| Overview Degree Requirements Concentrations Advising Courses Assessment Geog SOUL Learning Goals Portfolios Awards Careers |
Undergraduate / Degree Requirements / Concentrations
Geographic Information Systems Economic Geography Urban, Social, and Political Processes Regional Geography and International Development Society and Environment Geographic Information Systems
*note: for a more detailed GIS program overview, click here General information Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have leaped from research ventures to a full-scale industry in a relatively short period of time. The industry is now at a multi-billion-dollar-a-year level. To prepare students to take part in this growth, our integrated instructional program emphasizes general principles and training in tools. Starting with information representation in the form of databases and displays, the curriculum leads on to the construction and use of GIS. careers and analytical skills Investments in GIS by federal, state, and local governments, and private and not-for-profit organizations, continue to encourage a need for well-educated and trained professionals in a multitude of GIS application areas. Our curriculum focuses on fundamentals that apply across a wide range of application areas. These fundamentals will endure longer than any specific software and hardware system. New GIS/cartography software appears regularly, and major GIS installations or overhauls have occurred or are planned by a wide range of public and private organizations, including: the U.S. Forest Service, various state departments of natural resources and transportation, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the military, and hundreds of county and city planning agencies, election bureaus, assessors' offices and economic, transportation and environmental planning , management, and operations units. We have many graduates working in GIS-related jobs in both the private and public sectors. For a list, contact the undergraduate advisers. careers and marketable skills The theoretical background and analytical skills developed in this track are in much demand by city, county and state government, as well as many firms in the private sector. Typical careers include work as:
Analytical skills developed in this track include:
Requirements Students in this concentration are required to take a minimum of 15 credits of upper-division (300- and 400-level) courses, including at least 10 credits (two courses) at the 400-level. Appropriate course clusters and pathways should be determined by choice of emphasis within the concentration. This emphasis shall be selected at the conclusion of Geog 397 (Tutorial For Geography Majors), in consultation with a faculty adviser. The emphasis should combine the subjects, themes and skills the student wishes to further explore and develop. Choices may be from the following groupings, or more individualized, utilizing other courses in the Geography curriculum. A written study plan based on this selection of emphasis shall be filed in the student's permanent record. Recommended: Geog 463, GIS Workshop, which also will fulfill Capstone experience major requirement. Recommended course clusters geographic system analysis
GIS operations and modeling transformation of spatial representations social and institutional context of GIS project development map sources and map errors
data quality, fitness for use geographic measurement; representation GIS operations transformation of spatial representations urban and transportation GIS analysis
regional development issues land use information processing strategies problem definition for GIS processing data collection and geocoding strategies data structuring strategies transportation planning and systems design natural resources and environmental analysis
water and air quality monitoring post-optimality analysis systems theory object-oriented dynamic simulation modeling geographic measurement; representation GIS operations transformation of spatial representations Related courses Understanding the development, sources, and uses of geographic information requires a broad background in several disciplines. The geography department has links to related coursework in Civil Engineering, Economics, Environmental Studies, the College of Forest Resources, Ecosystem Science and Conservation, Forest Management and Engineering, Urban Horticulture, Geology, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design and Planning, and other departments. Students with an interest in system design will need a firm base in Computer Science, while those interested in specific applications will need a firm base in particular disciplines. Remote sensing, drafting, computer-aided and basic graphic design skills, photogrammetry and land-use planning as related to GIS are key skills to complement a concentration on GIS/Cartography as part of the major. To acquire these skills, we recommend the following courses, with these qualifications: (1) Remember that many of these courses may have prerequisites: consult the department or UW catalog for details. (2) Some may require instructor permission, or a departmental letter explaining why you need to take the course. Complementary courses are most typically found in:
Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP),
Urban Planning (URBDP),
Landscape Architecture (L ARCH),
Civil and Environmental Engineering (CIVE),
Urban Horticulture (UHF),
Forest Resources (FR),
Forest Engineering (FE),
Forest Management (FM),
Ecosystem Science and Conservation (ESC),
Environmental Engineering and Science (CEWA)
Computer Science (CSE),
Economics (ECON),
Geology (GEOL),
Psychology (PSYCH)
Over the past thirty years, the Geography Department has developed a strong emphasis on the study of the geographic facets of the economy and economic underpinnings of the spatial organization of society. The field of Economic Geography covers a wide range of subjects and topics, including:
careers and marketable skills Public social agencies and private organizations (consulting firms and real estate/land development firms, for example) provide many employment opportunities, often with initial internships and traineeships for their future permanent employees. Students working in this area have pursued careers as:
Analytical skills developed in this track include:
For an in-depth look at economic and business geography, and various Worldwide Web sites for economic geographers, consult the web sites of Professor Günter Krumme (http://faculty.washington.edu/krumme). requirements Students in this concentration are required to take a minimum of 15 credits of upper-division (300- and 400-level) courses, including at least 10 (2 courses) at the 400-level. Appropriate course clusters and pathways should be determined by choice of emphasis within the concentration. This emphasis shall be selected at the conclusion of Geog 397 (Tutorial For Geography Majors), in consultation with a faculty adviser. The emphasis should combine the subjects, themes and skills the student wishes to further explore and develop. Choices may be from the following groupings, or more individualized, utilizing other courses in the Geography curriculum. A written study plan based on this selection of emphasis shall be filed in the student's permanent record. Recommended: Geog 498, Undergraduate Seminar In Economic Geography, to satisfy the Capstone requirement within the major, and Economics 200 (microeconomics) and Economics 201 (macroeconomics), and preferably Econ 300/301, the more advanced courses in fundamental economic analysis. (200-level courses in parentheses not counted toward satisfying concentration requirement) recommended course clusters geographic perspectives in marketing
regional development and location studies
global trade and transportation linkages
economics of resource use and land use
political economy of the developing world
urban economic studies
related courses Complementary courses have most commonly been found in:
Economics (micro/macro, resources, development, labor economics, industrial organization);
Business Administration (international business,
business economics, operations and environments, organization theory,
marketing);
Jackson School of International Studies (state and society;
technology and food production in the developing world; political economy);
and
Environmental Studies and
Forestry (resource and environmental economics).
