Human Geography (Study Abroad) BA Hons - 2020 Entry

Course Structure

Many of Lancaster's degree programmes are flexible, offering students the opportunity to cover a wide selection of subject areas to complement their main specialism. You will be able to study a range of modules, some examples of which are listed below.

Year 1

Core

• Geographical Skills in a Changing World

  This module provides an introduction to the skills used by geographers to analyse problems in both human and physical geography. The module begins by reviewing the principles of cartography and recent developments in the electronic delivery of map-based information through mobile devices and web-based services. This is followed by an introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) which provide facilities for the capture, storage, analysis and display of spatially-referenced information. Later in the module we introduce remote sensing and explain its relationship to GIS. We also consider quantitative and qualitative techniques of analysis (which are taught within the context of contemporary conceptual approaches), with emphasis placed on the study of both environmental and societal processes.

• Society and space - Human Geography

  Introducing you to contemporary human geography, this module focuses on the interactions between society and space, and between people and places at a variety of spatial scales and in different parts of the globe. We introduce the key processes driving geographical change affecting society, economies, the environment, and culture. We critically analyse relevant issues using theoretical models, with examples from across the world. The module encourages you to think critically, argue coherently, appraise published material, and relate real world issues to relevant theoretical frameworks.

Year 2

Core

• Study Abroad Year

  Students will typically study eight modules at one of our partner universities in North America or Australasia. These will include courses that are similar to our core Y2 modules at Lancaster (i.e. Spatial Analysis and Geographical Information Systems, and Research Project Skills).

Year 3

Core

• Dissertation

  The dissertation project is an individual and individually supervised extensive project ending in submission of a substantial dissertation report. Students will choose from a set of dissertation research areas or topics based on a LEC-wide list compiled by the module conveyor. There will be regular meetings with dissertation supervisor, and students will develop a specific dissertation topic, along with research questions, aims, objectives and methods. This will be followed by a period of background reading, discussion and planning, before their dissertation drafts are analysed, marked and a final draft of up to 10,000 is submitted in week 11 of the term.

  Students must take active involvement in the module and make good use of interaction with the supervisor in order to deepen their subject specific knowledge and ability to work independently. Depending on the discipline, style and topic, students may focus on methods, field techniques, lab techniques, or a combination of computer and software tools.

  You will have the option of taking either a Dissertation or a Dissertation with External Partner. However, please note that students taking a Study Abroad year must take the Dissertation option.

Optional

• Africa: Geographies of Transformation

  With a focus on pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial history, this module provides a focus on the representations of Africa, such as how the ‘dark continent’ has been portrayed in different cultural settings by the media, art, NGOs, governments and public. These representations will be compared and contrasted with, on the one hand, our own perceptions of Africa and, on the other hand, how Africans see themselves. Students will discover African reactions to racial stereotyping during colonial and post-colonial times, and will be introduced to the work of Frantz Fanon, as well as exploring the challenges, constraints and opportunities of rural communities, such as how they manage their livelihood, welfare, development and survival in response to a changing socio-political, economic and ecological environment.

  Students will learn to demonstrate a concise understanding of the topic through examinations and coursework, and will develop practical skills such as debating and group discussion, with the aim to critically engage with current perceptions of Africa in newspapers, film, television, visual art, literature amongst other media. Additionally, the module will address the different approaches towards the subject from a Euro-American versus African perspective and will equip students with the ability to develop a detailed understanding of post-colonial theory as a critical lens to study contemporary challenges in Africa.

• Cities and Globalization

  All cities are shaped by the flows and forces that connect them to other places. Whilst these connections enable cities to become vibrant and creative, this module will focus on a number of challenges that might arise from globalisation.

  Students undertaking this module will develop spatial thinking whilst exploring a range of features including urban networks and politics, such as poverty, global change and security. The module will explore the cities’ resulting transformations through a combination of readings, lectures, group activities and fieldwork. The module will also present students an opportunity to compare the experiences of cities in different parts of the world.

• Climate and Society

  This module explores climate change in the context of it being a ‘wicked problem’. The aim is to provoke students to look beyond the simple narratives pushed at us about climate change and to start to think critically as wicked problems require us to do. In doing so, students are invariably forced to abandon often naive assumptions about what can and can't be done to tackle climate related risks. Despite understanding climate change from the perspective of wicked, problems often lead to a sense of powerlessness.

  This module employs debate and discussion as its primary learning devices. As a result, students will be expected to actively participate in debate, holding and developing their line of argument both in small groups and in class wide discussions and debates. The module also employs a group structure and activities to engender team working skills. Practical decision making is a theme running through the module supported by approximate quantitative analysis.

  By the end of this module, students will recognise the role of societal and climate dynamics in climate change management, and will gain the necessary knowledge required to comprehend the basis of sustainable development arguments in the context of climate change management to be able to perform simple, yet meaningful evaluation of a range of climate related options. Further skills which can be gained from this module include the ability to distinguish the relative positions of adaptation, mitigation and geoengineering and to be able to argue between various options within each.

• Conservation and sustainable development in the Brazilian Amazon

  This module will address the major challenges facing tropical forest regions, such as deforestation, biodiversity loss and rural poverty. Students will spend eight days participating in field work in Brazil, where they will study topics in conservation and ecology, along with development. Whilst studying in the Jari region of the north-eastern Brazilian Amazon, students will engage with a range of research approaches necessary to address conservation and socio-economic issues, including biodiversity monitoring.

  Students will be required to conduct social surveys in rural communities, and the module will address a range of literature from conservation science, tropical ecology, agricultural economics and sustainable development. They will analyse evidence based on ecological and well-being indicators, and will develop research ideas for monitoring social and ecological systems in tropical forest regions, making informed viewpoints from the point of view of diverse actors.

  Additionally, the module will offer students an opportunity to develop critical arguments based on evidence from natural and social sciences. They will gain the ability to write effectively using a diverse evidence base, and will be able to critically evaluate international and national policies.

• Environment, Politics and Society in Amazonia

  This interdisciplinary module draws on perspectives from Geography, Conservation Science, Archaeology and more to explore the past, present and future of Amazonia. You will cover a broad range of topics, including debates around the question of whether the Amazon is a pristine forest or a cultural artefact; deforestation and agricultural transitions; conservation and extractive reserves; mega-dams and environmental justice; rural-urban migration and future resilience of Amazonian socio-ecological systems. By the end you will have learnt to see the world’s largest rainforest and its people through a variety of lenses, and that almost everything you thought previously about the Amazon was wrong!

• Food and Agriculture in the 21st Century

  Food and Agriculture in the 21st century explores the social, political and environmental challenges facing food systems in the world today. This includes the history, culture and development of contemporary food systems. The focus is on the industries’ interactions with plants, animals and the landscape, and the resultant debates regarding food security and food sovereignty. Through the exploration of case studies from across the globe, students will consider the connections between changing diets, landscapes and agrarian reform. They will also develop innovative and alternative solutions for the future.

  The module encourages the development of skills in debate and analysis by drawing on environmental history, human geography, anthropology, sociology, historical and political ecology and cultural studies.

  Students will ultimately be able to describe the social, ethical, economic and environmental challenges facing food systems and understand the connections between production and consumption and how these have shaped the contemporary food systems.

• Geographical Information Systems: Principles and Practice

  This module covers both the principles of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and GIScience, and provides practical experience in the use of GIS using ArcGIS, a leading windows-based package. Students will engage with a number of theoretical issues, such as the problems of representing real world phenomena in GIS databases, and will consider emerging trends within the discipline such as WebGIS and the Open Source GIS movement. Lectures also explore the use of GI in government, commercial and academic sectors and related employment opportunities, and are complimented by a series of practical sessions in ArcGIS. Initial exercises are concerned with creating, manipulating and querying spatial data using the core functionality of the software, and subsequent exercises demonstrate more sophisticated forms of spatial analysis using a range of extension products including Spatial Analyst, Network Analyst and ArcScene.

  Over the duration of the module, students are required to source their own data, conduct appropriate analyses and produce a project report. This combination of concepts, theories and practical experience provides students with the requisite skills to enter the graduate workplace, and they will learn how to explain how data may be modelled, captured, stored, manipulated and retrieved from within GIS. Additionally, the module will enhance students’ abilities in a range of areas, such as the design and implementation of a spatial database and appropriate forms of analysis, knowledge of the latest developments and emerging issues and trends in GIS and GISc.

