Description

Geographies of Rurality

Description - summary of the module content

Module description

In this module we will examine changes which are taking place in contemporary rural areas and consider multiple and complex understandings and interpretations of such changes. You will be encouraged to develop a deeper understanding of the discourses, texts, symbols, networks and practices associated with rurality through employing a range of theoretical perspectives – restructuring, state theory, post-modern and post-structural interpretative geographies of culture, identity, spectacle, simulacrum, hybridity, performance and so on – in the grounded context of rural change.

This module combines lectures and fortnightly workshops, ensuring both detailed access to relevant concepts, ideas and research evidence and sustained opportunities to work through and discuss this material in ways that encourage personal interpretation and group discussion.The coursework component requires you to interrogate your own experiences of rurality, either by writing an auto-ethnography or by focusing in on a particular representation of the ‘rural’ that you have encountered. Much of the module will focus on rural Britain, but specific illustration from mainland Europe, North America and Australasia will also be used.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module has three specific aims which are relevant and apposite to final year undergraduate teaching and learning. The first is to examine changes which are taking place in contemporary rural areas and to suggest multiple and complex understandings and interpretations of such changes. This involves an advanced level understanding of rurality and rural change. The second aim is to employ a range of theoretical perspectives – restructuring, state theory, post-modern and post-structural interpretative geographies of culture, identity, spectacle, simulacrum, hybridity, performance and so on – in the grounded context of rural change so as to foster a deeper understanding of the discourses, texts, symbols, networks and practices associated with rurality. The third aim is to present a close interconnection between research and teaching, by consistent reference to research carried out by the module leader and colleagues – thus enabling a more joined up pedagogic approach to researching, writing, reading and understanding.

In this module we aim to enhance your employability through the encouragement and development of personal skills, self-presentation and confidence and by increasing your awareness of how the module content contributes to positive graduate attributes.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Describe comprehensively rurality, rural change and how change is experienced differently by different people in and beyond different countrysides
• 2. Evaluate critically positionality vis-a-vis rural identity
• 3. Explain in detail how rurality is interconnected with space, economy, politics, society, culture, and nature
• 4. Describe how human and non-human agency coalesce in the practices and performances which co-constitute social and natural spatialisations of rurality
• 5. Describe comprehensively the work a wide range of social theorists, and evaluate how theory has been translated into the rural studies arena
• 6. Identify how rurality shapes and is shaped by political-economic change, social recomposition, cultural meaningfulness and non-human agency, with special reference to the UK, North America and Australasia

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Analyse and synthesise the fluid and contested nature of human geographical knowledge and understanding
• 8. Evaluate critically the diverse range of approaches to the generation of human geographical knowledge
• 9. Interpret critically the diversity and interconnectivity of places, natures and practices at carious spatial scales
• 10. Interpret critically the changing interdependence of economy, society, culture and nature in human geographical contexts
• 11. Synthesise and evaluate conceptual and theoretical understandings of human geographical concepts and to apply cognate debates to assist in the evaluation of research and empirical material

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 12. Evaluate contrasting theories, assimilate data from a range of sources and over a range of scales, and to provide a clear synthesis of defined topics
• 13. Evaluate critically research-based materials within the context of the module as a whole
• 14. Provide a critical assessment of module topics showing consistency of argument with adequate illustration from a range of sources
• 15. Communicate and present geographical ideas, theories and principles through oral and written means
• 16. Present material to support a reasoned and consistent argument, both verbally and in writing
• 17. Develop independent / self-directed study and learning skills, including time management, working to deadlines, and searching literatures
• 18. Encourage personal development both through an emphasis on personal connection with the subject matter, and through iterative opportunities to discuss and present ideas.
• 19. Enhance employability through confidence-building, interactive communication training, public performance of analysis and interpretation, and personal development (including surgery sessions with the module leader) of key ideas for the coursework assignment

Syllabus plan

Syllabus plan

Lectures:

Rurality and Identity

• Self and other
• Natural landscapes?
• Social landscapes?
• Positionality, politics and power

Rurality, Space and Culture

• Theorising rurality
• Imagining rural spaces
• Rurality and culture
• Cultural circuits and traits

Rurality, Economy and Restructuring

• Restructuring rurality
• Post-Fordist rurality?
• Technology and rural services
• Commodifying rural places

Rurality, Otherness and Care

• Geographies of the “other”
• Rural lifestyles
• Rurality and homelessness
• Geographies of rural care

Rurality, Performance and Nature

• Performativities
• Staging nature-cultures
• Non-human natures
• Performance and the co-constitution of place

Workshops:

Autoethnographic Speed-dating

Representation and Rurality: Found Objects

Literary Rurality

Filmic Rurality

Knowledge, Understanding and Argument: Examination Preparation

Learning and teaching

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Assessment

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Re-assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to sit a further examination or submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Resources

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Cloke P et al (2002) Rural Homelessness, Policy Press, Bristol
• Cloke P (ed) (2003) Country Visions Pearson, Harlow
• Cloke P, Marsden T and Mooney P (eds) (2005) Handbook of Rural Studies Sage, London
• Milbourne P (ed) (2012) Rural Wales in the 21^st Century, University of Wales Press, Cardiff
• Murdoch J, Lowe P, Ward N and Marsden T (2003) The Differentiated Countryside Routledge, London
• Woods M (2004) Rural Geography Sage, London
• Woods M (2010) Rural, Routledge, London

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE page: http://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=1020

Module has an active ELE page

Key words search

Rurality, rural change