(1) Geography 207 Group Topics, Winter 1997

(http://faculty.washington.edu/krumme/207/plans.html)

In order to reach some "depth" in this all-too-short quarter, we will approach the class content at four different levels:

1. First, there is this "interdisciplinary field" we call "Economic & Business Geography" which tries to establish links between geographic perspectives and the worlds of economics and business: clearly a giant undertaking. Thus, in class and in our general readings, our main task will be to establish a basic understanding of introductory concepts, "conceptual frameworks" and many fundamental principles and simple, but widely applicable theories.

   Our text books (required paperbacks) for covering this foundation are:

   1. Michael Healey and Brian Ilbery, Location and Change.
   2. Brian Goodall, Dictionary of Human Geography.
   
   

2. The remaining three levels deal with the collaborative and individual components of our class project (see table with examples). All of us will be joining a "Group" with a "Theme" bringing together students with common general interests for purposes of collaboration and the joint creation or delineation of a "subfield" in Economic & Business Geography. To make this a real and relevant undertaking, let's assume, you would like to advocate a new 300-level course. The list of themes further down this page is what I suggest we initially use to form our groups. I could imagine that groups may want to make adjustments to the theme once the interests of all group members have been made known. I have added one or two books and some internet resources to each group theme in order to facilitate your initial group work and the identification of the "text" for your new course.
   Literature:
   • Gray, Barbara. Collaborating: Finding Common Ground for Multiparty Problems. Jossey-Bass, 1989. [HD30.29 G73 1989/ BA Lib]

3. Thirdly, there is the more specific role which you will play within your group. You will be asked to outline a "concentration" for this class under the umbrella of your group's theme. Think of it as covering the content of one or two weeks of your newly proposed class or a chapter of the text book which you might adopt for this class.

4. Finally, there is the Case Study which allows you to reach some more depth and, more importantly, to deal with a topic or issue which REALLY INTERESTS YOU.

5. Now that it is all done, we want to make the best of it and present the whole collective effort to our fellow groups in the class and see which group (on the basis of peer evaluation) will get the first prize. Have a look at the options for project presentations.

It is suggested that you consider buying at least one of the following books (most are paperbacks) which could serve as a "text" for your concentration. However, since some of the books are quite expensive you may want to share the book with one or more other members of your group or make use of the library copy on OUGL-Reserve.