Introduction to Human Geography: A new semester begins!

It is always an adventure to teach first year courses. Completely new faces with new group dynamics and new curiosities. Always a nice encounter!

The term has started in RA 2 weeks ago. The Introduction to Human Geography course began with 20 fresh members, new young souls, to get into the magic world of geography.

We've started, as usually, with 'vegetables' metaphor to learn that a city is not only a physical entity. It is shaped by social, economic, political and cultural processes and dynamics. We explore these dynamics with Childe's "urban revolution" concept with reference to Soja's work. It is a nice framework to understand the development of cities and urban communities through the time.

We have diverse topics in this course, as it is an introductory course, to touch at least the most important fields of interest of human geography. But first we need to understand how cities are formed and developed...We have a political economy approach to understand the transformation of cities, meaning that we're exploring the development of the capitalist economic system by looking at the main political economic processes that had an influence on the decisions of actors of urban development. We will, as you will notice soon enough, explore the influence of how the formation of capitalist system has been shaping the urban development. We need to understand the relationship between the economic, political and social transformations and the transformation of capitalist political economic system. And that's why we start with a historical adventure to understand how capitalist system is established and has been changing through time. We started last week with really the beginning of the settled human communities and tackled their social, spatial, economic and political characteristics. We've looked at Catalhoyuk in Turkey, for instance, as one of the first known urban civilization (which also gave us a chance to look into the very first human made map).

After a brief introduction to the conceptual framework and approach of the course and the story of how first hanger gatherers began to settle down, I took the students for a walking tour in Middelburg. It's always nice when the weather is cooperating. The walk has a couple of purposes. First of all I want the students to learn how to 'observe' the physical built environment and connect it to historical knowledge. I call this 'reading the city' exercise. While walking I talk about certain historical facts of course but the main idea is to show them how to look around and understand the transformations that have been taking place in the city. I introduced some terms and concepts like gentrification, urban regeneration, suburbanization, etc., which will be later on discussed and explored in series of lectures. It's always good to have a visual clue about what we're talking about. Another interesting point about Middelburg is that since it's medieval urban pattern is still very visible, it makes it easy to understand the medieval urban structure as a case study.

The walk helped us in the next lecture for two reasons: First we could easily imagine the 'medieval city' in the case of Middelburg, secondly, we could discuss certain spatial concepts on the basis of our experience in the city. We had a class exercise about map reading, which forced the students to think about certain concepts like 'urban form', 'patterns', 'development zones', and 'land-uses'. We discussed those on the basis of Middelburg map and of course our experiences from the walk have really helped us to visualize these concepts.

In the last lecture we've looked into the transformation from feudalism to merchant capitalism and the impact of this change on the urban settlements. We're now about to start the third week of the semester and next lecture is going to be about the urban dynamics triggered by the transformation from merchant capitalism to industrial capitalism.

See you on Monday!

Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok

Associate Professor in Human Geography, Roosevelt Academy, University of Utrecht
Senior Researcher, OTB Research Institute for the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology

t.tasan-kok@roac.nl, m.t.tasan-kok@tudelft.nl

We've made a lot of progress and went through a diversity of topics since you've got acquainted with Henry Ford and his evolutionary 'assembly line' in the beginning of this term. Julien Temple's 'Requiem for Detroit' is a good choice of a (BBC) documentary and definitely deserves for a whole course to be devoted to it. Not a bad start for the economic geography field I guess. You did not only refresh your memory on Fordism but also have met the post-industrial metropolis and its sometimes shocking images. Most of you haven't seen this spectacular documentary and I'm not surprised that you were all impressed by it. I think the lecture on shrinking cities made a lot of sense now too!

From this point on we will hang on to the post-industrial economy and try to understand the dynamics of it and how they changed the city. On Monday we'll talk about the globalism and global production networks within the framework of this new theme and will have two student-led seminars. Can't wait! On Wednesday we're travelling to Antwerp to be welcomed by the Port Authority and colleagues from University of Antwerp and will be given lectures and a fantastic guided tour. I guess, by then you will really get the idea of a port city!

See you at 11:00

Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok

Hi

It's been a while! We have been through a lot of topics in the mean time. The rural geography lecture made most of you sleep despite my attempts to keep you awake. Well, not everything has to be so excited in human geography for sure. But hey when we finally come to the rural sociology I had the feeling that the class was waking up (or was it the coffee break?). Anyhow, when we went into a more exciting cultural geography field I noticed that 'sex, drugs, and motorcycles' kept you awake so far...Well just a joke (except for the sex part, which I will clarify below)!

