographical Information Systems 4th Edition.

Key references Chrisman N (1997) Exploring GIS. New York: Wiley.

Longley P A, Goodchild M F Maguire D.J and Rhind D W (eds) (2010) Geographic Information Systems and Science

(3rd Edition)

Stillwell, J., Clarke, G. 2003 Applied GIS and Spatial Analysis (edited volume) John Wiley

Periodicals: International Journal of Geographical Information Science, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems.

GEGR10055 - Remote Sensing and Global Climate Change

Course Organiser: Dr I Woodhouse

Lecturer: Dr I Woodhouse


Format: Lectures, tutorials and student presentations


Degree assessment: One 2,000 word essay One two-hour examination (2 questions)

40% 60%

Introduction

Remote sensing from satellite platforms has become increasingly important as the only way to obtain environmental

data at the spatial and temporal coverage needed to understand the processes governing global climate change. The aim of this course is to explore the role of remote sensing in monitoring planetary scale phenomena, with particular focus on the use of techniques and instruments designed to monitor the global environmental properties of the Earth. The course will also consider the significance of these measurements for testing existing models, such as ozone depletion, the hydrological cycle, global climate change and other aspects of the Earth's environment. The course will begin with an INTRODUCTION (aims, course structure, context, history and importance of the subject) and PRINCIPLES OF REMOTE SENSING, summarising the underlying physical principles of remote sensing techniques, and some of the instruments currently in use. The rest of the course will consider in more detail the techniques, instruments and the importance of using remote sensing to measure and monitor the following:

ATMOSPHERES (Dynamics, pressure, temperature, surface winds, water vapour, ozone, aerosols, cloud cover, precipitation)

OCEANS AND CRYOSPHERE (Sea surface temperature, ocean currents, ocean colour, bathymetry, ocean biomass, ice extent, ice sheets)

LAND COVER AND THE BIOSPHERE (global biomass, vegetation dynamics, desertification, soil moisture, land-atmosphere interaction)

GLOBAL WARMING (Earth radiation budget, global mean temperatures, cloud cover and feedback loops)

OZONE DEPLETION (upper atmosphere chemistry and dynamics, monitoring/modelling ozone depletion, specialised instruments (MLS, Gomes, etc))

HUMAN ACTIVITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS (Natural and anthropogenic pollutants, El Nino, sea level rise, volcanic emissions, drought, deforestation, forest fires).

Course aims

To provide an overview of remote sensing techniques used for measuring planetary scale processes, and to convey the importance of such measurements.

To explore issues of data quality, accuracy, validation and reliability, when assessing the value of remotely sensed data.

To encourage students to think about remote sensing within a wider subject and emphasise the role of remote sensing as a compliment rather than an alternative to other monitoring methods.

Key references:

Graedel and Crutzen (1993) Atmospheric Change, an Earth System Approach. Freeman. Houghton (1997) Global Warming: The Complete Briefing. Cambridge University Press. Lillesand and Kiefer (1994) Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation (3rd edition). Wiley.

GEGRXXXX – Space, Place and Sensory Perception

Course Organiser: Dr Nina Morris

Lecturer: Dr Nina Morris




Degree assessment: 3,000 word essay 2,000 word blog

60% 40%

Introduction

It has long been recognised that human experience and knowledge are mediated through the senses. The senses –

sight, touch, taste, hearing and smell - play a vital role in shaping the way we interact with, and attune ourselves to, the world around us. This course will focus on understanding these everyday sensory worlds and their variation across various historical and geographical contexts.

Course aims

To introduce students to the broad range of scholarship on the senses currently circulating within geography and related disciplines.

To illustrate the ways in which our understandings of distinct sensory perceptions are historically, culturally and geographically situated.

To consider the methodological implications of geographers’ theorization of the senses and the challenge that new and emerging approaches present to older paradigms.

To encourage students to reflect upon their own sensory engagements and make connections between knowledge gained in class and the wider world.

Course content The course will begin by examining the philosophical groundings of the scholarly study of the senses within geography and related disciplines, before moving on to look at the work of contemporary theorists on a range of topics such as silence and noise, darkness and light, pleasure and disgust, immersion and distance, atmosphere and affect. Whilst the structure of the course will be largely dictated by the traditional Western classification of the five senses, ample consideration will be given to other sensory modalities such as kinesthesia (the sensation of movement) and synaesthesia (subjective sensation).

Key references

Anderson, B. (2009) Affective atmospheres, Emotion, Space and Society 2:77-81. Back, L. (2007) The Art of Listening. Berg. Barbara, A. and Perliss, A. (2006) Invisible Architecture: Experiencing Places through the Sense of Smell.

