Z0120 Geographical thought

Faculty of Science
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
RNDr. Petr Daněk, Ph.D. (lecturer)
RNDr. Mgr. Pavel Doboš, Ph.D. (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
RNDr. Petr Daněk, Ph.D.
Department of Geography – Earth Sciences Section – Faculty of Science
Contact Person: RNDr. Petr Daněk, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Geography – Earth Sciences Section – Faculty of Science
Prerequisites (in Czech)
SEMESTR(2) || KREDITY_MIN(60)
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The main objectives of the course are the following:
- introducing the main approaches to geography, their onthology as well as epistemology;
- identifying historical relationships among individual schools or approaches;
- introducing philosophical underpinnings of individual approaches;
- introducing students to the discussion of the nature of key concepts of geography (such as space, place, time, scale, environment);
- make students familiar with the key intellectuals shaping the geographical thought;
At the end of the course the students should be able to distinguish between different approaches to geography (past and present).
Learning outcomes
After passing out the course, students wil be able:
- to orientate themselves in theoretical approaches to geography;
- to distinguish and discuss key intelectual crises in the development of modern geographical thought;
- to shape their particular opinion on diferences and common relations of physical and human geography, and to discuss such opinion;
- to understand tensions between idiographic and nomothetic conceptions of geography;
- to introduce a key figure of modern geography and critically discuss her/his ideas.
Syllabus
  • 1. Geographical schools, approaches, paradigms. Social construction of reality.
  • 2. Beginnings of modern geography. Environmental and regional approach.
  • 3. Post-war discussion and quantitative revolution.
  • 4. Criticism of spatial science and post-pozitivist approaches.
  • 5. Radical/Marxist geography.
  • 6. Humanistic geography.
  • 7. Feminist criticism.
  • 8. Theory of structuration and time-geography.
  • 9. Realisms in geography.
  • 10. Cultural turn and postmodernism.
  • 11. Post-strukturalism, post-colonialism.
  • 12. Key concepts in geography: space, place, scale.
  • 13. Key concepts in geography: environment, landscape.
Literature
  • DANĚK, Petr. Geografické myšlení: úvod do teoretických přístupů. (Geographic Thought: Introduction to Theoretical Approaches.). první. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2013, 172 pp. ISBN 978-80-210-6694-6. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.5817/CZ.MUNI.M210-6694-2013. info
  • CRESSWELL, Tim. Geographic thought : a critical introduction. First published. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, 290 stran. ISBN 9781405169394. info
  • Key thinkers on space and place. Edited by Phil Hubbard - Rob Kitchin. Second edition. Los Angeles: Sage, 2011, xv, 510. ISBN 9781849201018. info
  • Geographic thought : a praxis perspective. Edited by George L. Henderson - Marvin Waterstone. 1st pub. London: Routledge, 2009, xvi, 378. ISBN 9780415471701. info
  • KUNC, Josef, Václav TOUŠEK, Jiří VYSTOUPIL, Petr DANĚK, Pavel KLAPKA, Ondřej MULÍČEK, Daniel SEIDENGLANZ, Zdeněk SZCZYRBA, Michal VANČURA, Antonín VĚŽNÍK, Milan VITURKA and Petr TONEV. Ekonomická a sociální geografie (Economic and social geography). 1. vydání. Plzeň: Vydavatelství a nakladatelství Aleš Čeněk, s.r.o., 2008, 411 pp. učebnice vysokých škol. ISBN 978-80-7380-114-4. info
  • Approaches to human geography. Edited by Gill Valentine - Stuart C. Aitken. 1st pub. London: SAGE Publications, 2006, ix, 349. ISBN 0761942637. info
  • Spaces of geographical thought : deconstructing human geography's binaries. Edited by Paul J. Cloke - R. J. Johnston. 1st pub. London: SAGE Publications, 2005, viii, 224. ISBN 0761947329. info
  • Key concepts in geography. Edited by Sarah L. Holloway - Stephen P. Rice - Gill Valentine. 1st pub. London: SAGE Publications, 2003, xvii, 342. ISBN 0761973893. info
  • The dictionary of human geography. Edited by R. J. Johnston. 4th ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000, xvii, 958. ISBN 0631205616. info
  • Introducing human geographies. Edited by Paul J. Cloke - Phil Crang - Mark Goodwin. 1st ed. London: Arnold, 1999, xv, 368. ISBN 034069193X. info
  • PEET, Richard. Modern geographical thought. 1st pub. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, ix, 342 s. ISBN 1-55786-206-0. info
Teaching methods
Lectures and seminars. Seminars are organized as either class discussions (following readings) or presentation of group projects.
Assessment methods
Participation in seminars, presentation of the group project, a short essay, and the final written test.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 1999, Spring 2008 - for the purpose of the accreditation, Spring 2011 - only for the accreditation, Autumn 2000, Autumn 2001, Spring 2003, Spring 2004, Spring 2005, Spring 2006, Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, spring 2012 - acreditation, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/sci/spring2025/Z0120