Political Geography of Central Europe - JMMZ128
Title: Political Geography of Central Europe
Guaranteed by: Department of German and Austrian Studies (23-KNRS)
Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences
Actual: from 2018
Semester: winter
E-Credits: 9
Examination process: winter s.:
Hours per week, examination: winter s.:4/0, Ex [HT]
Capacity: unknown / unknown (10)
Min. number of students: unlimited
4EU+: no
Virtual mobility / capacity: no
State of the course: not taught
Language: Czech
Teaching methods: full-time
Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan
enabled for web enrollment
Guarantor: PhDr. Petra Baštová, Ph.D.
Examination dates   Schedule   Noticeboard   
Annotation -
The course Political Geography of Central Europe is presenting basic theoretical approaches to the relationships between the territorial and political, socioeconomic and historical development and is trying to apply these concepts on the region of Central Europe, on some of its specific locations and to highlight the area aspects of political and social disputes.

The main focus is being laid on relationships between core and periphery locations at different spatial scales (local, regional, national, macroregional, global).
Last update: Baštová Petra, PhDr., Ph.D. (27.09.2016)
Course completion requirements -

a) Students attend two tutorials.

b) Students read the literature and study the maps provided in the reader for this course.

c) Students submitt an analysis and interpretation of one of the mandatory or optional texts in the reader (min. 5 pages = min. 9000 characters in total, including spaces).

d) Students submitt an analysis of a changing location in Central Europe (min. 7 pages = min. 12 600 characters, including spaces).

e) At the end, students take a written exam which includes blank maps, questions related to the mandatory literature and questions examining the generall overview of geography of Central Europe.

Last update: Baštová Petra, PhDr., Ph.D. (25.08.2017)
Literature -

Mandatory literature (introduction/revision):

Mark Blacksell: Political Geography, London – New York: Routledge, 2006, chapter No. 1: Placing political geography, pp. 1-10 and chapter No. 8: Imagining natural divisions of global power, pp. 135-149.

Marcin Wijciech Solarz, The end of geography and the power of maps, in: Geography, Vol. 100, No. 3 (2015), pp. 169-173.

any reliable and actual geographical handbook providing basic information about Germany, Austria and V4 countries (e.g. CIA World Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ez.html or Der neue Fischer Weltalmanach - both printed and on-line: http://www.weltalmanach.de)

maps and blank maps (e.g. http://www.d-maps.com/continent.php?num_con=5&lang=en)



Mandatory literature suitable for the required analysis (and crucial for the final test):

Neil Brenner, Beyond State-Centrism? Space, Territoriality, and Geographical Scale in Globalization Studies, in: Theory and Society, Vol. 28, No. 1, 1999, pp. 39-78.

Philip McCann, Globalization and economic geography: the world is curved, not flat, in: Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, No. 1, 2008, pp. 351-370.

Robert D. Kaplan, The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us about Coming Conflicts and the Battle against Fate. New York: Random House, 2012, chapter No. IX: The Geography of European Divisions, pp. 133-153.

Andrew T. Wolff, Geography as a Diagnostic Toll in International Relations: A Geographic Analysis of the European Union´s Eastward Enlargement. Paper poste dat the International Studies Association Annual Conference San Francisco, 2008.

- one of the following articles:
: Luděk Sýkora: New socio-spatial formations: Places of residential segregation and separation in Czechia, in: Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Vol. 100, No. 4 (2009), pp. 417-435.
: Zoltán Kovács, Social and economic transformation of historical neighbourhoods in Budapest, in: Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Vol. 100, No. 4 (2009), pp. 399-416.
: Iwona Sagan – Maja Grabkowska, Urban Regeneration in Gdańsk, Poland: Local Regimes and Tensions Between Top-Down Strategies and Endogenous Renewal, in: European Planning Studies, Vol. 20, No. 7 (2012), pp. 1135-1154.


Optional literature suitable for the required analysis:

David Harvey, The Sociological and Geographical Imaginations, in: International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, Vol. 18, No. 3-4, 2005, pp. 211-255.

Manfred Kühn – Heike Liebmann, Urban Regeneration: Strategies of Shrinking Cities in Eastern Germany, in: Die Erde, Vol. 143, No. 1-2, 2012, pp. 135-152.

Robert Steiger – Johann Stötter, Climate change impact assessment of ski tourism in Tyrol, in: Tourism Geographies, Vol. 15, No. 4, 2013, pp. 577-600.

Gearoid O Tuathail – Timothy W. Luke, Present at the (Dis)Integration: Deterritorialization and Reterritorialization in the New Wor(l)d Order, in: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 84, No. 3, 1994, pp. 381-398.

Thomas P. M. Barnett, The Pentagon?s New Map, in: Esquire, 2003.

 

Further optional literature (more introductory, handbooks, not suitable for the required analysis):

Michael Bradshaw, World Regional Geography, McGraw-Hill, 2009, chapters No. 1-4.
Slavomír Horák, Geografie cestovního ruchu Evropy. Pardubice: Radek Drahný, 2006, pp. 11-51.
Robert D. Kaplan, The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us about Coming Conflicts and the Battle against Fate. New York: Random House, 2012, chapter No. V: The Nazi Distortion, pp. 79-88.
Carolyn Gallaher et al.: Key Concepts in Political Geography, London et al.: Sage, 2009, especially chapters No. 1: Nation-State, pp. 19-27; No. 2: Sovereignty, pp. 28-40, No. 6: Territory, pp. 77-86; No. 14: Globalization, pp.164-173; No. 15: Migration, pp. 174-184.
Colin Flint – Peter J. Taylor, Political Geography: World-economy, nation-state and locality. 5. edition. Harlow: Pearson, 2007.
Joe Painter – Alex Jeffrey, Political Geography: An Introduction to Space and Power. London: Sage, 2009. (especially chapter Gentrification: Urban Renaissance or Urban Revanchism?, pp. 114-119)
Noel Parker (ed.), The Geopolitics of Europe’s Identity: Centres, Boundaries, and Margins. New York: Palgrave, 2008, pp. 3-23 and 177-193.


Additional literature:

- Der neue Fischer Weltalmanach 2016: Zahlen, Daten, Fakten. Frankfurt a. M.: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag 2015.
- Deutschlandatlas: Unser Land in 200 thematischen Landkarten. 2010.
- Školní atlas světa, Kartografie Praha, 2012.
- Školní atlas dnešního světa. Terra Spol. 2011.
- Rüdiger Glaser – Hans Gebhardt – Winfried Schenk (eds.), Geographie Deutschlands. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2007.
- Dirk Hänsgen - Sebastian Lentz - Sabine Tzschaschel (eds.): Deutschlandatlas: Unser Land in 200 thematischen Landkarten. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgeselschaft, 2010.
- Elisabeth Lichtenberg, Österreich: Geographie, Geschichte, Wirtschaft, Politik. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2013.
- Hans Ulrich Rudolf – Vadim Oswalt (eds.), TaschenAtlas Deutsche Geschichte. Rotha: Klett-Perthes, 2006.
- Jehlička, P. – Tomeš, J. – Daněk, P. (eds.), Stát, prostor, politika: vybrané otázky politické geografie. Praha: Karolinum, 2000.
- Liščák, V., Státy a území světa. Praha: Libri, 2009.
- Waisová, Š., et al., Atlas mezinárodních vztahů: prostor a politika po skončení studené války. Plzeň: Aleš Čeněk, 2007.

Online map games:
http://www.geography-map-games.com/#
http://www.geographie-spiele.com
http://online.seterra.net/cs
and similar

Last update: Baštová Petra, PhDr., Ph.D. (12.09.2017)
Syllabus -

The course Political Geography of Central Europe is presenting basic theoretical approaches to the relationships between the territorial and political, socioeconomic and historical development and is trying to apply these concepts on the region of Central Europe, on some of its specific locations and to highlight the area aspects of political and social disputes.
The main focus is being laid on relationships between core and periphery locations at different spatial scales (local, regional, national, macroregional, global).

 

Introductory information for the Winter semester 2017/2018:

Dear students,

welcome in the course Political Geography of Central Europe. I hope you will like the topics, reading and tasks I picked up for you.

The tutorial is going to take place ... (to be specified).
Your attendance at the tutorial is mandatory.

Detailed instructions and both manadatory and optional study materials for this course will be uploaded on Moodle. (https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/index.php?categoryid=44&lang=en → Subcategories: Institut mezinárodních studií → Subcategories: Political Geography of Central Europe). The login is the same as for the SIS (student identification number and password).

 

Seminar papers (50 % of the grade):


1. The analysis and interpretation of one of the mandatory or optional texts in the reader (the texts suitable for this analysis are clearly marked), min. 5 pages (min. 9000 characters in total, including spaces - 1,800 characters on a page – that means approx. 60 characters on a row and 30 rows on a page, usually we use Times New Roman 12 and row space 1.5) (= 25 % of the grade)

Choose any of the mandatory or optional texts suitable for analysis and analyze it into details. The first page should contain an introduction of the main ideas of the analysed text. The second page should assess the main ideas in a broader context of your knowledges about the issue. The third page should focus on the conclusions of the analysed text and thier impact on our understanding of the issue. The forth page should be critical and deal with imperfections and deficiencies of the analysed text and your recommendations how it might be possible to enhance it. The fifth page should include your personal attitude to the main ideas of the text, supported by giving reasons and/or some evidence.

Especially when assessing the text in a broader context, do not forget to make references to other authors dealing with the same issue (and use citations properly).

The paper should be submitted to my e-mail address until November XXth, 2017.


2. The analysis of a changing location in Central Europe, min. 7 pages (min. 12 600 characters including spaces) (= 25 % ofthe grade)

Choose a apecific location in Central Europe (a town, a city district, a clearly defined small region, river, island, mountain area, an oil or gas pipeline, a mining area or a place of the following revitalization, a deindustrialised landcape, a border area, etc.), which is recently going through a significant change of the landscape (and often also of its demographic and socioeconomic features). Analyze this change.

In the introduction, please explain why have you chosen this specific location and what its current change is based on. Insert maps and satellite pictures and comment on the geographic location and specification of the place/space. Comment also on the (strategic, political, economic, ecological etc.) importance or problematic nature of this location. Focus on the political aspects of the development of this location (different players and their interests, strategies and goals), then on the socioeconomic aspects (different players and their interests, difficulties, strategies and goals) and last, but not least on the environmental aspects (opportunities and risks/threats, various players and their interests, strategies and goals). In the conclusion, please try to predict how the situation in this location will look like in 5 and then in 20 years. Support your prediction by reasons and evidence. Do not forget to make references to the literature and sources you use.

The paper should be submitted to my e-mail address until December XXth, 2017.


General instructions for these seminar papers:

- After the first assessment, the seminar paper might be improved and resubmitted, if necessary. The second version is assessed as the final version.

- In individual cases it is possible to postpone the deadline. Student has to ask for the postponement at least one day before the original submission deadline.
- If the submission deadline is postponed, the submitted paper is directly assessed as a final version.

- Please, be aware that you must provide references for all the information which is not commonly known in your research field. Every reference in your main text must appear in the bibliography at the end of your paper, and every item in the bibliography must be mentioned in your main text. You can copy only small parts of a text written by other authors. Be sure to put it into quotation marks and cite it. (recommended citation style is Chicago style: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html)


Final test (= 50 % of your grade)

The final test is based on mandatory texts from the reader, information provided in the tutorial and a list of expected knowledges (places, terms, facts - the list will be at your disposal in Moodle on the beginning of December at latest). The test is going to comprise also blank maps of Central Europe.

 

If anything is not clear, do not hesitate to ask me.

See you soon,

Petra Baštová

 

Last update: Baštová Petra, PhDr., Ph.D. (25.08.2017)