Theoretical and conceptual perspectives in economic geography Analytical constructs and models Central place theory, rent theory, and theories of distribution Industrial location theory; critiques of industrial location theory The impact of flexible production systems Formulas and models Spatial organization of the economy, from global economic variation to local specialization ten years after the conclusion of the course, to be able to recall and actually use two main organizing concepts: the opportunity costs of doing something (essentially, the benefits of the next best use of your resources), and the principle of comparative advantage (what a person, region, nation, firm, etc. does cheaper, faster, better than it does other things—thus this concept should be differentiated from absolute advantage, which is what an entity does better than anyone else.) To understand how to build economic location models (Neo-classical, normative, positivist, etc) from a geographical perspective, assuming a) that activities locate based on some differential characteristic of those activities, b) that places have different characteristics and factor endowments, and c) that place locations are distributed by their distance from some point of maximum accessibility. Thus the objective is to learn to map these relationships to construct location rent models to understand agricultural land use & urban land use, and to construct cost-based models of industrial land use and international trade. To understand the complex spatial relationships among land, labor, and capital; to understand land use patterns within a region, and urban settlement patterns To appreciate the ways historic and contemporary forces combine to shape an economy To be able to describe, simulate, analyze and predict regional economic development--as an integrated economic system; as part of global forces of economic development and political economy; as part of larger patterns and forces of restructuration To understand the concept of a community economic base To understand the role of consumption in shaping society and space What jobs do immigrants do? What are the occupational and industrial specializations of various ethnic groups in the US? How do migration networks get people into jobs? Economic niches, economies, and enclaves. The causes, effects, and consequences of residential segregation in the US. What are the locational concentrations of certain occupational specializations and how re they related to residential segregation? What are the dynamics that maintain our Little Havanas, Little Saigons, and Chinatowns? What is the relationship between social processes and spatial patterns of settlement and occupation? What forces maintain white-dominated suburbs? Who Works and Why: Why there is paid employment. What draws people into the labor force. Ways labor force participation has changed over time for women. The connections between household locations, suburbanization, and women's participation in the labor force. Various ways of defining, creating, and calculating spatial access to jobs. What jobs do people do? (Occupational Segregation): Why women make less money than men? What forms of occupational segregation women are subject to? Do women have different career trajectories and expectations than men? Occupational preferences, discrimination, and role models. The relationships between women's household roles, commuting possibilities, and job search opportunities. How has the job structure changed in recent decades? Where are these jobs? What types of work do people ACTUALLY do. Is there inequality based on race or gender in these occupations? Evidence of shift of jobs from urban cores to suburbs. Relationships between job types and job locations. The role of economic restructuring in these changing occupational distributions. Relationships between labor demands, declines in the manufacturing sector, increases in the service sector, and labor force participation among men and women. How much do people earn? What people are paid and why they are paid that way. Traditional jobs for unskilled women and African-Americans (race- and gender-based inequality). Equal pay for equal work? Range of choice of skills, job types, opportunities. Relationship between economic theory, outcomes and job types. Explaining inequality: competing theories of the labor market. Human capital model (based on objective qualifications) vs. economic inequality explanation. How do people get jobs? Definitions and examples of segmented labor markets. Spatial patterns of occupational discrimination based on race and gender. Questions of what is most valued in hiring. Various ways people search for jobs (networking. newspapers, neighborhoods and communities, men to men, etc) Migration Networks and the ethnic Division of Labor. What networks of co-ethnics exist? To what extent are these rooted in community and neighborhood? Evidence of job patterns of newly-arrived ethnics. Ways employment information is constructed and funneled and perpetuates traditional occupational patterns and distributions. Space and Race: A spatial mismatch? Analysis of ways changing job structures, types and locations disadvantages central city dwellers. The difficulties of finding and holding jobs: some alternative explanations Space and Gender: The Spatial Entrapment of Women. Relationships between gendered isolation in household (staying home), narrow job searches, long commutes. The impacts of immigrants: Ways there can be effective changes in labor market structure in places where minorities are concentrated. The role of wages and unemployment rates in labor market composition. Segmented labor markets and migration networks. Myths of the negative wage impacts of non-native workers.