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Course, academic year 2023/2024
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Special Topics in Political Geography - MZ340V10
Title: Special Topics in Political Geography
Czech title: Vybraná témata politické geografie
Guaranteed by: Department of Social Geography and Regional Development (31-340)
Faculty: Faculty of Science
Actual: from 2023
Semester: winter
E-Credits: 7
Examination process: winter s.:
Hours per week, examination: winter s.:2/0, C+Ex [HT]
Capacity: 40
Min. number of students: 5
4EU+: no
Virtual mobility / capacity: no
State of the course: taught
Language: English
Explanation: změna názvu předmětu od ak. roku 23/24
Note: enabled for web enrollment
Guarantor: RNDr. Libor Jelen, Ph.D.
Teacher(s): RNDr. David Hána, Ph.D.
RNDr. Libor Jelen, Ph.D.
Mgr. Martin Lepič, Ph.D.
RNDr. Radek Pileček
Evgeny Romanovskiy
Mgr. Filip Sommer
RNDr. Jonáš Suchánek, Ph.D.
RNDr. Vít Volný
Incompatibility : MZ340V101
Annotation -
Last update: RNDr. Libor Jelen, Ph.D. (26.09.2022)
The aim of the course is to reveal contemporary currents of thought and modern research in the field of political geography. In terms of content, the course is designed as a presentation of current research conducted by Czech political geography and their inclusion in the research of world geography. Thematically, the course is structured into three basic thematic units: local politics and its various manifestations, nationalism and electoral geography, geopolitics and critical approaches to the study of political geography.
Literature
Last update: RNDr. Libor Jelen, Ph.D. (04.10.2023)

The obligatory articles:

10.10. Heersmink, R. (2021): Materialised Identities: Cultural Identity, Collective Memory, and Artefacts. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 14, 249–265.

17.10. Kešić, J., & Duyvendak, J. W. (2019). The nation under threat: secularist, racial and populist nativism in the Netherlands. Patterns of Prejudice, 53(5), 441–463.

24.10. Johnson, C. (2022): Ethnic Autonomy as a Dual-Use Technology: Successful Secession under Conditions of Civil War and Peace, 

31.10. Börzel, T.J.& Lebanidze, B. (2017): The transformative power of Europe” beyond enlargement: the EU’s performance in promoting democracy in its neighbourhood. East European Politics, 33, 1, 17-35.

7.11. Daoust, J.-F., Bol, D. (2020): Polarization, Partisan Preferences and Strategic Voting. Government and Opposition, 55, 578–594.

14.11. Ferrell, J., Weide, R. D. (2010): Spot Theory. City, 14, 1–2, 48–62.

21.11. Rodon, T., Guinjoan, M. (2018): When the context matters: Identity, secession and the spatial dimension in Catalonia. Political Geography, 63, 75–87.

28.11. ÖCAL, D. K. (2020): Mosques as Spaces of Everyday Geopolitical Tensions. Geopolitics, 27, 2, 629–654.

Recommended reading:

Agnew, J., & Shin, M. (2017): Spatializing populism: Taking politics to the people in Italy. Annals of the Association of Americal Geographers, 107(4), 915-933.

Conversi, D. (2014): Between the hammer of globalization and the anvil of nationalism: Is Europe's complex diversity under threat? Ethnicities, 14(1), 25-49.

Dostál, P., Jelen, L. (2015): De-Russianisation of the Western Post-Soviet Space: Between the Thick and Thin Nationalising Processes. Geopolitics, 20, 757–792.

Flint, C. (2011): Introduction to Geopolitics. Routledge, New York.

Flint, C., Taylor, P. (2014): Political Geography: World-economy, Nation-state and Locality. 6th Edition. Routledge.

Hána, D., Hellebrandová, L. (2018):  Spatial and sectoral differentiation of support to innovative companies from EU funds in Czechia. European Planning Studies, 26, 1598-1615.

Harvey, D. (2009): Social Justice and the City. Revised edition. University of Georgia Press, Athens (Georgia).

Harvey, D. (2012): Rebel Cities. From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. Verso, London, New York.

Hesse, J.J., Sharpe, L.J. (1991): Local government in international perspective: some comparative observations. In: Hesse, J.J. (ed.): Local government and urban affairs in an international perspective. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Bade-Baden, 603–621.

Hobolt, S. (2016): The Brexit vote: A divided nation, a divided continent. Journal of European Public Policy, 23(9), 1259-1277.

Lefebvre, H. (1991): The Production of Space. Blackwell, Oxford, Cambridge, MA.

