GEOG 372 - Topics in Human Geography

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2025/26a: Geography of Social Movements. Why does collective action emerge in some places but not others? How do social movements mobilize support for their agendas – historically and in the current world? How are geographical concepts, such as space, place, scale, and networks integral to collective action and how are they (re)produced, in part, through political struggle? This seminar explores these central questions through exploring traditional and more contemporary theories used to explain the what, why and how of social movement mobilization. We then unpack the role of space, place, scale and (inter)networks in structuring collective action and focus on the rise of new movements and new technologies that are displacing and transforming collective action. Susan Blickstein.

Topic 2025/26b: Capitalist Imperatives: Space, Nature, and Technology. (Same as INTL 372) Since the financial crisis in 2008, there has been surging intellectual discussion about the fundamentals and contradictions of global capitalism. Using influential writings by scholars such as Harvey, Piketty, Brenner, Zuboff, A. Ong, Dempsey and others, this seminar explores the range of theoretical analysis during the last decade about the roles of space, nature, and technology in the accumulation and crisis of capitalism. These works underpin our understanding of uneven global development, spatial inequality, technology transformation, and environmental destruction. The following topics are discussed: political economies of neoliberalism and its crisis, accumulation by dispossession, commercialization of nature; surveillance capitalism, and alternative economic systems. Yu Zhou.

One 3-hour period.

Course Format: CLS