* To understand and be able to represent and analyze tradeoffs between equity and efficiency To be able to explain the “what”, the “where” and the “when” of economic activity by relating sets of distinctive characteristics to of activities and places. To understand the relationships between microeconomic and macroeconomic phenomena. Microeconomic phenomena include such concepts as location, markets, the individual firm, retail location, agricultural location, urban industrialization, globalization, prices and costs, transportation and transaction costs, supply & demand, etc.; macroeconomic phenomena include such concepts as economic base development, regional economic growth, inflation, analysis of various sectors of the economy and how they are evolving, and how to analyze and predict employment trends for the next 10 years, etc. To appreciate the role population and environmental resources play in regional economic development Appreciation of the opportunity cost of distance from points of maximum accessibility, and why Central Business Districts (CBDs) come to be. To appreciate the types and intensities of land use (the price of land, how rents are set, how land gets used for either retail, heavy industry, agriculture, etc), transportation modes and services, etc. (what determines how goods, services, and people move between markets, office and home, etc.). To understand and be able to employ various models of economic activity in space: spatial interaction model, location quotient, shift-share analysis, economic base analysis etc. To understand what factors determine the scale for which a production facility is designed, and how that scale influences the optimum location for that facility To appreciate the concept of indirectness, especially in regard to flows and interdependencies in such varied areas of analysis as transportation, regionalism, nationalism, and marketing To appreciate questions of scale, aggregation, disaggregation, in trading patterns, etc. Urban, Social, and Political Processes
general information This track concentrates on patterns and processes of 1) human behavior; 2) political institutions, and, 3) social relationships, with a special emphasis on the ways these forces shape the geographic organization of society. Courses combine an interest in both locational knowledge (where people and their activities are located) and theoretical understanding (why they are located where they are). Issues include the location and migration of people, the structure of cities, urban mass transportation, the growth of suburbs, changing workforce locations and demographics, the distribution of health care services (and other public services), and the importance of political boundaries, just to name a few. Emphasis is on cities and regions in North America and the developing world. In addition to a basic understanding of broad relationships, considerable emphasis is placed on contemporary urban, social, and political problems often using the Seattle region as a laboratory. careers and marketable skills The theoretical background and analytical skills developed in this track are in much demand by city, county and state government, as well as many consulting firms in the private sector. Analytical skills developed in this track include:
requirements Students in this concentration are required to take a minimum of 15 credits of upper-division (300- and 400-level) courses, including at least two at the 400-level. Appropriate course clusters and pathways should be determined by choice of emphasis within the concentration. This emphasis shall be selected at the conclusion of Geog 397 (Tutorial For Geography Majors), in consultation with a faculty adviser. The emphasis should combine the subjects, themes and skills the student wishes to further explore and develop. Choices may be from the following groupings, or more individualized, utilizing other courses in the Geography curriculum. A written study plan based on this selection of emphasis shall be filed in the student's permanent record. (200-level courses in parentheses not counted toward satisfying concentration requirement) recommended course clusters urban geography and urban processes
employment patterns housing and neighborhood change gentrification and poverty public services transportation systems infrastructure investments patterns of "race" and gender growth management and urban development patterns urban planning startegies and outcomes regulatory policies and outcomes urban social movements class, race, and ethnicity in urban life lamdscape and the geography of culture political geography
locational conflict political redistricting voting behavior geopolitics political economy international trade politics regulatory policies and outcomes the politics of geographic & ethnic representation the formation and maintenance of nationalism social and population geography
diffusion ethnicity and minority rights measuring inequality geographic discrimination demographic (population) structure Third World population and urban change labor supply and demand; the nature of work sustainable development changing roles of women; feminism agrarian reform, agribusiness and the global food system poverty and modernization development and dependency theory international geographies of production and trade medical geography
health care systems epidemiology social and political ecology of disease and health care world hunger, food production and distribution disease eradication human variation, health and health care health and health care in the developing world the challenge of AIDS and social responses Related courses Complemenatry courses are most typically found in:
American Ethnic Studies and
Women Studies (race and gender issues),
Anthropology (human ecology, social change, medical anthropology, socio-cultural anthropology),
Sociology (demography, social institutions, urban communities);
Economics (micro and macroeconomics; urban economics);
Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture (urban spatial structures; land-use planning);
Social Work (social welfare; institutional change; public funding of social programs; growth of social service sector; individuals, families, groups and communities);
Political Science (political theory; geopolitics; urban politics; political economy; ethnicity studies; politics of development;
History and the
Jackson School of International Studies (political economy; international relations and geopolitics; political systems; politics of development, American social and urban history). Students interested in medical geography should seek out courses in
Epidemiology,
Environmental Health,
Biostatistics,
U Conj, and
Health Services.
