GEOG 286 - Special Topics

Devoted to a specific topic unique for each semester and instructor.  Permission from instructor is required for registration. SEC. 1 - SPHAR: THE VANGUARD OF BACKWARDNESS? LATIN AMERICAN POLITICAL ECONOMY & DEVELOPMENT IN THE 21^ST CENTURY - This seminar course critically explores the trajectories and horizons of development in Latin America since 2000, approaching these questions through a relational and geographical political economy lens. Following the “lost decade(s)” of economic growth and development spanning the 1980s and 1990s, a Pink Tide of leftist leaders were elected across the region in the early 2000s, directly challenging the existing neoliberal development models. Today, however, most of these new leaders, members of the Pink Tide, have been replaced by conservative politicians. What happened? How can we explain and understand this shift, backed by broad support, between Progressive and Conservative governments over such a short timespan? What implications do these shifts hold for development outcomes, both domestically and regionally, and for the meaning of ‘development’ itself? How have the roles of state, capital, labor, and social movements shaped and been shaped by these changes? By looking at the emergence of this crop of Pink Tide leaders, their programs, policies, histories, and horizons, through a relational and geographical political economy approach this course will enable students to decipher and explain these recent, and perhaps surprising, political economic trajectories in Latin America, as well as their broader relevance to our understandings of key development questions across the Global South today. Some knowledge of the historical political economy of Latin America is beneficial, though not required; SEC. 2 - DAVIDSON: MARXISM & THE CITY This course examines how Marxist theory has shaped the ways in which geographers understand urbanism. The start of the semester is spent critically exploring some key Marxist concepts. The intent of this initial part of the class is to introduce Marxian theory to the uninitiated and provide a critical interrogation of Marxist theory for those already well versed. In the middle part of the semester, attention moves onto tracing out the major figures of Marxist urban theory. Students will read some of urban theory’s key thinkers, including David Harvey, Manuel Castells, Henri Lefebvre, Marshal Berman and Walter Benjamin, among others. Time will also be spent assessing how these urban theorists have also made broader contributions to social and political theory. At the end of the semester students will study how Marxian urban theory has generated particular types of explanations for today’s urban problems, including housing crisis, homelessness, speculative governance, and asset bubbles; SEC. 3 - AOYAMA: DISTRIBUTIVE POLITICAL ECONOMYThe goal of this seminar is to combine literatures from anthropology, history, social psychology, sociology, feminism, behavioral geography and welfare economics to explore ‘conceptual dualism’ between states and markets, and understand how states deal with challenges of distribution and social protection in the past, present, and the future.  The course explores new paradigms on state-markets interaction caused by transformation of work and current social systems that are designed with old assumptions.; SEC. 4 - FREY: APPLICATION OF ARCTIC REMOTE SENSING

Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: no

Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall and Spring