We have had an exciting (and quite wet) field trip to Antwerp, where we were warmly welcomed by OASeS (Center on Inequality, Poverty, Social Exclusion and the City) at University of Antwerp. Professor Jan Vranken delivered a fantastic guest lecture on inequalities, social cohesion, and exclusion. I think we all learned a lot on concepts that were too abstract before. I begin to hear you writing and talking about social cohesion after this class, which made me very happy! Professor Stijn Oosterlijnk explained us how a research center such as OASeS works. How do they get funding and conduct research, what is their area of interest, etc. Very informative! Then two OASeS researchers Pieter Cools and Elias Storms gave you an honest presentation of how they conduct their research and what is actually to be a researcher in the field of social geography. I think it was a nice meeting with reality.

Then, with an unfortunate timing to be outside, we took tram 11 to go to Zurenborg to make some observations. The idea was to walk through Dageraadplaats to observe the role of a public square in social cohesion but by then the rain was pouring so bad that we ended up observing the role of a local pub in social cohesion instead. That was fun! Then we made our way to Driekoningenstraat, which houses a lot of ethnic shops, restaurants and cafes and after some observations on this street, which recently won the 'street with a best climate' price of the city, we took the tram back and then I made sure you made your way back to Middelburg on time.

We went deeper into cultural geography with the topics on geography of food, social, ethnic and religious diversity, and multiculturality and had a fantastic guest lecture from Professor Maartin Loopmans of the Catholic University of Leuven on Geography of Sexuality. Well, that woke you up for sure!

Having the mid-term exam behind us and the Spring Break in between, we are now about to explore economic geography topics in the coming weeks, which will involve a field trip to the Port of Antwerp (co-organised by the University of Antwerp and Port of Antwerp).

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok

Geography of food...!

Sounded strange at first isn't it? Geography of food...but it is a very serious field in cultural geography with enormous amounts of research and publications going on. Scholars are busy discussing different aspects of food geography like the political aspects, the health aspects, the life style aspects, the sociology of it, the psychology of it, the governance of it..and yes, it is a fun topic too. Just to give you an idea I copied some sessions from the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting in New York I was participating last week:

• Advancing debates on sustainable and local food
• Biodiversity and Food in the Context of Development and Climate Change
• Biofuels, Food and the Bio-based Economy 1: Food for Fuel
• Biofuels, Food and the Bio-based Economy 2: Governing Sustainability
• Biofuels, Food and the Bio-based Economy 3: A Technological Fix?
• Critical Geographies of Food in the City: Activism and Community
• Food in the City: Exploring Space, Place, and Taste
• Food security, food sovereignty, & food justice: the Geographies of Food
• FoodMediaPolitics 1: Celebrity Chef Space
• FoodMediaPolitics 2: Production, Consumption, Representation
• Hunger & Food Systems - Urban & Global Perspectives
• Navigating the Geographies of Food: People, Place, Culture, & Power
• New Directions in Political Ecology II: Addressing Food, Agriculture, Well-Being and Rural Livelihoods
• Processes of Globalization in Agri-Food Networks
• Sustainable communities through food systems: Considering urban/rural intersections, challenges and opportunities
• The Political Ecology of Alternative Food Systems
• The Role of Geographers in Promoting Leadership in Environmental Sustainability, Food Security and Health Policy Initiatives in Africa
• Theorizing the Geographies of Food: New Directions and Interventions for Alternative Food Praxis

See what I mean? And this is not all...there were hundreds of presentations in the field of geography of food just in this conference.

From Monday on we will move to other fields of human geography (rural geography first, and then slowly we'll move deeper into cultural geography in the coming weeks).

Have a great weekend!

Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok

The age of stupid!

Hi

It was interesting wasn't it to look to the world from this perspective?

Well, it is just one side of the coin of course and a string opinion which is critical on increasing consumerism and unawareness and selfishness of people on upcoming disasters. I like to show this video in my classes because I think it makes an impression and gives us a lot to discuss later on.

While I'm in New York I want you to keep thinking about the terms we briefly discussed: sustainability, resilience and mitigation. I hope you enjoy the Jakarta lecture of Wim Stolte! Don;t hesitate to ask him questions about his experiences, he took part in amazing projects everywhere in the world to help cities prepared for disasters.

See you on 1st of March!

Best
Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok

Ps. Start to understand resilience

Monday we'll discuss a new term, resilience. Please have a look at Carpenter et al (2009) article that I uploaded in workspaces!

Demographic change and environmental challenges

Hi

We're moving towards a new field in human geography: Environmental challenges and societal reflections. Today I focused on the demographic change, using some interesting visual material and statistics. To make it more interesting for you and also for me!

Next week we'll start with world resources and problems facing them. When I attend my annual conference (Association of American Geographers) in New York, you will be guided by an excellent guest lecturer, Mr. Wim Stolte, who has spend all his life living in disaster zones, helping cities to be re-built or getting ready for a disaster. He will share his experiences in Jakarta with you. Meanwhile, weekend is approaching and we will still see each other on Monday.