§ Understand that cities are simultaneously the products and shapers of economic, social, political and technological change. § To see beneath and behind the 'taken for granted' appearances of daily urban life. § Understand how U.S. cities have evolved as the have: attitudes, institutions, social structures § Understand how demographic change, economic and social processes shape land-use decisions, collective consumption and urban landscapes. § Comprehend socioeconomic forces as causes and consequences of urban geography. § Understand colonialism and its legacies in urban places. § Understand the development process and how cities grow in a market economy. § Understand the role of environmental constraints and developments in urban settlement history.
2. Understand urban morphology and evolution. § Understand the concept of city systems, particularly across North America. § Comprehend urban morphology and system and history. § To understand the complex spatial relationships among land, labor and capital. § Knowledge of the logic of the internal structure of cities and how cities evolve. § Analyze the forces and factors that shape neighborhoods: redlining, urban mass transportation, homelessness, zoning, etc. § The growth of suburbs, edge cities § Identify structures and workings of small regional economies § Changing workforce locations and demographics § Changing labor markets and migration patterns within cities § To understand the complexity and controversial nature of urban problems. § Analyzing private property rights and how they are being constantly redefined and renegotiated in urban settings. § How urban centers are part of global, social, cultural, political, and economic patterns and process, and how these patterns and processes are inscribed and embodied at the local scale.
3. Understand the production and reproduction of urban spaces.
§ How theories structure cities. § Relationship of power and place § The social production of space § Reproduction of class in space § How global interactions and relationships constitute and reconstitute the local § Comprehend persistence and complexity of urban problems § Define the terms 'capitalism' and 'culture' § The political economy of the distribution of goods and services in cities § Understand political economy as the relationship between power, politics and economics § Understand how property rights are themselves a social negotiation
4. Understand urban restructuring (cities and social change).
§ To appreciate how privatization and consumption have lead to major urban economic, cultural and political restructuring over the past 30 years § To understand key elements of political and cultural restructuring in cities § To understand the many meanings and delineations of urban public and private space § The role and use of public money in fostering private capital accumulation in cities § To understand urban economic restructuring in U.S. cities § Fordism and postfordism, new geographies of the labor market § Understand places' situation in global economy § See relations between global economy and local culture § The reproduction of class in space § The effects of collective consumption on urban politics, from welfare rights to identity politics – a politics based on who you are as a member of a race, class, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
5. Understand the demographic underpinnings of contemporary social issues.
§ Understand the theories and dynamics of population processes (fertility, mortality, migration). § Learn to use sources of data for demographic research. § Understand key terms used in population debates § Understand the methods of formal demography for geographic research § To develop a knowledge of geographic variation in population and characteristics. § Broader causes and consequences of US immigration policy argumentation around immigration policy § Economic niches, economies, and enclaves - the causes, effects, and consequences of residential segregation in the US. § The dynamics of acculturation in ethnic communities. § How is space differently valued depending on which ethnic groups inhabit it? Is it possible to be considered a citizen but not a "real American"? § Immigration control as public policy § Ways to re-define citizenship and change immigration policy § Newly emerging notions of transnationalism in a globalized economy, meeting the moral and economic imperatives of refugee populations.
6. Understand the uneven distribution of goods, resource and services
§ Consider the distribution of health care services (and other public services). § Appreciate the scale of distribution from local to global. § To understand human/environmental relations as they affect health and disease. § To appreciate the interrelationship between disease and society, changing disease patterns and social change. § Realization that individual health should be seen in the context of public health, and that public health should be seen in the broader context of social, physical, and biological phenomena, in their complex and frequently hidden and unanticipated interactions. § Understanding of what cities do to the environment (urban heat islands, etc.) and the long-term environmental and health impacts of concentrated populations. § Understanding of differential access to social and natural resources, according to nationality, gender, class, and ethnicity. § Understand the ways in which consumption is politically determined and socially constructed.
7. To understand the relationships between employment, location, and identity.
§ Various ways of defining, creating, and calculating spatial access to jobs. § The connections between household locations, suburbanization, and women's participation in the labor force § Occupational segregation, preferences, discrimination, and role models. § The relationships between women's household roles, commuting possibilities, and job search opportunities. § Examine inequality based on race or gender in occupations. Evidence of shift of jobs from urban cores to suburbs. Relationships between job types and job locations. § The role of economic restructuring in these changing occupational distributions. § Relationships between labor demands, declines in the manufacturing sector, increases in the service sector, and labor force participation among men and women. § Spatial patterns of occupational discrimination based on race and gender. § Migration Networks and the ethnic Division of Labor. What networks of co-ethnics exist? To what extent are these rooted in community and neighborhood? § Ways employment information is constructed and funneled and perpetuates traditional occupational patterns and distributions. § The spatial entrapment of women. § Relationships between gendered isolation in household (staying home), narrow job searches, long commutes. § Ways there can be effective changes in labor market structure in places where minorities are concentrated. § Understanding of the labor market partly as a product of political and economic ideologies and practices, and as a product the continuing presence of historic economic geographies and processes.