• Global Consumption

  This course is about understanding the sustainability challenges, issues and debates in moving towards a responsible form of global consumption. Through theoretical and practical learning based on both geographic and broader social science literature, we will analyse existing and prospective value chains in a critical fashion. We analyse contemporary debates over the possibilities for consumption to be sustainable. How do companies, government, producers and consumers negotiate consumption’s relationship with the environment, economic growth, justice and labour rights?

  Topics investigated in more detail include Fair Trade, commodity chain analysis, the commodification of nature, and corporate social responsibility. In-class debates and learning will draw upon key theories and use a range of case studies and empirical material drawn from ‘real world’ examples and initiatives. These will be supplemented by a fieldtrip to Garstang (the world’s first ‘Fair Trade Town’) in order to see how ethical consumption can permeate across geographical scales and spaces.

• New York Field Course

  This short-term field course offers students an opportunity to experience and engage, actively and critically, with the geography of New York city. Students will learn to apply theoretical ideas and knowledge learnt from previous modules in the context of New York, whilst reinforcing their awareness of cultural, political and social issues. The module will also equip students with the knowledge required to provide reflections based on first-hand experience of the complex fabric of life in New York, explaining this in terms of the writings of other academics.

  Initially, students will attend a series of meetings, designed to set the context and expectations of the field course, whilst exploring key themes such as identity, inequality and difference. The meetings will also provide an opportunity to arrange project groups, and to discuss existing geographical literature on New York city.

  Once preparation is complete, students will spend six nights in New York, where they may participate in activities such as visiting activist groups in different parts of the city, as well as exploring the ‘Ground Zero' site to reflect on local and global consequences and debates. Additionally, students will undertake self-planned group-based research work, and observational work of New York as a city of consumption. Activities are subject to change over time, but recent visits have provided opportunities to see Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty and the Tenement Museum, which has educated students about the history of migration and populating of the city, and shifting patterns of community identity. Trips may also feature 'Highline' linear park and the Lower East Side community gardens to examine forms of nature in the city, and subway transects will lead students through New York's different districts, in order to produce commentary of identity of areas and changes between them.

• Urban Infrastructure in a Changing World

  As the world becomes increasingly urbanised, so too does the power of urban infrastructure to shape the dynamics of cities and the experience of everyday life. Urban infrastructure is key to sustaining much that we take for granted, for example travel, food, water, energy, communications, and waste. It follows that changes to the way infrastructure is managed will impact both the city as a whole and the experience of everyday urban life. This module examines ways of understanding urban infrastructure as a ‘socio-technical assemblage’, a term that will become more familiar throughout the module. Using case studies from around the world you will engage with the changing pressures on infrastructure and the challenges of building resilient futures. You will learn through a combination of lectures, seminars, a workshop and field course activities.

• Water, Society and the Istrian Landscape

  Students undertaking this module will learn about the human and physical aspects of the Mediterranean environment. The module will focus on the distribution, allocation and use of water, whilst exploring the ways in which land use or land management affect the water environment.

  Students will learn about the physical constraints on water availability whilst analysing the role of government institutions and private companies in developing and managing water for a range of purposes.

  By participating in a four-day field course, students will have the opportunity to experience the distinctive environmental, cultural and socioeconomic nature of the Istrian peninsula. Generally, the module is designed to develop students' independent and group-based skills and enhance their knowledge related to water, particularly in the Mediterranean environment.

Lancaster University offers a range of programmes, some of which follow a structured study programme, and others which offer the chance for you to devise a more flexible programme. We divide academic study into two sections - Part 1 (Year 1) and Part 2 (Year 2, 3 and sometimes 4). For most programmes Part 1 requires you to study 120 credits spread over at least three modules which, depending upon your programme, will be drawn from one, two or three different academic subjects. A higher degree of specialisation then develops in subsequent years. For more information about our teaching methods at Lancaster visit our Teaching and Learning section.

Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, but changes may be necessary, for example as a result of student feedback, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes, and new research.