Looking forward!

Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok

Cities

Last Monday we discussed a fundamental point in the class: What is a city? Penguin Dictionary of Geography defines it simply as: In general, a large town. What an abstract definition! So we decided to move deeper into the subject to see what can be said more. I presented some classic ideas about the definition of the city dated back to 1930s.

Recognizing ‘urbanism as a way of life Wirth said that city is ‘a relatively large, dense and permanent settlement of socially heterogeneous individuals’. He was not the only one putting the urban society on the scene in the 1930s. Around the same time, and with a somewhat more sophisticated approach, Lewis Mumford defined 'the city is a geographic plexus, an economic organisation, an institutional process, a theater of social action, and an aesthetic symbol of collective unity’. We then watched an old documentary: The City (directed by Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke, commentary written by Lewis Mumford).

you can download the whole film at: http://www.archive.org/details/CityTheP1939

To spice up the discussion I asked students to form groups to answer a simple question on the basis of their own experiences: What makes a city? Each group (had 4 in total) emphasized different characteristics and sometimes conflicted with each other. Some had a description, some had a list of 'must to have' features. It was fun to see how ideas differ on the basis of the different backgrounds. See them below. We ended up discussion whether Middelburg is a city or not. I guess, we couldn't conclude on that :)

Group 1:

A city is a settlement that is relatively large compared to it's surroundings. It has a central function on economic, political, social, financial, cultural and educational activities in it's region. A city is easy to reach and it has good connections with other cities eg. harbor, railway station, airport. Cities attract people with different ethnic/cultural backgrounds and it offers various job opportunities. Furthermore there is a center for higher education, for example an university or HBO.


Group 2:

A city...is a place where higher authorities (government, police) take care of it. A center of population with cultural differences, that provides facilities for each and every one of them. There are different economic activities with a commercial center. A city is a place where education is easily accessible (especially higher education). There is a clear division of social classes, therefore there are different neighborhoods. City is a place where big corporations are settled. Also transport throughout the city is easy due to all kinds of possibilities: tram, bus, train, etc.

Group 3:

A city has its own government and administrative system. It also serves as the economic/cultural center of a region and attracts capital and people. It contains an educational system and transportation structure consists of a single defined area.

Group 4:

A city needs to have at least 100.000 people with its own local government. It needs to have public and general transportation, including train station and provide opportunities for different ethnic groups and religion. Furthermore, it must have a commercial center, a hospital, night life and a university. A good balance between young and old people is important for a good economy and globalization and tourism. It must have an individualistic feeling.

Cool ha!

See you on Thursday. Remember that 2 groups will be presenting interesting cases. Can't wait!

Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok

Understanding Henry Ford

Hope you ejoyed the Modern Times as much as I did (why do you think it is called the Modern Times?). Each time I watch this movie I find something new. Of course, there is more than just some funny scenes of a black-white movie! It covers main elements of the 20th century urban society. You can see the ongoing class struggle, and the emerging American dream or how role of women in the society is very nicely criticised. I have to laugh hard about that woman coming out of her house to say goodbye to her husband, who is obviously going to his work in the morning. They live somewhere in the suburbs as its a house with a garden (with a drive way). She is jumping with an amazing joy to say goodbye to her husband and go back into her home-based life. Poverty and unemployment are the main problems that Chaplin tries to point out and strikes as a reaction of the urban working class...We notice Taylor's time management there in the factory and what assembly line and Fordist efficiency is all about (quite exaggregated of course). Mass production and mass consumption patterns are visible as well. Of course, this movie is not made for academic purposes (but sure Chaplin would have been happy to know that young people watch (or forced to watch :)) his movie even in the 21st century). Watching this film with geographers lenses is different than just watching for fun. And that was the whole exercise about. Hope you could capture some interesting elements for your essay assignment. Remember: I don't need you to copy information from the internet but just try to comprehend the Fordist period's characteristics by reading your chapter and some other extra material that you may find elsewhere and then to connect that knowledge to what you've seen in the movie. I appreciate you reading more stuff so please go explore google.scholar to find some interesting reading materials on this topic.

Comprehending the dynamics of urban development in the 20th century in just one lecture is not possible and you'll hear more on Fordism in the future. So it makes a lot of sense to read the chapter 'The making of the 20th century world' just one more time to comprehend the challenges and opportunities the century offered for cities (and also to get some hints.

And yes, next week our screen will be full of colorful ideas on cities. Cities lecture will be on Monday and two student-led seminars will take place on Thursday. The presenting teams for Thursday had very interesting ideas so I can't wait to see what they will show us on Thursday!

