Dr Riccardo Crescenzi STC414, Dr Michael Mason STC510 and Dr Claire Mercer STC418

This course is compulsory on the BA in Geography, BSc in Environment and Development and BSc in Geography with Economics. This course is available on the BSc in Social Policy. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

This course provides students with an introduction to Geography at LSE. The global population faces critical policy choices now and in the future including climate change and persistent economic and social inequality in an increasingly globalized world. This course examines critical elements of these challenges to the environment, the economy and society. In doing so, it will cover the temporal (from the near-term to the far-off future) and geographical dimensions (from local to global) and provide students with key theoretical concepts, empirical evidence and analysis of policy responses at these different levels. The course is divided into three sections. Section 1: Geography and nature; Global and local environmental problems; Urban sustainability and the compact city. Section 2: Economy: The changing location of economic activity, inequalities within and between countries, regions and cities. The rationale, objectives and tools of local and regional development policies in a globalizing world. Section 3: Society: Contested geographies and histories of globalization and contemporary development. Global mobilities, culture and place. Transnational communities. Migration and development.

20 hours of lectures and 9 hours of classes in the MT. 16 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the LT.

Students will be expected to produce 4 essays and 1 presentation in the MT and LT.

Detailed reading-lists related to the different topics within the course will be provided at the start of the course. H Armstrong & J Taylor, Regional Economics and Policy, 1999; Dicken, P. (2011) Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy 6th Edition  Sage Publications; W.E. Murray, Geographies of globalization, 2006; A Pike, A Rodríguez-Pose & J Tomaney Local and regional development, 2006.

N. Castree, Making Sense of Nature, 2014

Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours) in the main exam period.