Lesson 02: Critical Frameworks

Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson you will be able to:

  • Discuss new approaches to social and cultural geography including: communication of meaning, production and affect of discourse, human subjectivity and identity, the critique of geographic knowledge, and operation of human agency.
     
  • Discuss and critique the framework that envisions politics as a social practice.
     
  • Explain and critique the critical framework that looks at the world in terms of material, discursive, and socially contested construction of meaning.
     
  • Provide an example of a socially constructed meaning and explain the example and concept to a layman (e.g. "Teenager").
     
  • Explain the basic concepts of "Critical Geopolitics" to a layman; apply the concepts to given case studies.
     
  • Trace the evolution of geopolitical thought from the 19th Century to the present; critique selected concepts from an alternative perspective.