MA Space, Place and Politics

Introduction

The Master's degree in Space, Place and Politics (RT) provides a scheme in the broad sphere of political geography. With widespread changes occurring in our political structures, not least those relating to the globalization of the economy, the restructuring of the nation state, the rise of supra-national levels of governance, sub-national forms of power, identity, and political expression, the contemporary period is ripe for advanced inquiry on these issues. Furthermore, the key academic themes at the heart of this scheme - urban, regional and rural politics, governance, place and scale, and geographies of power and identity - are increasingly relevant within both academic and policy-related spheres. Space, Place and Politics (RT) addresses these issues and also provides students with the appropriate knowledge, skills and competencies required of an advanced, professionally trained researcher, specialising in the broad field of Political Geography. There are currently no Masters courses recognised by the Economic and Social Research Council that focus on political geography. Space, Place and Politics (RT) has been designed to fill this gap, by providing advanced training in political geography.

Skills and training

A number of different skills and competencies are provided through a mixture of broadly-based and subject-specific training in research methodologies and transferable employed related skills. By delivering broadly-based training, the MA provides students with the skills necessary for the completion of a thesis within the specified time limit. It also aims to enable students to develop the skills valued by employers. Subject-specific training will enable students to formulate and apply a range of research strategies in the area of political geography, but which are set firmly within the context of approaches used within human geography and across the social sciences as a whole. The course uses political geography as a sub-disciplinary lens through which broader philosophical, epistemological, theoretical and methodological debates within human geography can be viewed and evaluated. In this manner, examples from political geography are used to illustrate the broader themes specified in the ESRC training guidelines.

Semester 1

Modules from semester one through to semester two.
Subject-specific modules:

• GGM1430 Positioning Political Geography
• GGM2330 Research Methods in Political Geography

RT modules:

• PGM0120 Research Skills and Personal Development
• PGM0210 Principles of Research Design
• PGM0330 Data Collection and Data Analysis
• PGM0410 Ways of Reading (optional)

Semester 2

Students explore in more depth:

• Democracy, participation and citizenship
• Environmental Politics
• Urban Renewal
• Devolution and Constitutional Change
• Sustainable Development

Semester 3

The production of a dissertation in the third semester, which would usually, though not exclusively, relate to the themes discussed in GGM1430, Positioning Political

• Geography. In the past, titles have included:
• Organizing and instituting reflexive capitalism Does the pursuit of academic scholarsship hamper the production of policy-oriented research?
• Post-Marxism and geography
• Tacit Knowledge in Economic Development: The Case of Staffordshire University
• New Deal or Raw Deal? The Impact of Welfare to Work in Ceredigion
• Contesting England's South West: Regional Movements, Regional Identities and the Regional Development Agencies

Potential dissertation topics

• Cool Britannia: The Millennium Dome and the Reconstruction of National Identity
• Closed Circuit Television in Aberystwyth: The Monitoring of Public Spaces The Political Economy of Blair's New Regional Policy
• Discourse, Ideology and Welfare Reform: Unpacking the Politics of Social Exclusion in New Labour Policy
• Cultural Construction of Space: Place Marketing of London's West End Theatre District
• An Examination of the Role of Space in the Legitimation and Promotion of Cardiff's Development in Three Historical Periods
• Rethinking Multi-Level Governance: Linking Theory and Practice Through the European Union's Committee of the Regions