Objectives and competences

The objective is to study the relationship between culture and place. In broad terms, cultural geography examines the cultural values, practices, discursive and material expressions and artefacts of people, the cultural diversity and plurality of society, and how cultures are distributed over space, how places and identities are produced, how people make sense of places and build senses of place, and how people produce and communicate knowledge and meaning. Cultural geography has long been a core discipline of geography, though how it has been conceived, its conceptual tools, and the approach to empirical research has changed quite markedly over time. Students will examine the broad range of ways in which culture evolves and makes a difference to everyday life and places. On the one hand, they will explore the cultural politics of different social groups with respect to issues such as disability, ethnicity, gender, race, sexuality, and how the processes and practices of othering, colonialism, imperialism, nationalism, and religion shape the lives of people in different locales and contexts fostering senses of belonging and exclusion. On the other hand, they will look at how culture is reflected and mediated through representations such as art, photography, music, film, and mass media, and material cultures such as fashion, food, heritage, and memorials/monuments, as well as the practices of creating knowledge and communicating through language. Finally, students will analyse how culture intersects with other forms of geographical inquiry such as the economic and political, arguing that these domains are deeply inflected and shaped by cultural processes.

Prerequisites

None required.

Content (Syllabus outline)

1. Introducing cultural geography

• Theory of cultural geography
• Methodology of cultural geography

2. Evolution of cultural geography

• The history of cultural geography
• The evolution of cultural geography in the 21st century

3. Place and power

• Knowing (your) place
• Senses of place
• Imagination of landscapes
• Taking and making place

4. Culture and place

• Place and capitalism: global, corporate, and anti-capitalisms
• Cultural landscapes, cultural spaces, cultural quarters and innovative milieux
• Place and mobility
• Place and nature

5. Culture and identity

• The place of race and ethnicity
• Place and youth
• Place and language
• Place and customs

6. Doing cultural geography

• Doing cultural geography in practice
• A cultural geography approach to place

Readings

• Kozina, J., Clifton, N. (2019). City-region or Urban-rural Framework: What Matters More in Understanding the Residential Location of the Creative Class? Acta Geographica Slovenica, 59(1), 127-143.
• Kozina, J., Bole, D. (2018). The Impact of Territorial Policies on the Distribution of the Creative Economy: Tracking Spatial Patterns of Innovation in Slovenia. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin, 67(3), 259-273.
• Kozina, J., Bole, D. (2018). Kje prebivajo in delujejo kulturni ustvarjalci? Širjenje in razpršitev kulturnih prostorov v Sloveniji [Where Do Cultural Workers Live and Act? The Spreading and Dispersal of Cultural Spaces in Slovenia]. Družboslovne razprave, 34(87), 35-59.
• Chapain, C., Stryjakiewicz, T. (eds.) (2017). Creative Industries in Europe: Drivers of New Sectoral and Spatial Dynamics. Cham: Springer International Publishing AG.
• Murzyn-Kupisz, M., Działek, J. (eds.) (2017). The Impact of Artists on Contemporary Urban Development in Europe. Cham: Springer International Publishing AG.
• Anderson, J. (2015). Understanding Cultural Geography: Places and Traces. Abingdon: Routledge.
• Dragićević, V., Bole, D., Bučić, A., Prodanović, A. (2015). European Capital of Culture: Residents’ Perception of Social Benefits and Costs – Maribor 2012 Case Study. Acta Geographica Slovenica, 55(2), 283-302.
• Urbanc, M., Gašperič, P., Kozina, J. (2015). Geographical Imagination of Landscapes: Analysis of the Book of Photographs Slovenian Landscapes. Acta Geographica Slovenica, 55(1), 99-125.
• Lorentzen, A., van Heur, B. (eds.) (2013). Cultural Political Economy of Small Cities. Abingdon: Routledge.
• Šmid Hribar, M., Ledinek Lozej, Špela. (2013). The Role of Identifying and Managing Cultural Values in Rural Development. Acta Geographica Slovenica, 53(2), 371-378.
• Phillips, R., Johns, J. (2012). Fieldwork for Human Geography. London: SAGE.
• Bufon, M. )2012). Združeni v različnosti: oris evropskega družbenega prostora [United in Diversity: Outline of the European social space]. Koper: Univerzitetna založba Annales.
• Urbanc, M. (2011). Pokrajinske predstave o slovenski Istri [Landscape Representations of Slovenian Istria]. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC.
• Bole D. (2008). Cultural Industry as a Result of New City Tertiarization. Acta Geographica Slovenica, 48(2), 255-276.
• Urbanc, M. (2002). Kulturne pokrajine v Sloveniji [Cultural Landscapes in Slovenia]. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC.
• Bufon, M. (1999). Problematika teritorialnosti v politični in kulturni geografiji [Problems of Territoriality in Political and Cultural Geography]. Geografski vestnik, 71, 91-103.
• Norton, W. (1989). Explorations in the Understanding of Landscape: A Cultural Geography. London: Greenwood Press.

Intended learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding:

• basic knowledge on theories, concepts, models and methods in the field of cultural geography
• the ability to link culture with spatial development and planning
• mastery of tools for analytical analysis of culture through various representations such as art, photography, music, film and the mass media

Learning and teaching methods

• Independent students work
• Conversation/discussion/debate
• Work with texts
• Case studies
• Field work (e.g. company visits)
• Inviting guests from companies

Assessment

• Long written assignments (60 % of the final grade)
• Presentations (10 % of the final grade)
• Final examination (written/oral) (30 % of the final grade)