bsTeaching Homepage
Geography of Global Change
GEO 3001, U01. Spring 2012
Class Location: ECS 135 Time:
12:00-12:50 p.m. M,W,F
Instructor: Benjamin Smith
Email: bsmith@fiu.edu
Office:
SIPA 305 Office Phone: 348-2074
Office Hours:
M,W 1:00-1:50, or by appointment
Teaching Homepage
Which You Must Check Frequently: http://www.fiu.edu/~bsmith/teaching.htm
Where You Must Log
In To Take The Essay Portion of Exam 1 & 2: http://online.fiu.edu/login_uts.html
Mega-Cities,
Melting Artic Ice, and Transnational Consumer Cultures. Oh my!
We live in extraordinary times. In the last few years the planet has become
more urban than rural, has begun to face a multitude of problems associated
with climate change, and has seen more of the world’s information potentially
available to more people than ever before through the Internet. Not to mention the profoundly interconnected
planetary economy. In the 1990’s, a term
called globalization emerged to describe this seeming leveling of the world –
so much so that a well-traveled person like New
York Times columnist Thomas Friedman actually wrote a book called The World is Flat. Some have even declared geography not to
matter anymore – that every issue is only global now.
However all these recent changes
lumped under globalization have histories – or to be precise historical
geographies. Furthermore, in the words
of Richard Florida, “the world is spiky”– meaning that
global issues have an uneven geography, with areas of intensity and
absence. Causes and effects are often
not found in the same location, nor is every location equally impacted. The history and present of this uneven
geography is the focus of this course.
You will have to read and understand
geography stuff
The point of this course is to learn
not just “facts” about global change – though you certainly will be presented
with a lot of those (which you will hopefully find interesting). More importantly, the point is to acquire a
“geographic” perspective on how to contextualize, analyze, think about and act
upon those facts. This will require
reading work written by geographers so you to can begin to think like a
geographer. It is also an upper
division Global Learning Course, which requires critical thinking and
engagement.
So if you don’t want to read, perhaps
you should consider a course in interpretive dance.
1.
Gain an understanding of contemporary global changes,. Most of the foundations of
today’s seemingly new “global” phenomena date back at least to the period of
colonialism, sometimes earlier. Furthermore,
many “global” problems are exceedingly complex and display great spatial
variability, thus meaning there are no easy solutions. Understanding and accepting this complexity
will be part of this course. (Global Awareness)
2.
Critically assess multiple perspectives concerning
global issues. Given the complexity of many global issues, there
are often multiple perspectives on what drives these processes and how best to
address them. Part of the goal of this
course is to understand and learn to critically assess these multiple
perspectives, what their particular historical geographies are, and how these
perspectives shed light on ways students can get involved in changing their
world. (Global Perspective and Global Engagement)
3.
Gain the ability to analyze global issues from a
geographic perspective.
Though geographers analyze many of the same issues people from other
disciplines do, there is a difference in how geographers approach things. Terms like space, scale, systemic analysis
and materiality are extremely important to geographers – this course will help
you understand why. Similarly, it will
focus on the research and publication processes through which geographic
knowledge is produced and disseminated.
A World of
Difference: Encountering and Contesting Development (2nd Edition).
By Porter, et. Al. The Guilford Press. ISBN: 1606232620
Geographies of
Global Change: Remapping the World (2nd Edition). Edited by Johnston, Taylor
and Watts. Blackwell. ISBN: 0631222863
Monday, January 16 – No Class
Meeting, MLK Day
Monday, February 6
– Exam One
Wednesday,
February 22 – Research Proposal Due
Monday, February
27 – No Class Meeting, at AAG Meeting
Monday, March 19 – Exam Two
Friday, April 13 – Research
Assignment Due
Friday, April 27 – Final Exam,
9:45-11:45
Grading
There will be 500
total points available in this class, broken down as follows:
90 points: Global Change Research Assignment
& Proposal
50 points: Attendance and Participation
120 points: Exam 1
120 points: Exam 2
120 points: Final Exam
500 points
Total
The grading scale is A = 100-93%, A-
= 92.9-90%, B+ = 89.9-87%, B = 86.9-83%, B- =82.9%-80%, C+ = 79.9-77%, C =
76.9-73%, C- = 72.9-70%, D+ = 69.9-67%,
D = 66.9-63%, D- = 62-60% F = 59-0%, which translates to, in points: