Political Geography

Political Geography

Données clés

Professeur(s)	Balsiger, Jörg
Cours	Political Geography

Lectures

• Introduction and origins of the (sub)discipline of political geography
• The origins and evolution of States
• Critical geopolitics
• Democracy, citizenship and elections
• Urban policy
• A political geography of the city: urban agriculture and public space
• Identity politics and social movements
• Nationalism and regionalism
• Imperialism and postcolonialism
• Regional environmental governance

The objective of the course is to acquire and master the concepts of political geography, with a view to their application to other fields of geography and social analysis. The content and themes are as follows: political geography in the concert of the human sciences, the major stages in the history of the discipline, the formation of the state and the spatial impact of its characteristics, the impact of urbanization on the public sphere, the inclusion of power in space through nationalism, regionalism, imperialism and postcolonialism, the identity politics of social movements, and transnational environmental governance. The presentations are illustrated by historical and/or recent current cases.

The course provides elements for reflection and analysis that allow us to understand the world in which we live, with its increasing complexity and contradictions, based on central concepts of human geography, linked to the unifying concept of power.

After a general introduction that situates political geography within the human sciences and a brief retrospective on the links between space and power throughout history, the course addresses elements of classical political geography and its evolution, evoking the formation of the modern state and its transformation since the Second World War the spatial implications of democracy, citizenship, and elections and the public sphere in the context of urbanization.

The third part of the course deals with the diversity of notions of power and defines its components and scope through the study of relationships, actors, codes, issues and strategies. The inscription of different forms of power in space is then examined in the cases of the identity politics of social movements; nationalism, regionalism, imperialism, and postcolonialism; and regional/transnational environmental governance.

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Languages

Français

Lectures

• Introduction and origins of the (sub)discipline of political geography

• The origins and evolution of States

• Critical geopolitics

• Democracy, citizenship and elections

• Urban policy

• A political geography of the city: urban agriculture and public space

• Identity politics and social movements

• Nationalism and regionalism

• Imperialism and postcolonialism

• Regional environmental governance

Annexes

• Persée : Portail de revues en sciences humaines et sociales. (2015). Le Globe. Revue Genevoise De Géographie. Retrieved from http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/revue/globe