Lefebvre, H. (1996): Writings on Cities. Blackwell, Oxford.

Lepič, M. (2017): Limits to territorial nationalization in election support for an independence-aimed regional nationalism in Catalonia. Political Geography, 60, 190-202.

Lipset, S. M., Rokkan, S. (1967): Cleavage structures, party systems, and voter alignments. In: S. M. Lipset, & S. Rokkan (Eds.), Party systems and voter alignments: Cross-national perspectives. New York: Free Press.

Mansvelt Beck, J. (2005): Territory and terror: Conflicting nationalisms in the Basque Country. London: Routledge.

McAuliffe, C., Iveson, K. (2011): Art and Crime (and Other Things Besides...): Conceptualising Graffiti in the City. Geography Compass, 5, 3, 128–143.

Mudde, C. (2019): The far-right today. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Ó Tuathail, G., Dalby, S., Routledge, P. (Eds.) (2008): Geopolitics Reader. Routledge, New York.

Page, E.C., Goldsmith, M. (eds.) (1987): Central-local government relations: a comparative analysis of West European unitary states. Sage, London.

Parkinson, J. R. (2012): Democracy and Public Space. The Physical Sites of Democratic Performance. Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York.

Requirements to the exam
Last update: RNDr. Libor Jelen, Ph.D. (04.10.2023)

Requirement for the credit:

Compulsory attendance at the lectures, max. 2 excused absences

Obligatory reading of articles for the lectures (see bibliography) and an elaborated summary of each article in the extent of 1 page A4 – you must submit it on the day of the lecture on Google Classroom

Essay on a given topic

Requirement for the exam:

Presentation of the essay

Exam grading based on the quality of the essay and presentation

Essay:

The suggested topic list is provided in SIS and Google Classroom

The topic will be approved by a tutor

The essay topic must be chosen by 31.10. on a shared Google document

The essay must be submitted by 28.11. on Google Classroom

The essay in the extent of 3000 words (including references) must be based on at least 3 articles from WoS journals

There is supposed to be an exact research aim, a research problem in the form of research questions

Presentation:

5 minutes: introduction of the aim, research problem, context and results

Powerpoint/pdf form

 

List of the essay topics:

1. Phantom borders as an identity factor

2. Demographic and economic changes after re-bordering – selected case studies

3. Pursuit of independence and secessionist preferences in a selected EU region.

4. Theoretical essay on factors and motivations that intensify and/or hinder secessionist push in today’s EU and its near abroad.

5. The effect of the refugee wave on electoral outcomes of populist radical right parties in Europe;

6. Contemporary nativist manifestations in a selected country: a content analysis

7. Instruments Europe uses to act as a single geopolitical player

8. Cultural script of European attractiveness model towards the thirds countries

9. The changes of spatial patterns of electoral behavior in Czechia between parliamentary elections 2017 and 2021

10. Elections in the countries of the world periphery: differences from developed democracies

11. Spatial, political, and social context of political graffiti in a selected city

12. The changing political symbolism of the Lennon Wall in Prague (or another similar symbolic locality in a selected country)

13. Involvement of Gulf Cooperation Council state(s) (or Turkey/Iran) in any world country (preferably Global South).

14. Soft power initiatives of non-"Western" countries (China, South Korea, Russia...) in the Global South.

15. The role of non-state (armed) actors in the Middle East

16. Finding peace in the post-conflict zones: strategies, policies, and space relations

Syllabus
Last update: RNDr. Libor Jelen, Ph.D. (04.10.2023)

3.10. Libor Jelen – organization of the course, introduction to political geography, research trends, Czech political geography arena

10.10. Libor Jelen: Phantom borders – historical and geographical context of contemporary societal structures

17.10. Jonáš Suchánek: Theorizing nativism through contemporary populist radical right parties

24.10. Filip Sommer: Politics and governance in the Middle East: Case studies of Iraq and Syria

31.10. Evgeny Romanovskiy: Europe as a geopolitical actor beyond its borders

7.11. Radek Pileček: Czech voters and their motivations: Diversity of the decision-making processes

14.11. David Hána: Political graffiti in the political symbolic space

21.11. Martin Lepič: Geography of secessionism in the EU and beyond: Spatial dimension of independence preferences in Catalonia and Scotland

28.11. Vít Volný: Religious Soft Power: The Case of Kosovo

5.12. Student´s presentation

12.12. Student´s presentation

19.12. Student´s presentation

2.1. Student´s presentation

 
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