Course Objectives: The course is intended for undergraduate geography majors near completion of their degrees, and beginning graduate students. It examines the origins, development, and content of geography as an academic discipline from the Age of Discovery to the present day, with emphasis on the 20th century. We will consider the contributions of prominent figures: as innovators and as creatures of their social and intellectual context. We will also endeavor to identify lasting themes and unities in the discipline across time and across subdisciplines.

              As a coherent intellectual endeavor geography is much older than the current division of labor in higher education, and its elements span the social and natural sciences and the humanities as they are currently structured. (This is true of several other disciplines, too.) Partly because of this scope, and partly because many geographers are so engaged in theoretical and methodological debate, contemporary geography is alive with ideas. The best way to succeed in this course is to be willing to explore this intellectual universe with as few preconceptions as possible, and then think, write, and speak critically about your observations.

1. Introduction ................................................................................Sept 5                       geographic awareness

2. Nature of an academic discipline (RJ:1; DL:1)........ Sept. 7, 12, 14
               occupational structure
               norms of academia
               nature of scientific change
                                Kuhn and his critics, Lakatos, Popper,
                                Feyerabend, Foucault
               social context (external environment)
               3 types of science
                     empirical-analytical
                     hermeneutical
                     critical
               Livingstone: storytelling, sociology of scientific knowledge, situated messiness

3. Historical Vignettes (DL: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)...Sept 19, 21, 26, 28; Oct 3
               Geography in the Age of Discovery
               Geography and the Scientific Revolution
               Geography and the Enlightenment Project
               Geography and God's Design
               Geography and Evolution

4. Formative Modern Debates (RJ: 2, 3, DL: 7, 8).......Oct 5, 10
                  environmental determinism and possibilism
                  landscape, Sauer, and the Berkeley School
                  the region and the regional concept
                  exceptionalism, areal differentiation, Hartshorne, Schaefer
                  contemporary assessments of Hartshorne

5. Scientific Geography and Positivism (RJ: 4, DL: 9).Oct 12, 17, 19, 24
                  the quantitative revolution: key ideas, places, and people
                  structure of positivist explanation: "scientific method"
                  cultural, historical, and regional geography as the "relatively untouched"
                  spatial science and the search for a focus
                  spatial separatists and their critics
                  systems theory

6. The Parting of the Ways?.......................................Oct 26, 31
                  The relationship between human and physical geography
                  Common grounds (e.g. resources, natural hazards, ecology)?
                  Epistemological grounds for divorce? Impeding unity?

7. Behavioral Geography (RJ :5)................................ Nov 2, 7
                   A prototype of positivistic human geography
                   behavioral perspectives on spatial decisions
                   mental maps paradigm
                   spatial choice paradigm
                   time geography

8. Humanistic Critique (RJ: 6)...................................... Nov 9, 14
                   Habermas: analytical vs. hermeneutical approaches
                   the attack on positivism and humanistic alternatives
                   idealism, phenomenology, existentialism
                   reexamination of cultural geography

9. Radical and Structuralist Approaches (RJ: 7).......... Nov 16, 21
                   Harvey's trajectory and radicalism in geography
                   varieties of structuralism
                   ideology and its functions
                   marxism and its varieties
                   realism, structure-agency, structuration
                   economic restructuring and the new economic geography
                   the urban question and the new urban geography
                   locale and the new regional geography

10. The Cultural Turn and Postmodernity (RJ: 8).... Nov 28, 30
                   modernity and postmodernity
                   language, text and discourse
                   feminist geography

11. Exciting Eclecticism or Too Many Voices?...........Dec 5, 7, 12
(RJ: 9, 10; DL: 10)
                    applied geography
                    the ascendancy of technique
                    the cases of GIS and GPS
                    the status of geography in academia and society

Required readings in the texts are indicated parentheses. RJ = R. Johnston, DL = D. Livingstone; numbers refer to chapters. A modest amount of other required items will be assigned as we proceed.

This outline may be subject to some adjustments as time and your interests dictate.

GOG 404Q/500

Instructor:

John S. Pipkin, ES212
phone: 442-4777
e-mail: jsp44@csc.albany.edu
office hours: Wed 1:30-3:00pm Thu 12:30-2:00pm and by appointment 

URL of ERES Site:  

http://eres.ulib.albany.edu/eres/

Note GOG 404 folk: materials are listed under "GOG 500." This site is password protected. The password will be announced in class and changed periodically.
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Assessment:

 1. (25%) Take-home midterm
      exam: due Oct. 27.

 2. (20%) Historical summary assignment: due the week after     relevant class discussion   

 3. (20%) Modern debate
     assignment:  due Dec. 1

 4. (25%) Take-home final exam: 
      due  Dec. 14.

 5. (10%) Attendance and
      participation in classroom
      discussion.


Other Policies: Attendance is up to you: it is extremely hard to do well in this course without being there. We will apply the University's policies on academic integrity, incomplete grades and the like, as described in the relevant Graduate or Undergraduate Bulletin. Be particularly attentive to the definition of plagiarism and make sure that you provide full citations, including specific indications of direct quotations, in all sources, including materials obtained on the Web.

Texts:

David N. Livingstone The Geographical Tradition, Oxford: Blackwell, 1992

Ronald J. Johnston Geography and Geographers: Anglo-American Human Geography since 1945, Fifth Edition New York: Arnold, 1997