8. To understand gender roles and questions of equality.
§ Develop an understanding of current work in feminist geography, especially as a critique of normative social science. § Understand how subjects and objects are gendered. § Understand the complexities of identity politics in big cities. § Appreciate the construction of gendered and sexual identities. § To appreciate the distinctly gendered social geography of cities, especially in North America and Europe. § To understand the reciprocity and historicity between gender relations and urban forms. § To understand the sociopolitical construction of femininity and masculinity. § To appreciate that gender identities play important and interrelated roles in the layout of cities and in the activities of the people that reside in those cities, and that these roles change over space and time. § To understand the relations among space/race/gender/class/sexuality, especially the spatiality of privilege and oppression. § To become adept at addressing key themes such as gender and work, gender and migration, and gender and the environment. § Explaining inequality: competing theories of the labor market. Human capital model (based on objective qualifications) vs. economic inequality explanation. § Understand how power relations and political relations are intellectually imbedded in economic relationships, as seen in such phenomena as money, cash flow, the economic dependence of wives on husbands and the economics of conjugal relations and marriage. § Understand the influence of post-structural feminist and political economy approaches to understand the linkages between gender and the built environment, and to understand how these linkages play out at various scales in such processes and conditions as poverty, and resource access.
9. To understand the politics of urban geography and the geography of urban politics.
§ To become familiar with and apply the concept of urban politics. § To understand the role of the state in shaping cities. § To become familiar with and apply theories of power and the state and how these theories help explain how power in the city is exercised and constructed. § To understand different ways to analyze urban power and political decision-making: pluralism, instrumentalism, structuralism. § Understand the importance and shifting definition of political boundaries § To become familiar with and apply the concept of the geography of a ‘regime’ and the concept of a ‘city trench’ § To learn about specific political urban conflict in an place § To learn about local political issues in Seattle § Apply geographic perspective to culture trait
10. Understand the intersection of Geography and Law
§ Understand the way that law shapes social life § Understand the various theoretical approaches to law and its relationship to geography. § Investigate specific instances where law and geography intersect, including the regulation of public space, the policing of cities, disputes over land ownership, the regulation of movement, and the legal regulation of cyberspace. § Appreciate that law is a formal language, but it is practiced daily in ways that affect how landscapes are constructed and experienced.
These include but are not limited to: § data gathering, processing, and analyzing § to understand reasoning as a tool, logic, difference between inductive and deductive reasoning, inferential reasoning and the scientific method § library research techniques § writing skills, including integrating conceptual questions with analytical results § mapping skils § graphical analysis and display skills (graphs, charts, tables) § analysis of census data, land use data, and epidemiological data § formal demography and demographic methods § urban-regional transportation analysis § interpret and critique diverse theoretical perspective, news stories, and the effects of various forms of information technology § cross-cultural analysis of development § service learning leadership and citizenship skills.
Learning Outcomes
The urban, social, political concentration is designed to develop the students ability to: · Use theoretical and methodological tools to produce geographic information: “to be geographers”. · Think through an issue in abstract, theoretical terms, and to recognize that there are different and competing ways of understanding the world. · To appreciate the contested nature of contemporary urban landscapes. · Analyze colonialism at different spatial scales. · Analyze poverty, land use, socioeconomic differences, and housing patterns. · Analyze census data in local contexts. · Challenge perceptions about immigration. · Explain the history of US immigration policy and the dilemmas of reform of that policy. · Describe the spatial distribution of immigrants in the US, and their geographical links to industrial and occupational specializations. · Explain and analyze the role of spatial location in the maintenance of employment inequality through constraints on job search and job accessibility for women and ethnic minorities. · Explain the myriad ways people are occupationally sorted in America. · Analyze various measurements of desegregation, of differences between and among groups, as a way to analyze continuing patterns of labor market segregation. · Deploy theoretical perspectives to explain urban political process in location. · See relations between global economy and local culture. · Derive insights from local economic reports. · Explain relevance of key theoretical debates to 'real world' situations. · Produce knowledge of geographic variation in population structure and characteristics. · Produce research findings using theoretical concepts in original research. · Read texts critically. · Draw different forms of knowledge together, asking what’s missing - to deconstruct. · Understand cities in historical and geographical contexts. · Contructively critique ideas, policies, plans, methodologies, and theories. · Develop convincing lines of argument; move from opinion to argument. · Weigh and integrate the sometimes conflicting conclusions reached from the very different perspectives offered by the physical sciences and the human sciences. · Take and defend a position on a complex issue while recognizing that most of these problems have no clear, simple solutions. · Use key terms urban social and political geographers use · Recognize key thinkers in urban/political and social geography and their ideas · Implement technical skills needed to acquire geographic information ¨ Locate, develop and/or use geographic information independently ¨ Apply theory to empirical material and vice versa ¨ Implement visual communication skills ¨ Implement observation and fieldwork techniques ¨ Develop a group project ¨ Utilize writing communication and information skills ¨ Use key theoretical concepts and acquired research methods in own research project ¨ Apply scholarly and professional skills while working with course materials ¨ Illustrate the acquisition of factual knowledge, such as the ability to: § identify major cities in the developing world § identify urbanization trends § describe the history of colonialism § identify key terms in urban geography § describe factual knowledge about particular cities § explain key aspects of immigration policy § etc.
This synthesis should eventually include the following classes: 230, 277, 280, 310, 342, 350, 380, 401, 431, 432, 439, 445, 450, 461, 478, 480.
Geography 230: Urbanization in Developing Nations (Lawson) Geography 277: Geography of Cities (England, Withers) Geography 280: Geography of Health and Health Care (Mayer) Geography 310: Immigrant America: Trends and Policies from a Geographic Perspective (Ellis) Geography 342: Geography and Inequality in the United States (England) Geography 350: Local Economies and Market Areas (Krumme) Geography 371: World Hunger and Resource Development (Jarosz) Geography 380: Geographic Patterns of Health and Disease (Mayer) Geography 401: Culture, Capital, and the City (Brown) Geography 431: Geography and Gender (Jarosz) Geography 432: Population and Urbanization Problems of Russia (ZumBrunnen) Geography 435: Industrialization and Urbanization in China (Chan) Geography 439: Gender, Race, and the Geography of Employment (Ellis) Geography 445: Population Distribution and Migration (Withers) Geography 450: Theories of Location (Krumme) Geography 461: Urban Geographic Information Systems (Nyerges) Geography 476: Women and the City (England) Geography 478: Advanced Urban Geography (Brown) Geography 480: Environmental Geography, Climate, and Health (Mayer) Regional Geography and International Development
The regional courses offered in Geography concentrate on the former Soviet Union, China, Canada, and Latin America, as well as more systematic courses dealing with Third World development. These courses provide a coherent and integrated program of study which addresses both rural and urban realms and provides opportunities for specialization in the areas listed above. Regional studies have traditionally emphasized the ways populations are distributed spatially: the internal spatial order of large regions; spatial diffusion of various populations; regional identities, differentiations and hierarchies; geopolitical divisions; shifting migration and urbanization patterns; and regional and interregional trading patterns and economic development. Regional/area studies also help students think comparatively. For example, the study of foreign regions provides a basis for comparison between familiar regional patterns and processes in the U.S. and those elsewhere. Such a comparison helps in understanding the increasingly complex international interactions amongst diverse people, cultures, religions, economies, political systems and environmental problems. This concentration also focuses on questions of analytical scale. What are the interconnections between international, national and local scales? For example, what social, ethnic, economic and cultural forces might lead a woman in China to sew blue jeans sold in Seattle? What is her role in the global economy? What theories of development address (or fail to address) her life choices and quality of life? What role do regional, national and international politics, social change and economics play in such issues as hunger, resource depletion, urbanization and workforce composition? The most profitable plan of studies would be early classroom exposure to systematic fields of Geography (Social/ Urban/ Development/ Economic/ Physical), followed by enrollment in specialized regional courses. careers and marketable skills Students working in this area have pursued careers as:
With the proper selection of courses, both in Geography and related fields, the student should be prepared to work for either the private or public sector, offering both analytical and writing skills, as well as technical understanding of the relationships between both national and regional economic, political, environmental and social problems. It is also highly advisable to complement the coursework within the concentration with foreign language training. analytical skills developed in this track
requirements Students in this concentration are required to take a minimum of 15 credits of upper-division (300- and 400-level) courses, including at least two courses (10 credits) at the 400-level. Appropriate course clusters and pathways should be determined by choice of emphasis within the concentration. This emphasis shall be selected at the conclusion of Geog 397 (Tutorial For Geography Majors), in consultation with a faculty adviser. The emphasis should combine the subjects, themes and skills the student wishes to further explore and develop. Choices may be from the following groupings, or more individualized, utilizing other courses in the Geography curriculum. A written study plan based on this selection of emphasis shall be filed in the student's permanent record. (200-level courses in parentheses not counted toward satisfying concentration requirement) population growth and migration
development history, theory and practice and national identity-formation
urbanization processes
economic development, growth and global interdependencies
resources, hunger, health and poverty
related courses Complementary courses are most commonly taken in:
History;
The Jackson School of
International Studies (state and society; area studies, geopolitics, political economy);
Economics (micro/macro, resources,
development); Business Economics
and International Business
(international trade and finance; multinational operations; international economics);
Anthropology (ethnicity; development;
food production; economic systems; area studies), and
Political Science
(political systems and political economy; area studies;
international relations; ethnicity; development studies).
Appreciate the fundamental physical/environmental, social, and historical processes that have shaped distinctive regions and nations, and how history shapes positions in the global order. Example: the international division of labor: how everyone is situated-a geographical framing of the international political and economic order · develop nuanced examples of particular “historical moments,” how global forces play out on local and national scales in different ways at different places. Example: how particulars have shifted over time to form different epochs of international political economic ordering: the new international division of labor emerging after the Bretton Woods conference, and present-day globalization · understand the inter-relationships among these processes at various scales (local, regional, national, global). · appreciate the spatial dimensions of those processes (e.g., population distribution and migration patterns; urbanization and industrialization patterns and processes; crop patterns and agricultural development; the shape and distribution of economic markets; internal as well as global trading and commercial patterns; transportation networks, etc.) · learn how to think about a place in terms of its historical background, and how colonial history has shaped both reality and image · understand the impact of various historical epochs (pre-colization civilixzations and regimes, cultures and patterns; the impact of colonization; European institution-building) on such issues as ecology, disease, land tenure, land use, resource extraction, etc · understanding of colonial legacies and their role in national food systems and local agrarian economies · understand how the technological sophistication and infrastructure of colonizers shaped different parts of the developing worlds (or “colonies” of USSR or China) in different ways; to understand the institutional factors at work in the Soviet and post-Soviet eras that have led to major land use, economic, and social policies (Czarism, the Bolshevik revolution, Soviet economic history, Russian Civil War, wartime Communism, the NEP, Perestroika, etc.), including industrial debates, Five Year plans, and Soviet economic development models. Special emphasis on the ways these institutional factors have affected urbanization patterns and processes.
2. Appreciating the Scales and Relationships of the International Political Economy develop a critical and nuanced view of how nations and peoples are situated in an international political economy, a set of political and economic relationships operating on a variety of international scales, from the individual and the household to national, regional, and global.
Examples: understand the political economy of relationships between and among nations and peoples, especially ways colonialism has shaped cultures, politics, and places in the colonialized world. How nations, regions, peoples, cultures were oriented as primary export economies serving the industrialization of Europe analyze the role of international financing institutions (e.g., the IMF) in national economic development. Example: the role of the IMF in the Latin American debt crisis, and ways LA shifted from a protectionist to an export growth economic model understand the ways newly independent LA states joined the global economy, beginning in the early 19th-century, and particularly the ways Europe and LA have mutually affected one another fit current regional development into ever-larger series of contexts: relationships with the US; the Cold war and the early years of development; and analyze the dynamics of various“debt crisis” in terms of the global economy; the genealogy of “structural adjustment” regimes, etc. Understanding of how poverty and hunger are linked across geographic scales Understanding of how agricultural modernization perpetuated Third World dependence on First World technology and imports Understanding of how a national economy and food production system works, and the various roles and effects of producers and consumers
A. Linkages Across Scales: To introduce influences of post-structural feminist and political economy approaches to understand the linkages between gender, environment, and development, and how these linkages play out at various scales in such processes and conditions as poverty, resource access, and environmental change understand how subjects and objects are gendered
B. Political Economy understand the concept and applications of political economy; for example, to understand how power relations and political relations are intellectually embedded in economic relationships, as seen in such phenomena as money, cash flow, the economic dependence of wives on husbands, (economics of conjugal relations & marriage)
3. Analyze identity-formation and the distribution of wealth and resources understand how gender, race, class, and ethnicity are constructed as shifting and fragmented identities in the developing world, and how these categories help determine access to resources over space and time.
4 Appreciation of The Reach & Dimensions of the Global Economy develop a more holistic understanding of the global economy in which all students will be working;
5. Mitigating Stereotypes and Media Representations understand ways “The South” (non-OECD) nations and peoples are different from media representations, and to question main assumptions underpinning such terms as “modernization,” “urbanization,” etc. and develop a critical framework for thinking against images and representations of the developing world. (reading against the grain); to be able to explain why national policy and practice are not based on empirically verifiable reality, but a set of representations—often resulting in a cartoon-like set of stereotypes and representations; to understand how to conduct more critically-informed readings of media representations of developing nations understand how economies get “written”:
6. Appreciating the Complexity and Paradoxes of “Development” explore the meaning of the concept of “development” as understood by geographers: how it plays out in different ways in different places; the relationship between place and space, and the ramifications of that relationship in culture, politics, local economic processes, etc.; to analyze the concept of “sustainable development,” defining it in various ways; yet also to appreciate the multidimensionality of international relations and patterns; to appreciate the complexity and paradoxes of development, and to see that social processes, embedded in these relations and patterns, are messy in systematic ways—to develop tools for thinking about issues, not categories or easy resolutions for these problems. Example: understand the sets of relations within and between nations as geographically and historically specific and differentiated. Example: British colonial experience in S. Asia. The changing relationships between Britain and India. Different places have different “moments of history” shaped by resources, etc. ( appreciate differences, contexts, perspectives) ( appreciate how case studies complicate structural analyses)
7. Understanding the processes of urbanization and modernization in the developing world. infrastructures, commodities, and urban city systems; to understand which cities emerged in the developing world and why they emerged when and where they did; Examples: urban inequality (the “dual city” concept) in terms of causes and effects, in such complex issues as poverty levels, migration, the role of labor forces in the international division of labor and global economies, the roles of multinational corporations in urban inequality, etc historical patterns of urban development and settlement patterns: ways forced industrialization, artificial markets, poor urban infrastructure have shaped underdeveloped urban centers in such places as Siberia learn how to study cities: defining a city’s unique morphology, culture, identity, as well as appreciating the genesis and growth patterns of major developing world cities appreciate the roles migration and mobility play in these urban processes and patterns
8. Appreciating the relationship between the environment and social processes develop an understanding of the relationship between physical environment and climatic factors and social, migration, and settlement patterns and processes understand the ways access, distribution, and control of natural resources shapes poverty and development trajectories think relationally about “The South,” see its historical moments and subsequent “positioning”—e.g., ways its poverty is produced by the global system understand the antecedents for contemporary regional and ethnic problems; to explore current realities in world regions: development, urbanization, environmental issues understand current events in terms of long-term processes: population echo effects: population pyramids, age structure; Ability to analyze and explain the persistence of worldwide hunger amidst global plenty, including an explanation of the role of population growth, what is being done to mitigate hunger; understanding of linkages between hunger, the global food order, and agricultural modernization understand the internal structure of “new towns” and cities in Soviet era understand the effects of too-rapid industrialization and urbanization assess the ways top-down, authoritarian planning creates instability in terms of boundaries, stable economies, market forces, etc., as well as its accomplishments (literacy, preventive medicine, mitigation of poverty, creation of distribution networks Learning Outcomes map knowledge—location of major cities in developing world knowledge of global urbanization trends outside the West knowledge of the history of colonialism in Africa, S. Asia, and Latin America: genealogy of modern economies and international division of labor ability to translate issues in developing nations into US context—i.e., to see similarities between poverty in LDCs and poverty in US. More reflective analysis of our own society. ability to differentially analyze colonialism according to geographical and scalar variation: how different colonial regimes and technologies affected development in different places—how structural tools look and are used differently in various places ability to read/use the media in a critical way: to understand the silences of the media in terms of what it is not addressing or depicting and the histories that produce these silences (e.g.—ways divide and conquer strategies have produced present-day inter-tribal warfare) ability to analyze cities as products of modernization, as expressions of various processes analyzed (employment patterns, primate city growth, etc.); investment, growth migration: these processes become the broader analysis, with urbanization patterns fitting into these more encompassing processes ability to read materials (texts, articles, etc.) critically, analyze point/counter-point arguments; debate; analyze ways arguments are constructed; ways evidence is constructed and used to enhance arguments; ways points-of-view are constructed and influence arguments ability to understand issues differentially in terms of geographical diversity: e.g., use of structural analysis tools to understand differing genealogies and processes of poverty in Asia and Latin America ability to get beyond black-and-white thinking and analyze issues in non-categorical ways that account for contradictory outcomes of such policies and processes as free trade: ability to think conditionally, in a context-dependent way ability to work collaboratively in teams preparing for and participating in debates ability to construct a poster making an argument about some aspect of development, using a critical perspective on familiar material, and ability to present the gist of a poster orally ability to read historical analyses of periods and case studies development of library and WWW research skills Society and Environment
The Geography curriculum offers a rich diversity of perspectives on the relationship between society and environment. The examination, analysis and interpretation of this relationship is one of the foundations of the discipline and continues to be a vital area for geographic inquiry. This undergraduate emphasis examines the key debates on the causes and outcomes of environmental change and degradation and the paths to sustainable development; the collection of quantitative and qualitative data in diverse contexts; use of data in the formulation of human-environment interaction models; and historical and contemporary societal responses to environmental degradation, health problems and resource consumption. There are four areas of focus : resource geography, cultural and political ecology, health and the environment, and GIS and resource analysis. The aim of this undergraduate emphasis is to provide students with a grounding in the central conceptual approaches to understanding and explaining the society-environment relationships across differing geographic scales and contexts , as well as gaining knowledge of the methodologies required in resource analysis and environmental management. Seen as complementary, these courses provide a coherent and integrated program of study assessing the complex inter-relationships between social dynamics and environments. Special focus is placed on questions of scale in analyzing change at the local, regional, national, and global levels, and on understanding and explaining the interactions between ecological processes, environmental transformation and social processes and transformations in impoverished and affluent societies the world over. eligible courses Geog 205 Intro to Physical Sciences and the Environment (ZumBrunnen) main topical groupings Resource Geography (Jeffrey/ZumBrunnen)
Cultural and Political Ecology (Jarosz/Jeffrey)
Health and the Environment (Mayer)
GIS and Resource Analysis (Nyerges)
learning outcomes
|
Related Links Research Themes |
 | ||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |