GEO1315A research methods for geographers (BA)

Page 1

26/9/18 first lecture

- introductory lecture setting out the module

- lecture slides on ELE

Page 2

GEO1315A Lecture 2 Bristol field trip: 3/10/18

Pre-departure Lectures:

Week 2: Fieldwork in Geography (Sam Kinsley)

Week 3: Seeing Like a Geographer (Ian Cook)

Week 4: Connecting Fieldwork and Knowledge (Jonathan Cinnamon)

Week 5: Ethics and Encounter (Sarah Dyer)

4 key exercises on the trip:

- Observing the City

- Sonic Geographies

- Urban Objects

- Data Walk

- each require a reading to completed which os on ELE

Assessment:

- 2000 word group project: produce a Textbook Chapter on ‘Seeing Like a Geographer’ – 45% of module mark

- Deadline:ON ELE

- Series of post-fieldtrip workshops to support the assessment

Introducing 'the field':

why do fieldwork:

- to ask and answer questions

- seen as a ritual to the discipline in becoming a true geographer

what is fieldwork:

- involves different levels of student engagement in an environment outside the classroom

- from staff devised activities to student led fieldwork

where is the field:

- it is a place we position ourselves mentally as well as physically

- different methods we use can shape what we see as 'the field'

critical issues in fieldwork:

- need to consider the histories of geographical fieldwork, RGS as a white male dominated organisation with connotations of British imperialism

- who is marginalised by cultures and practices of fieldwork

- you can never be completely neutral doing fieldwork

curiosity:

- to be curious it is about how we approach places we visit

- must ask questions

Page 3

GEO1315A lecture 2 reading notes

Molotch, H. (2011) Objects in the city, In Bridge, S and Watson, S. eds. The New Blackwell Companion to the City(eds) Blackwell, London: 66–78:

Page 4

GEO1315A Lecture 3 Seeing like a Geographer 10/10/18

imaginative geographies:

- Objects contribute to a senseof place and make material ideas about the world and social relations

stage 1: unmediated vision

- we should be able to see things without bias which is hard to do

stage 2: mediate vision

- what we see is mediated

- what we see is "shaped by rhetorical constructs like photography, industry, advertising, and aesthetics, as well as by institutions like religion tourism and education" (Wilson in Whatmore2013, 156).

stage 3: framing, exclusion and inclusion

- we pay attention to only parts of what we can actually see

- in photography, what is taken is selective and says as much about the photographer as much as what is in the photo

- we see the world through shared forms of meaning based on things such as age, class, gender

stage 4: shared frames of noticing

- we see things individually but through shared frames

- how we are taught to see affects what we do and what we know

- also involves sounds, tastes and smells

stage 5: seeing the 'real thing'

- places can be built to provide us with what we want to see e.g. fake mountains

- reality can be constructed to fit our imaginations

- the copy of something can be more realistic, and so it become hyper-real. But if the copy as no real thing to refer to it is a simulacra, meaning it is self sustaining

imaginative geographies conclusion:

We need to question how we understand the world’s ‘realities’:-

>how are they mediated by our bodies, technologies, & discourses?

>what influence do we have over how we imagine, understand & act in them?

>how can we notice our ‘positionalities’ / ‘situated knowledge’, their influences & effects?

Where to start? -> learn how to see like a Geographer

ways of seeing urban objects

- the arrangement if things can make a place and influence sense of place

Molotch(2011) Objects and the city:-

object affordances:

- certain objects have different capacities tribute to our lives

- the give of a door

- the feel of a lever

object biographies:

- talks about supply chains of objects

- you can trace back an objects life

objects have meaning for different people, from who made it, delivered it and sold it, to who is currently using it

“Thingsmove around and inhabit multiple cultural contexts during their lives. [We] are especially interested in the changes that happen to a thing in this process: both material changes and changes or ‘translations’ in the thing’s meanings” (P. Crang2013 288).

object and place-making:

- objects are involved in place-making

ways of seeing urban objects:

- How things make a difference?

- What is public space and private space and how is they made?

- What are taken-for-granted rules about how we conduct ourselves? What happens if (or when) people break them - either accidentally or on purpose?

- How to we find rest in the city? Or maintain the flow of people, money and goods?

- What kinds of social life are enabled or made more difficult by apparently ordinary urban objects?

- we start to look with questions (touch, smell, taste, listen) and this way of being attentive helps form questions which causes a cycle leading back to looking with more in depth questions and so on