Course for international guest/part time students

Faculty

Faculty of Science

Organization

TTK Department of Social and Economic Geography

Code

lh2n9741

Title

Political geography and borders

Usual semester

Both

Published semester

2025/26/2, 2026/27/1

ECTS

5

Language

en

Learning outcomes

Knowledge: The course provides knowledge on different approaches in Political geography and the study of boundaries and borderlands. More generally, it offers various interpretations of the territorial aspects of social organisation, their consequences as well as alternatives. Skills: Participants improve their understanding of how and why societies are territorially organised on different spatial scales and how that affects them. They will also improve their skills in analysing different, but often interrelated, territory- and boundary-making practices. Relatedly, participants are familiarised with various concepts through which understanding and analysing geopolitical processes can be enhanced. Attitude: Participants endeavour to acquire knowledge on key political geographical concepts and paradigms. They are open to debate, negotiation, and cooperation in order to achieve their goals by getting to know and understanding the views of others, including fellow participants. Autonomy and responsibility: Participants grasp the importance of geopolitical aspects and recognise the applicability and limits of political geographical approaches. In an era in which geopolitically-related knowledge is widely circulating, participants are able to distinguish between more and less reliable information to enable them to conduct thorough analyses on their own. Gender balance is sought after in participation and among the authors of the course literature.

Course content

This course is an introduction to two different but related fields; Political geography and Border studies. In Political geography, two key bodies of scholarship are introduced: on the one hand, more conventional approaches such as those found under the label Classic geopolitics, and, on the other hand, Critical geopolitics which is a response to more mainstream conceptions and practices of geopolitics. Similarly, various meanings of and practices related to borders and borderlands are discussed in more conventional and also critical ways. More specific subjects dealt with include: factors underlying current geopolitical tensions and conflicts, and attempts to limit these such as through multilateralism and cooperation (key IR theories) historical and contemporary Political geography as a discipline and geopolitics as practice Critical geopolitics as a scholarly approach that questions many assumptions of conventional geopolitical thought and practice Border studies: the importance of borders and borderlands in politics and in the daily lives of citizens Bordering, ordering, and othering: policies and practices of border openings and closures, and their effects (cooperation and control) overlapping and often competing geopolitical narratives deployed to legitimise various policies Geoeconomics: the impact of economic factors on geopolitical agency The geographical focus of the course is global, but some emphasis is laid on Central and Eastern Europe (in a broad sense). Depending on the availability of guest lecturers, one such is usually invited to one of the classes.

Assessment method

Participants are expected to read max. two provided articles related to each session. The final mark is based on the course paper (65%), article review (15%), and active participation (20%).

Bibliography

Paasi, A. (2020) Political Borders. International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (2nd ed.) 10: 191–198. Sharp, J. (2020) Critical Geopolitics. International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (2nd ed.) 3: 45–49. Storey, D. (2017) States, territory and sovereignty. Geography 102(3): 116–121. Storey, D. (2020) Political Geography. International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (2nd ed.) 10: 199–206. Wastl-Walter, D. (2020) Borderlands. International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (2nd ed.) 1: 373–379.

Programmes of the course