GEOGRAPHY 368 — DEVELOPMENT OF WESTERN GEOGRAPHIC THOUGHT Fall 2009 Time: W 9:00-11:50 Room: Libby Lounge: G 104 Instructor: Deb Martin, [email protected] Office: 205B JAC; tel. 7104 Office Hours: My formal office hours are M noon -12:30, and W 12:30 to 1:30. However, my door is open to graduate students any time I am in my room, although I can’t promise I can stop what I am doing, but if I can’t, we can arrange a time that I can. I am usually at Clark four or five days of the work week, from late morning until 4:30 or so (I leave earlier on Fridays). You are welcome to email me with questions as well, or with a request for a formal meeting appointment. INSTRUCTOR’S NOTE This course was designed and taught by Billie Lee Turner, II. I have opted to teach the course as he taught it, following his syllabus and readings. His is not the geography that I learned in undergraduate or graduate school, and the contradictions and counter-stories of the Minnesota (versus Clark GSG) traditions will likely loom large in my own interpretations and assessments of the course material. We will be learning and debating together; my version of a development of geography course would be quite different, but it would not be the traditional GSG version. Hence, I start with this syllabus. PURPOSE & THEMES Geography 368 examines the history of the identity, subject matter, and perspectives pervasive in the discipline beginning with its modern development in 19th century Germany to its 21st century expressions in the United States. The overarching theme concerns the search of a “synthesis” science and “bridging” discipline for an identity consistent with rules of the partitioning of knowledge and the intellectual and programmatic impacts of this search. The major sub-themes follow. [1] Geography is not an “exceptional” discipline because of its synthesis character but is so because, from its modern founding, it has struggled to find an identity consistent with the logic of the structure of the academy. Geography’s spatial-chorological and nature-society visions have never been adequately combined in an identity accepted beyond the bounds of the discipline. [2] Geography’s bridge between the science and humanities creates numerous, even unique, problems in regard to the structure of the discipline and its place within the division of knowledge, and historically fostered tensions in the practice of geography. [3] The inability to resolve these issues adequately has special meaning in the current restructuring of the academy. The course also briefly examines the underpinnings and logic of thought that guided physical and human geography in the first three quarters of the past century. It thus seeks to provide a historical grounding for the second "first-year” seminar Geography 318: Explanation in Geography. Inasmuch as that course focuses on "post-positivist hegemony”, Geography 368 delves into philosophy per se only in the examination of positivism or more correctly logical positivism. EXPECTATIONS AND OBLIGATIONS Geography 368 assumes that the participants are serious scholars and expects that they take strong initiative in seeking the readings in the Goddard, JK Wright, and Marsh libraries, and digest and prepare the materials in a manner conducive to public presentation and discussion in the Geography 368-Fall 09 1 seminar. The seminar is divided into "research groups” with "lead” assignments for specific topics. An assigned group/team is responsible for a detailed response to, and expansion of the readings and instructor presentation. This response should be developed from the readings and from the team’s discussions-preparations of them. While the assigned team is responsible for “first response”, all participants are expected to participate. Remember: a central lesson of graduate education is respectful criticism. Readings are assigned in the Schedule below. Additional readings will be added as needed. The class is responsible for finding all readings assigned and making them available to one another. (There is a master file in the Mezzanine that previous years’ of graduate students have assembled.) Papers are assigned word limits that are strictly enforced. Word limits to not apply to citations and bibliography which should demonstrate depth of literature consulted. Use Annals AAG format for citations and bibliography. COURSE SCHEDULE & READINGS [Bracketed readings are not required but highly recommended.] September 2 Review of Course, Assignments, and Teams & History of GSG. Discuss faculty interview assignment IN SEARCH OF IDENTITY: GEOGRAPHY & THE RESTRUCTURING OF ACADEMY, 19TH CENTURY 9 European Antecedents [Team 1] Readings: Capel 1981; Dickinson 1969: C 1-6 & 9; Freeman 1961: C 4; Hartshorne 1939: C 2; Leighly 1928; Livingstone 1992: C 3-4; Mackinder 1887; Stoddart 1982; Taylor 1951: C2-4, 25; Turner 2002 [Darby 1953; Hanson 1997, Preface + C1; May 1970: C 3-4; Tatham 1951a; Unwin 1992: C4] AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY 16 Geology to Social Science: Harvard and Environmental Determinism [Team 2] Readings: Bassin 1992; Campbell & Livingstone 1983; Davis 1894; Frenkel 1994; Huntington 1915 Intro Judson 1960; Koelsch 1980; Peet 1985; Semple 1901: C1-2; Stoddart 1966; Taylor 1921 [Davis 1906 {also in Johnson 1954}; CPS 1991:1-8; ; Herbst 1961; Tatham 1951b; Taylor 1951: C6, 9, 19] 23 TBA: possible time for interview assignment Paper #1: In Defense of Environmental Determinism. Word Limit 250. Due: Sept. 30 30 Ag. Schools and Land Surveys: Midwest Chorology to Place [Team 3] Readings: Fenneman 1919; Hartshorne 1939: C3, 9, 11; 1955; James & Jones 1954: C2; Livingstone 1992: C 6; Penck 1927; Platt 1957; Schaeffer 1953; Smith 1987; Thornthwaite 1948; Ullman 1953; Whittlesey 1954 [Dickinson 1976; Gilbert 1960; ; Herbertson 1905; Geography 368-Fall 09 2 Parkins 1934; Taylor 1951: C 15-16; Unwin 1992:C1] Paper #2: Chorology as a “Systematic” Science. Word Limit 250. Due Oct. 14 October 7 Faculty interview report by teams 14 The Naturalists to Humanists: Historical Landscape to Cultural Ecology [Team 4] Readings: Butzer 1992; Cosgrove 1985; Duncan 1980; Entrikin 1984; Jackson 1984; Rowntree 1996; Sauer 1925; 1941; Stoddart 1987; Tuan 1976; Turner 1989; Williams 1983. [Hills 1969; Leighly 1987 [+rejoinders]; Porter 1978; Spate 1957; Stoddart 1965; Tuan 1974] 21 The "Useful” Social Science: Risk, Hazards, Resources, and Application [Team 1] Readings: Barrows 1923; Cutter 1996; Emel & Peet 1989; Jackson 1967; Kates 1987; Mitchell 1992; Ratick and White 1988; Thornthwaite 1961; Watts 1983; Wescoat 1987; White 1972 [Brookfield 1964; Burton, Kates and White 1983; Kasperson 1983; Stoddart 1965; Torry 1979] Paper #3: A Non-Unified Human-Environment Tradition: Why? Word Limit 250. Due: Oct. 28 28 Positivism and Post-Positivism [Team 2] Golledge and Amadeo 1968; Guba 1990: C1-5; Hay 1979; Hemple 1966; Kuhn 1970; Suppe 1977: 6-119; Unwin 1992: C2 SELECTIVE ECLECTICISM OR ANARCHISM November 4 The Spatial Theory Template: Dominance of Positivism [Team 3] Readings: Ackerman 1963; Barry 1979; Berry and Garrison 1958; Bird 1989: C 1 + 6; Couclesis and Golledge 1983; Cox 1976Gould 1979; Hudson 1969; Sack 1972; Taaffe 1974; Willmott 1981 [Berry 1973; Curry 1967; Hagerstrand 1968; King 1969; Sack 1974; Szymanski and Agnew 1981; Schaefer 1953] 11 The Radical and Alternative Templates: Marx to Mind [Team 4] Readings: CPS 1991: C2; Berry 1972; Blaut 1979; Duncan & Ley 1982; Harvey 1970; 1982 [intro.]; Jackson 1981; Peet 1975; Relph 1977; Roberts & Emel 1992; Smith 1979; [Bird 1989: C4-5; Gregory 1978; Hewitt 1983; ; Johnston 1981; Smith & O’Keefe 1980; Tuan 1972] Paper #4: Positivist and Marxist: Their Shared Positions. Word Limit 250. Due: Nov. 18 18 The "New” Human-Environment Geographies: the Ecologies & Human Dimensions of GEC [Team 1] Readings: Agnew & Spencer 1999; Braun 1997; Clifford 2001; Cutter, Mitchell & Scott 2000; Demeritt 2001; Grebmeier et al. 2006; Kasperson & Kasperson 1993; Kulakowski 2007; Geography 368-Fall 09 3 Peet & Watts 1996; Polsky 2004; Turner et al. 2003; Turner & Robbins 2008; Zimmer 2007 [Black 1990; Blaikie & Brookfield 1987: C1; Bryant & Bailey 1997; Cronon 1994; Hall et al. 1995; Demeritt 1996; Graff 1984; Liverman, Yarnell & Turner 2003; Sayer 1979; Turner 1997b; Rocheleau et al. 1996; Yarnell et al. 1989; Zimmerer 1994] 25 No class –Thanksgiving December 2 The "New” Geographies: New Cultural & Urban and Economic Geography [Team 2] Readings: Aoyama 2007; Barns 2001; Berry 2000; Economist 1999; Gauthier and Taaffe 2002; Gregory 1989; Hanson 2005; Harley 1992; Harvey & Scott 1989; Massey 1999; Martin 2003; Murphy 2006; Sheppard 1995; Storper 2001 [CPS 1991: C5-6; Dear 1988; Guba 1990: C18; Hanson 1992; Meinig 1983; Price and Lewis 1993a; 1993b [+commentary]; Rock and Angel nd; Robbins 2003; Sayer 1993] 9 GEOGRAPHY REVEALED: Does the King/Queen have clothes? [Team 3 and Team 4] Readings: Berry 2000; Bierly and Gatrell 2004; Brookfield 2004; Cutter, Golledge and Graf 2002; Clifford 2002; FOCUS 2004; Forum 2004; Hanson 1999; Harman 2003; Levia and Underwood 2004; Massey 1999; NRC 1997b; Symanski and Pickard 1996; Thrift 2002; [responses by Clifford, Johnston, Turner] Turner 1997a; Walford & Haggett 1995 [AAG 1999; Abler 1987; 1993; Bauer, Veblen, and Winkler 1999; Golledge 2002; Harvey & Holley 1981; ; Lukerman 1964; Peet 1998: C 1; Sack 1997; Unwin 1992:C8; Walford and Haggett 1995] Paper #5: Defining the "Geographic” that has currency in the Sciences and Humanities. Word Limit 1000. Due: Dec. 16 Geography 368-Fall 09 4 READINGS Additional readings will be provided in class as needed. AAG. 1997. GIS. Tool or science. Annals AAG 87(2): 346-373. AAG. 1999. Forum. Annals AAG 89: 144-159. Abler, R. F. 1987. What shall we say? To whom shall we speak? Annals AAG 77: 511-524. Abler, R. F. 1993. Desiderata for geography: an institutional view from the United States. In The Challenge for Geography: A Changing World, A Changing Discipline, R. J. Johnston, ed. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell) Abler, R.