Skira Editore. Bull, M. and Back, L. (2003) The Auditory Culture Reader. Oxford: Berg. Bull and Les Back. Berg Bull, M. (2013) Sound Studies. Routledge. Constance, C., Howes, D. and Synott, A. (1994) Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell. Routledge. Corbin, A. (1986) The Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Social Imagination. Cambridge: Harvard

University.

Drobnick, J. (2006) The Smell Culture Reader. Berg Publishers. Erlmann, V. (ed.) (2004) Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening and Modernity. Oxford: Berg

Howes, D.. (ed.) (2005) Empire of the Senses: The Sensual Culture Reader. Oxford: Berg Howes, D. (2009) The Sixth Sense Reader. Berg. Howes, D. and Classen, C. (2014) Ways of Sensing: Understanding the Senses in Society. Routledge. Jones, C. (2006) Sensorium: Embodied Experience, Technology, and Contemporary Art. MIT Press. Merleau-Ponty, M. (2002) Phenomenology of Perception. New York: Routledge. Paterson, M. (2007) The Senses of Touch: Haptics, Affects, and Technologies. Oxford: Berg Paterson, M. and Dodge, M. (2012) Touching Space, Placing Touch. Ashgate. Pink, S. (2009) Doing Sensory Ethnography. Sage.

GEGR10079 - Values and the Environment

Course Organiser: Dr Emily Brady

Lecturer: Dr Emily Brady


Format: Lectures and group discussions/tutorials

Class assessment: One reading portfolio

Degree assessment: One 2,000 word essay One two-hour examination (2 questions)

40% 60%

Introduction

This course examines issues related to two important modes of human valuing of nature, the ethical and the aesthetic. The first part of the course covers key concepts and theories in environmental ethics including (normally): anthropocentrism and nonanthropocentrism; animal ethics; Leopold’s land ethic; environmental pragmatism; and urban environmental ethics. In the second part, we examine aesthetic and landscape values in our engagement with wild nature, rural environments and other cultural landscapes. The course concludes with a look at conflicts between aesthetic, ethical and other values as they arise in ecological restoration and the climate change debate.

Course aims

to provide a critical understanding of key concepts and theories in environmental ethics

to explore how aesthetic value relates to a range of environments, from the wild to the built

to gain an understanding of the role of values in engagement with a range of environments and the conflicts that arise between values in conservation practice

to develop critical thinking on environmental values in discussion and in writing

Course content

Topics normally covered in this course include:

Extending ethical theories beyond humans: animals

Holistic environmental ethics: Leopold’s Land Ethic

Environmental Pragmatism

Urban environmental ethics

Environment, nature and art

Contemporary philosophical debates on aesthetic value and the environment

Aesthetic value and scientific knowledge

Ecological restoration and environmental values

Ethics and climate change

Key references

Armstrong SJ and Botzler R eds. (2004) Environmental Ethics: Divergence and Convergence. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Brady E (2003) Aesthetics of the Natural Environment. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

DesJardins J (2000) Environmental Ethics. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Jamieson D (2003) A Companion to Environmental Philosophy. London: Blackwell.

Keller, D ed. (2010) Environmental Ethics: The Big Questions. Wiley.

Leopold A ([1949] 2000) ‘The Land Ethic’, Sand County Almanac. New York: Oxford University Press.

Light, A and Katz, E ed. (1996) Environmental Pragmatism. New York: Routledge.

O’Neill J, Light A and Holland A (2008) Environmental Values. London: Routledge.

Throop, W ed. (2000) Environmental Restoration: ethics, theory and practice. Humanity Books.

Useful journals: Environmental Ethics; Environmental Values; Ethics, Policy, and Environment; Ethics and Environment.

GEGR10103 - Volcanoes, Environment and People

Course Organiser: Prof Andy Dugmore

Lecturers: Prof Andy Dugmore and Dr Anthony Newton


Format: Lectures, student led seminars and field excursion


Degree assessment: One 2,000 word project One two-hour examination (2 questions)

40% 60%

Introduction & course content

The course begins by introducing volcanoes, types of activity and terminology. Volcanic eruptions, their direct and

indirect effects are then used to exemplify extreme events, and layers of tephra (volcanic ash) are used as a chronological tool to assess rates of change and their spatial patterns. Tephrochronology is introduced and its application to studying cultural and environmental change through chronology and landscape reconstruction. Methods of tephra identification and analyses are introduced and a practical session will demonstrate different types of tephra and pumice. Models of cultural and environmental change are discussed, outlining a conceptual framework of different patterns of change and the importance of context in determining the significance of change. A fieldtrip to East Lothian will provide an opportunity to study tephra layers of Carboniferous age and apply knowledge gained in the course. Detailed studies of volcanic eruptions and tephra (volcanic ash) layers in the North Atlantic region and elsewhere are used to assess the principles and practice of tephrochronology, 3-D environmental reconstruction using tephra layers and human interactions with the environment. The circumstances whereby environmental change may occur, and when it may (and may not) have cultural significance are explored. The teleconnections between tephra

layers, ice cores, tree rings and ocean cores are assessed and ideas about the widespread impacts of volcanic eruptions on culture and society evaluated. Changes in different places across the world and at different times through the Quaternary are used to both illustrate and assess the context in which volcanic impacts are thought to occur.

