With particular reference to the contemporary and future city as an `arena' for study, this module conveys a range of current, theoretical and practical approaches in human geography, and seeks to locate this area of study within the broader subject area. The content is seen as forming an essential basis for understanding of material at later levels, particularly that relating to environment, health and well-being, regeneration and tourism.
Some of the lectures will deliver conceptual, background material on aspects of urban morphology and functions, while others will focus on illustrative case studies to demonstrate the `contended' nature of urban function, planning and governance. Later lecture and discussion examines some of the possible futures for cities, in terms of society and environment, form and function. Use of practical and fieldwork examples allows these themes to be demonstrated, at the same time illustrating a range of quantitative and qualitative techniques which can be re-applied in work at later levels. Practical and field approaches are also used to develop students' independent and group-work skills.

- For the `theoretical' element of the module, there will be a weekly, one-hour lecture (total, 12 hours) and six one-hour workshop/discussion sessions (total, 6 hours) - though these two types of learning approaches will often be interspersed within the available class time.
- For the `practical and fieldwork' element, there will be four two-hour workshops and a day field class (total: c.16 hours)
- The remaining 116 hours are allocated to independent study and assessment.

None

Sciences Learning Resource Centre, (for books and planning documents, local maps, offprints)
Sciences IT Suite (for module web-site access and links to on-line library and internet)
University Library

Cloke, P. et al. (eds) (2005) Introducing Human Geographies. Hodder Arnold, London. (Section 8)
Daniels, P. et al. (eds) (2005) An Introduction to Human Geography. Pearson, Harlow. (Section 3)
Knox, P. and Pinch, S. (2006) Urban Social Geography. Pearson, Harlow.
Potter, R. B. et al. (1999) Geographies of Development. Pearson, Harlow. (Chapter 9)
Rogers, R. and Power, A. (2000) Cities for a Small Country. Faber and Faber, London

There are two assessment items:
- A portfolio of work, based on workshop and fieldwork, relating to the `practical' part of the module. This carries 30% of the mark weighting. [Learning outcomes 1, 2, 4, 5]
- An examination, at the end of the module, of 1 hour duration. Half of the marks for this will be based on a series of short-answer questions, from across the module, and the other half upon a `seen' essay question (titles to be given out at the start of the module). The examination relates to the `theoretical' and case-study material, and accounts for 70% of the mark weighting. [Learning outcomes 1, 3, 5]

Formative assessment: Opportunities for ongoing formative feedback will be provided during the workshop sessions via strategies such as discussion of key ideas delivered in the lectures and of field data collection strategies, allowing students to self evaluate their understanding of module materials. Students will also be provided with the opportunity to receive feedback on plans for their `seen' examination question.