GEOG101 (HAM)
People and Place:
Introduction to Social and Cultural Geography
15 points

Lecturers: Dr Colin McLeay and staff
Email: c.mcleay@waikato.ac.nz

Paper description

Geography offers two year one papers.  They are GEOG101 and GEOG103 Resources and Environmental Sustainability.  Students majoring in Geography must take both of them. 

This paper introduces students to important contemporary issues in human geography.  Drawing on New Zealand and Global examples, we illustrate how different places are connected by social, cultural, economic and political factors.  Places are explored using a variety of perspectives like humanism, marxism, feminism, postcolonialism and postmodernism. Key themes include consumption, national identity, representations of place in media, putting people on maps, gendering place, Maori geography, the rural Waikato and the dark side of cartography.

Paper Objectives

• To illustrate 'why geography matters' through consideration of the ways in which people make places, and places make people.
• To offer a range of perspectives on matters of interest to geographers.
• To explore the geographies of socio-economic and cultural change.
• To develop skills in critical reading and thinking.
• To encourage the formation of independent and academically-sound opinions.
• To provide a broad understanding of core concepts and current debates in contemporary geography.
• To provide an intellectual foundation for more specialised second- and third-year papers.

Assessment

Internal assessment/examination ratio 60:40. 

Required Text

There is no text book used in this paper. Johnston's Dictionary of Human Geography is highly recommended. 

Timetable and Organisation:

Refer to the Online Timetable.