Course aims

To develop a detailed understanding of the principles and practice of tephrochronology.

To critically evaluate the use of tephras to reconstruct environmental change and to assess the role of tephras as agents of environmental change.

To develop a detailed knowledge of how to use tephrochronology to assess volcano-environment interactions, environmental and cultural change, human-environment interactions and impacts of volcanism on people.

To enable you to seek out and comprehend the essential relevant findings from literature in unfamiliar fields which will also mean you gain an understanding of the ways in which the subject is developed.

To develop analytical skills and undertake independent research to analyse a professional level problem.

To develop and improve skills in the use of the internet, giving oral and visual presentations, and critical writing

Key references

Chester, D. (1993) Volcanoes and Society. Edward Arnold, London. Dugmore, A.J., Gísladóttir, G., Simpson, I.A. and Newton, A.J. (2009) Conceptual models of 1,200 years of soil erosion reconstructed using tephrochronology. Journal of the North Atlantic 2: 1-18. Kirkbride, M.P. and Dugmore, A.J. 2008 Tephrochronological dating of glacier advances AD 410-1947 in Southern Iceland. Quaternary Research. 70, 3, 398-411 Lowe D.J. (2010) Tephrochronology and its application: A review. Quaternary Geochronology.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2010.08.003

Newton, A.J., Dugmore, A.J. and Gittings, B.. 2007 Tephrabase: tephrochronology and the development of a centralised European database. Journal of Quaternary Science 22, 7, 737-743 Scarth, A. (1999) Vulcan’s Fury. Yale University Press, London. Sigurdsson, H., Houghton, B., McNutt S.R., Rymer H. and Stix, J. 2000. Encyclopedia of Volcanoes. Academic Press, San Diego.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2010.08.003

GEGRXXXX – Writing Landscape

Course Organiser: Dr Fraser MacDonald

Lecturer: Dr Fraser MacDonald


Format: Lectures, practicals, and self-guided fieldtrip within Edinburgh


Degree assessment: 4,000 word researched narrative essay (due during exam period) 1,000 word essay based on Edinburgh fieldtrip (due wk 5)

80% 20%

Introduction

Introducing concepts such as genre, narrative and authorial voice, the course will help students to deploy these more carefully in their own work. It will further encourage an abstract reflection on the viscitudes of academic and creative writing. The intellectual anchors of the course will be found in approaches to landscape from cultural geography, psychogeography and creative non-fiction.

Course aims

have a grounding in landscape as an object of cultural geographic enquiry. understand different conceptions and models of landscape across cultural geography, psychogeography and

creative non-fiction.

be able to recognise and apply concepts of genre, narrative and authorial voice in their own writing. develop the skills to identify, research and write a place-specific narrative that can combine academic analysis

with an attentiveness to the reader. have an understanding of contemporary debates in human geography about the purpose and limits of

academic writing. be able to develop and pitch ideas for publication, within and beyond academia.

Key references

*Cameron E 2012 New geographies of story and storytelling, Progress in Human Geography 36 573–592

*Daniels S and Nash C 2004 Lifepaths: geography and biography Journal of Historical Geography 30 3 449-

458

*Daniels S and Lorimer H 2012 Until the end of days: narrating landscape and environment Cultural Geographies 19 1: 3-9

*DeSilvey C 2006 Observed Decay: telling stories with mutable things Journal of Material Culture 113 318-338

DeSilvey C 2012 Making sense of transience: an anticipatory history Cultural Geographies 19 1 31–54

Farley P and Roberts M S 2011 Edgelands: journeys into England’s true wilderness Jonathan Cape, London

Jamie K 2012 Sightlines, London: Sort of Books

*Lorimer H 2006 Herding memories of humans and animals Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 244 497-518

*Lorimer H 2009 Caught in the nick of time: archives and fieldwork In: DeLyser D Aitken S Crang MA Herbert S and McDowell L eds The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Human Geography SAGE Publications

London UK pp 248-273

Lorimer H and Wylie J 2010 LOOP: a geography Performance Research 15.4 6-13

MacDonald F 2006 Geopolitics and ‘the vision thing’: regarding Britain and America's first nuclear missile. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 31: 53–71.

*indicates primary readings.

geography degree programme · 2014-02-17 · journal of hydrology 116, 3-10. shaw e m (1992)...

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