Course surveys the multiple ways in which humans have initiated or accelerated changes in the earths biophysical environment, including population growth, resource depletion, pollution and species destruction. It relates these topics to contemporary geographical theory. This course traces the historical development of policies concerning natural resources from the colonial period to the present. Current issues in conservation and environmental management are discussed. The study of the processes by which various cultural features have diffused throughout the world.
Emphasis is on the contemporary cultural landscape, particularly that of the United States.
The concepts, approaches and research methods appropriate to the analysis of past patterns of land use and life or of the changing occupation of the face of the earth through time. Examination of how political processes play out over space, from the local to the global levels. Topics include electoral geographies, nationalism and war, and current geopolitics. Systematic interrogation of the birth and historical trajectory of the contemporary capitalist world economy, including the possibilities of regional development in the post-Cold War era. Close reading of recent literature in urban geography, stressing the urban division of labor and restructuring, urban social theory, suburbanization, the crisis of the inner city ghetto, urban politics and policies, and world cities.