Local Sites, Global Connections

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2016:

170 hours

Completion of 50 points at Level 2, including at least 25 points from subjects in geography, or permission from subject coordinator. This subject may be taken as a Capstone for the Geography major in the BA and BSc.

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This field class subject, combining on-campus classes with periodic off-campus field work in the Melbourne area, asks the question: in what ways are local sites globally connected? Sites selected for field study around Melbourne will vary year by year, as will the specific processes studied geographically at those sites. For example, study might be made of a selection of places and communities damaged by recent bushfire or flood, investigating how globally-sourced advice, personnel and equipment played a part in responding to those events, forging lasting links between those local places and the sources of their global assistance. Or, the global sources of contamination of local ocean sites might be studied. Or, the global worlds of social media might be mapped, by looking at a set of local social media users within particular urban populations. Or, the manner in which local environmental or urban policies may be drawn from overseas situations might be examined and critiqued, involving investigation of governance sites/settings in our local area and the ways they connect globally.

This is a field class subject, for which the field work will be conducted in Melbourne or its immediate environs. It is not an intensive subject. The subject will be conducted across semester 1, and will include: on-campus (Parkville) classes at the beginning and end of the semester (one 3-hour class per week in weeks 1 to 4, and one such class in week 9); 3-hour, off-campus, field work exercises in the class time of weeks 5-7; and one weekend (2 days x 8 hours each) of field work between weeks 7 and 9. There will be no classes or field work in weeks 10, 11 and 12.

Note this subject may be taken as the Capstone subject for the Geography major and all students completing this subject, whether this subject serves as the Geography Capstone or not, will be invited to present findings from their fieldwork at a special end-of-semester event, to which Geography staff will be invited.

At the successful completion of this subject, students will have:

• Knowledge of the varied and complex ways that local sites are connected globally, and how geography conceptualises and researches these relationships of scale
• Field-work and research skills to enable investigation of relationships between the global and the local that occur in the context of specific issues and places, and how these are experienced and understood
• Understanding of some site-specific examples of global connectedness

A 1,000 word essay/field work proposal due week 4 (25%). An Individual class presentation, 5 minutes (500 word equivalent) due week 4 in class (13%) * Note that if the subject is taken as a Geography Capstone, students may choose to present their work at the end-of-semester Capstone event, rather than in this presentation in week 4. A revised field work proposal, 500 words due in week 7 (12%). A 2,000 word major field work report due in the examination period (50%).

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Environments
• Bachelor of Music

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

Upon successful completion of this subject, students will have skills in:

• articulating research problems that can be researched through local field work
• conducting library searches for relevant, international literature that can be related to local, site-based research problems
• using a case study approach to explore processes and problems situated in particular contexts, relating data and field-based information to conceptual arguments