See you on Monday...

Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok

Understanding the urban dynamics of the 20th century: The Modern Times

Hi

Tomorrow (9 February) after a brief introduction on the changing dynamics of 20th century industrial capitalism we're going to watch Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times together. It is important that you read Chapter 3: The Making of the 20th Century World because you will have an assignment. While watching the movie I will want you to observe certain dynamics that your reading material nicely provides. We'll mainly focus on the Fordist production methods and what Fordism has changed for the urban society and the city itself. The Modern Times provides a very nice summary of these dynamics. And it's fun!
So please come to the class being prepared and, if you like, you can bring drinks and finger food because we're not going to have a break!

See you tomorrow

Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok

Rise and spread of capitalism

I know today's lecture confused you a little about the content of this course. Don't worry, this is all part of the plan...Today, after discussing Middelburg's medieval characteristics we concentrated on certain economic theories and processes from feudalism and merchant capitalism towards industrial capitalism. I referred to the ideas of some heavy weights like Adam Smith and Karl Marx. And you've made a small group exercise to go through the Chapter 2 of the textbook and we mentioned some other theories (like World Systems Theory) or theoreticians like Wallerstein. I tried to show you how Smith's model on capital, production and profit and Kondratief's waves made sense to explain different economic periods in the history of cities. There is a reason for this economic focus of course. Remember the 'vegetable' methaphor I mentioned in the firts course! We need to understand the layers of relations that lead to urban processes.

Like Kostof (1991) I also believe that understanding urban form can be possible by understanding the processes behind it. Like many other urban explorers I believe that understanding main economic dynamics that lead to the accumulation of capital in certain places and cities, and created certain societal processes and cultural contexts, we are able to comprehend the spatial transformations taking place in cities. You cannot separate the space from its socio-economic contents. If you comprehend the main socio-economic dynamics of first, second, and third urban revolution, post-fordism and neoliberalism, I think, by the end of this term you will be able to comprehend the change around you. You will see how different elements (neighbourhoods, parts, buildings, etc) of cities decline and then rise again with new functions and social contexts. This is the story of the capital accumulating in cities. And my approach in this course is to make you think of this as much as possible.

Thursday we will focus on the 20th century indistrial capitalism and a man who have changed the world with a single innovation: Henry Ford

See you on Thursday!

Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok

Reading the city: Middelburg tour February 2012 in freezing weather

I really am proud that everybody survived the walk till the last minute of our tour in this freezing weather.

Thanks for your patience and for keeping up the speed. We visited certain spots in the city to observe and search clues of diverse dynamics in five different themes:

Theme 1: Spatial organization of cities
- Patterns and spatial form
- Land-uses
- Spatial history

Theme 2: Socio-spatial structure of cities
- Segregated neighbourhoods
- Socio-economic differentiation

Theme 3: Urban economy
- Changing location of economic functions
- Globalization

Theme 4: Diversity and multiculturality
- Residential segregation
- Ethnic entrepreneurship

Theme 5: Urban ecology
- Urban green

On Monday we'll talk about the indistrial capitalism and it's influence on the geography of cities.

Have a good weekend
Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok

Walking tour tomorrow

It is freezing out there so make sure you all have warm cloths and comfortable walking shoes. We're going to walk about 1 hour in this weather! Looking forward though! Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok

Lecture 1

We have completed a smooth introduction to human geography today. Not easy to remember everybody's names at once but I guess I'll be calling you with your names soon. I'm working on it! As indicated in the lecture, Thursday the 2nd of February we'll have a walking tour in Middelburg. Last term I had the theme of 'medieval cities' and we walked within the boundaries of the medieval Middelburg, which was surprisingly small at the time. For that walk I've used the fantastic book of Peter Sijneke and Tobias van Gent (De geschiedenis van Middelburg). This term I want to do it differently and focus more on 'reading the city' concept. I've realised that students of RA do not necessarily have a spatial understanding (i.e. map reading, orienting, using geographical terminology etc). But cities are not only spatial entities. As we discussed in the class today geographers look around with a special lens to 'un-layer' social, cultural, economic, political or simply spatial dynamics. When we look around we do not see physical entities only but we see relations, processes and dynamics that resulted in these physical entities. So on Thursday the 2nd of February we'll walk together in Middelburg and I will show you how I look around! This will be very helpful in the upcoming field trips. And in case you will continue doing a graduate study in geography, planning or urban studies, or will simply take SSC 244 next term, you will make use of this knowledge. See you on Thursday! Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok

Spring 2012

Dear students of SSC 141 A new term begins and I'm very happy to welcome you to my course. We will start with the introduction tomorrow and I look forward to seeing you soon in the class! Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok