Examiners’ commentaries 2016
Examiners’ commentaries 2016
GY3153 Space and culture
Important note
This commentary reflects the examination and assessment arrangements
for this course in the academic year 2015–16. The format and structure
of the examination may change in future years, and any such changes
will be publicised on the virtual learning environment (VLE).
Information about the subject guide and the Essential reading
references
Unless otherwise stated, all cross-references in these commentaries are
to the former version of the subject guide (2011). A new subject guide
was published in 2016. You should always attempt to use the most
recent edition of any Essential reading textbook, even if the commentary
and/or online reading list and/or subject guide refer to an earlier
edition. If different editions of Essential reading are listed, please check
the VLE for reading supplements – if none are available, please use the
contents list and index of the new edition to find the relevant section.
General remarks
Learning outcomes
At the end of this course, and having completed the Essential reading and
activities, you should be able to:
• describe the theoretical contribution and development of ‘new’ cultural
geography
• critically analyse space and culture through the lens of ‘new’ cultural
geography
• discuss the value of social construction of space and culture
• apply a range of social and cultural texts in analysis of key course
contexts.
Planning your time in the examination
You must take time (generally, about two to three minutes) to read over
the examination paper and to select the questions you feel you can answer
best.
• It would be useful to make some short notes about how you will
answer the questions before you begin to write your answers (again,
allow two to three minutes).
• Make sure you give equal time to all your answers. Watch the time!
• Take time (three to five minutes) at the end of the examination to read
over your answers and make any changes as necessary.
What are the examiners looking for?
• You must present a clear argument for each examination answer.
Present, develop and sustain your argument.
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GY3153 Space and culture
• You need to demonstrate your analytical ability by drawing on the
relevant literature. This will show your judgement as to which material
is most relevant to answering the question.
• You should demonstrate theoretical ideas/arguments by drawing on
empirical examples.
• You must pay close attention to the structure of each examination
answer. Present the argument in summary form in the introductory
paragraph and develop the argument as you approach the conclusion,
which should summarise the main points of your argument.
• You must write legibly.
Key steps to improvement
• The subject guide is a basic introduction to ‘new cultural geography’;
as such, you should read beyond the subject guide, as this will give you
additional material to use when answering the examination questions.
• You must take a critical analytical approach to each examination
question, one that uses ‘new cultural geography’ and associated
empirical evidence.
• There are different ways to answer questions. However, your
arguments must always be clear and they must be linked to the
material covered in the subject guide.
Examination revision strategy
Many candidates are disappointed to find that their examination
performance is poorer than they expected. This may be due to a
number of reasons. The Examiners’ commentaries suggest ways of
addressing common problems and improving your performance. One
particular failing is ‘question spotting’, that is, confining your
examination preparation to a few questions and/or topics which
have come up in past papers for the course. This can have serious
consequences.
We recognise that candidates may not cover all topics in the syllabus
in the same depth, but you need to be aware that examiners are free
to set questions on any aspect of the syllabus. This means that you
need to study enough of the syllabus to enable you to answer the
required number of examination questions.
The syllabus can be found in the Course information sheet in the
section of the VLE dedicated to each course. You should read the
syllabus carefully and ensure that you cover sufficient material in
preparation for the examination. Examiners will vary the topics and
questions from year to year and may well set questions that have not
appeared in past papers. Examination papers may legitimately include
questions on any topic in the syllabus. So, although past papers can be
helpful during your revision, you cannot assume that topics or specific
questions that have come up in past examinations will occur again.
If you rely on a question-spotting strategy, it is likely
you will find yourself in difficulties when you sit the
examination. We strongly advise you not to adopt this
strategy.
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Examiners’ commentaries 2016
Examiners’ commentaries 2016
GY3153 Space and culture – Zones A and B
Important note
This commentary reflects the examination and assessment arrangements
for this course in the academic year 2015–16. The format and structure
of the examination may change in future years, and any such changes
will be publicised on the virtual learning environment (VLE).
Information about the subject guide and the Essential reading
references
Unless otherwise stated, all cross-references in these commentaries are
to the former version of the subject guide (2011). A new subject guide
was published in 2016. You should always attempt to use the most
recent edition of any Essential reading textbook, even if the commentary
and/or online reading list and/or subject guide refer to an earlier
edition. If different editions of Essential reading are listed, please check
the VLE for reading supplements – if none are available, please use the
contents list and index of the new edition to find the relevant section.
Comments on specific questions
Candidates should answer THREE of the following TEN questions. All
questions carry equal marks.
Question 1
‘The merging of social and cultural geography has produced better geographical
analysis.’ Discuss.
Reading for this question
Crang, M. Cultural geography. (London and New York: Routledge, 2008) 2nd
edition [ISBN 9780415252126] Chapter 2.
Cosgrove, D. ‘Orders and a new world: cultural geography’ 1990–91, Progress
in human geography, 16(2) 1992 pp.272–80.
Cosgrove, D. and P. Jackson ‘New directions in cultural geography’, Area 19
1987 pp.95–101.
Duncan, J. ‘The superorganic in American cultural geography’, Annals of the
Association of American Geographers, 72 1980 pp.30–59.
Gregson, N. ‘Beyond boundaries: the shifting sands of social geography’,
Progress in human geography, 1992 16(3) pp.387–92.
Jackson, P. Maps of meaning: an introduction to cultural geography. (London
and New York: Routledge, 1989, reprinted 2006) [ISBN 9780415090889]
Chapters 1 and 2.
Mitchell, D. Cultural geography: a critical introduction. (Oxford: Blackwell,
2000) [ISBN 9781557868923] Chapter 1.
Price, M. and M. Lewis The reinvention of cultural geography, Annals of the
Association of American Geographers 83 1993 pp.1–17.
Shurmer-Smith, P. Doing cultural geography. (London: Sage, 2002) [ISBN
9780761965657].
Valentine, G. Social geographies: space and society. (Harlow: Pearson, 2001)
[ISBN 9780582357778].
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GY3153 Space and culture
Approaching the question
This question demands a sound knowledge of the history of social and
cultural geography, of their merging in the ‘new’ cultural geography, and
of the outcomes for geographical analysis in general. The latter you must
discuss using examples. The bulk of the answer should focus on what the
merging of social and cultural geography did to improve geographical
analysis (if you believe it did improve it; if not, you must state why, clearly
backing up your answer with reference to the literature). The new blend
of socio-cultural geography took on board the notion of social construction
underlining the fact that we can only understand something through the
meaning that we as humans give to it; it is both reality and fiction in one.
You should discuss what kinds of geographical analysis occurred before the
merger, those that came after, and their success, and to score extra marks
their value in future geographical analysis.
Question 2
How, and why, do socio-cultural geographers study texts?
Reading for this question
Barnes, T. and J. Duncan Writing worlds: discourse, text and metaphor in the
representation of landscape. (London and New York: Routledge, 1992)
[ISBN 9780415069830].
Duncan, J. The city as text: the politics of landscape interpretation in the Kandyan
Kingdom. (Cambridge: University Press, 1990) [ISBN 9780521353052].
Duncan, J. and D. Ley (eds) Place, culture, representation. (London, New York:
Routledge, 1993) [ISBN 9780415094518].
Hall, S. (ed.) Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices.
(Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1997) [ISBN 9780761954316 (hardback),
9780761954323 (paperback)].
Mitchell (2000) Chapters 4 and 5.
Peirce, L. ‘Learning from looking: geographic and other writing about the
American cultural landscape’, American Quarterly, 35 1983pp.242–61.
Said, E. ‘Narrative, geography and interpretation’, New Left Review, 180 1990
pp.81–97.
Winchester, H., L. Kong and K. Dunn Landscapes: ways of imagining the world.
(Harlow: Pearson Education, 2003) [ISBN 9780582288782].
Approaching the question
Chapter 4 of the guide provides most of what you will need to answer this
question. Key to answering this question is to understand that everything
geographers came to study after the cultural turn was seen to be a text –
whether landscape, the body, a map, whatever. Objects and subjects could
be read as texts. The idea of reading landscape as text came from social
constructivism and, as such, you need to discuss the import of ideas from
social constructivism into the ‘new’ cultural geography. It is also important
to discuss in some detail the texts that geographers have studied (e.g.
the city as text, and why?). What is the value of the text idea in terms of
studying a city, for example? How does the text idea aid interpretation
and analysis? How did it move human geography forwards theoretically,
analytically and conceptually?
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Examiners’ commentaries 2016
Question 3
Why did Carl Sauer’s super-organicism influence the birth of ‘new cultural
geography’?
Reading for this question
Cloke, P. ‘Cultural turn’, in Johnston, R., D. Gregory, G. Pratt and M. Watts (eds)
The dictionary of human geography. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000) 4th edition
[ISBN 9780631205616] pp.141–143.
Cook, I., D. Crouch, S. Naylor and J. Ryan (eds) Cultural turns/Geographical
turns: perspectives on cultural geography. (Singapore: Prentice Hall, 2000)
[ISBN 9780582368873].
Cosgrove and Jackson (1987).
Duncan (1980).
Duncan, J. and N. Duncan ‘(Re)-reading the landscape’, Environment and
Planning D: society and space 6 19881pp.17–126.
Gregory, D. and D. Ley ‘Culture’s geographies’, Environment and Planning D:
society and space 6 1988 pp.155–156.
Mitchell (2000) Chapter 2.
Philo, C. (ed.) New words, new worlds: reconceptualising social and cultural
geography. (Proceedings of a conference organised by the ‘Social and
Cultural Geography Study Group’ of the Institute of British Geographers,
1991) [ISBN 9780905285320].
Solot, M. ‘Carl Sauer and Cultural Evolution’, Annals of the Association of
American Geographers 76 1986 pp.508–20.
Approaching the question
This question asks you why Carl Sauer’s super-organicism influenced
the birth of ‘new’ cultural geography. The answer is that the birth of
new cultural geography marked a turn away from Carl Sauer’s superorganicism – the idea that culture, not individual people, controlled
landscape. Sauer conceived of culture as super-organic, he saw culture
as an entity at a higher level than the person, that had a logic of its
own and constrained human behaviour (read Duncan, 1980). New
cultural geography rejected the super-organic and instead focused on
human beings as the agents and social constructers of landscape change.
Geographers criticised Sauer’s unitary view of culture in favour of a
constantly negotiated and constituted plurality of cultures and they
argued that cultures should be seen as politically contested and landscape
as culturally constructed. The joining of social and cultural geography
demanded the rejection of a super-organic culture in favour of a more
sociological approach taken from social geography.
Question 4
Discuss the relationship between sexuality and the spatial dynamics of
capitalism.
Reading for this question
Blunt, A. and J. Wills ‘Sexual orientations: geographies of desire’ in Dissident
geographies: an introduction to radical ideas and practice. (Singapore:
Prentice Hall, 2000) [ISBN 9780582294899] pp.128–166.
Brown, M. ‘Closet geography’, Environment and Planning D: society and space 14
1996 pp.762–69.
Brown, M. Closet space: geographies of metaphor from the body to the globe.
(London and New York: Routledge, 2000) [ISBN 9780415187657].
Browne, K., G. Brown and J. Lim Geographies of sexuality: theory, practice and
politics. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007) [ISBN 9780754647614].
Castells, M. The city and the grass roots. (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1983) [ISBN 978-0520056176].
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GY3153 Space and culture
Castells, M. and K. Murphy ‘Cultural identity and urban structure: the spatial
organization of San Francisco’s gay community,’ in Fainstein, N. and S.
Fainstein (eds) Urban policy under capitalism. (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1982)
[ISBN 9780803917989].
Foucault, M. The history of sexuality, vol. 1. (Vintage Books: New York, 1990)
[ISBN 9780679724698].
Kirby, S. and I. Hay ‘(Hetero)sexing space: gay men and “straight” space
in Adelaide, South Australia’, Professional Geographer 49 (3) 1997
pp.295–305.
Knopp, L. ‘Gentrification and gay neighborhood formation in New Orleans: a
case study’, in A. Gluckman, and B. Reed (eds) Homo economics: capitalism,
community, lesbian and gay life. (London and New York: Routledge, 1997)
[ISBN 9780415913799].
Knopp, L. ‘Sexuality and the spatial dynamics of capitalism’, Environment and
Planning D: society and space, 10 1992 pp.651–69.
Knopp, L. and M. Lauria ‘Towards an analysis of the role of gay communities in
the urban renaissance,’ Urban Geography 6 1985 pp.387–410.
Mitchell (2000) Read Chapter 7 only.
Approaching the question
Although Chapter 10 of the guide provides wider reading on the geographies
of sexuality, the focus of this question is on the now classic paper: L. Knopp,
‘Sexuality and the spatial dynamics of capitalism’ (1992). This paper was
significant at the time in clearly articulating the relationship between
sexuality and the spatial dynamics of capitalism, drawing both on Foucault’s
work on sexuality and its policing and Marxist work on the spatiality of
capitalism. Heterosexuality was desired by the capitalist order in that social
reproduction in heterosexual family units created the future labour force for
capitalism. Knopp discusses all this plus how homosexuality stood against
this but also how gay men could become implicated in the wider dynamics.
A good answer requires clear understanding of these literatures and the
ability to discuss them in a structured and interesting way.
Question 5
What strategies have annihilated space by law in Western cities and what have
the impacts been?
Reading for this question
Allen, J. and C. Hamnett (eds) A shrinking world? Global unevenness and
inequality. (Oxford: Oxford University Press/The Open University, 1995)
[ISBN 9780198741879].
Davis, M. City of Quartz: excavating the future in Los Angeles. (London and New
York: Verso, 1990) [ISBN 9780860913030].
Lees, L., T. Slater and E. Wyly Gentrification. (New York: Routledge, 2007)
[ISBN 9780415950374].
Mitchell, D. ‘The annihilation of space by law: the roots and implications of
anti-homeless laws in the United States’, Antipode, 29(3) 1997 pp.303–35.
Sibley, D. (ed.) ‘Social exclusion, special issue’, Geoforum 29(2) 1998.
Sibley, D. Geographies of exclusion: society and difference in the West. (London:
Routledge, 1995) [ISBN 9780415119252].
Smith, D.M. Geography and social justice. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994) [ISBN
9780631190264].
Smith, D.M. Geography, inequality and society. (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1987) [ISBN 978052126944X].
Approaching the question
The answer to this question should refer to Chapter 7 of the subject guide.
The question uses the following reference: Mitchell (1997) pp.303–35. But
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Examiners’ commentaries 2016
‘the annihilation of space by law’ can be discussed beyond anti-homeless
legislation if preferred. For example, you could discuss zero-tolerance
policies in US cities like New York or in other Western cities, which have
removed undesirables from city streets, such as food vendors, etc. Mike
Davis also talks about the carceral city in his book on Los Angeles, City
of Quartz. The key to answering this question is to discuss the way that
law has been used in supposedly democratic countries to restrict access to
space, whether of the street (which is a supposedly public space), public
parks, or downtowns. The result is spatial inequality where the wealthy
have rights of access and use and the poor or marginal do not. To gain
extra marks, a student should link this to the rise of neoliberalism and its
privatising agenda from gating to gentrification of whole downtowns. Case
studies of ‘the annihilation of space by law’ are important to include as
they can be used to demonstrate your key points.
Question 6
What have women’s experiences of public space in the city been over time?
Reading for this question
Bondi, L. and M. Domosh ‘On the contours of public space: a tale of three
women’, Antipode, 30(3) 1998 pp.270–89.
Bowlby, S. ‘Women and the designed environment (special issue)’, Built
Environment 16 1991.
Greed, C. Women and planning: creating gendered realities. (London: Routledge,
1994) [ISBN 9780415079810].
MATRIX Making space: women and the man-made environment. (London: Pluto
Press, 1984) [ISBN 97808610046013].
Rendell, J. ‘Displaying sexuality: gendered identities and the early nineteenthcentury street’, in N. Fyfe, (ed.) Images of the street: planning, identity and
control in public space. (London and New York: Routledge, 1998) [ISBN
9780415154413].
Ryan, J. ‘Women, modernity and the city’, Theory, culture and society 11 1994
35–63.
Stansell, C. City of women: sex and class in New York 1789–1860. (Urbana and
Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987) [ISBN 9780252014819].
Zola, E. Au bonheur des dames, (1883). (Distribooks Intl., 1999 edition) [ISBN
9782877142078] or Ladies’ Paradise. (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1998 edition) [ISBN 9780192836021].
Approaching the question
Chapter 9 of the subject guide provides much of the information you
need to be able to answer this question well. You will need to discuss
the spatialisation of patriarchal power found embedded in urban space,
comparing this over time – a comparison of the modern or industrial city
with the postmodern or postindustrial city would be sensible given it
frames two different time periods well in terms of access to public space.
Of course the industrial city did not allow unchaperoned middle-class
women into public space (hence the emergence of department stores,
libraries, etc.) but working-class women could roam freely. The public–
private gendered binary must be discussed – men in the public sphere,
women in the private sphere of the modern city and the impacts when this
broke down and women entered the space of men in the postmodern city
(e.g. the downtown workplace etc.). Critically, the question asks you to
focus on women’s experiences – examples of this must be drawn from
the literature and described in detail.
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GY3153 Space and culture
Question 7
‘Since its birth as a discipline, Geography has been a racist enterprise.’ Discuss.
Reading for this question
Blunt, A. and J. Wills ‘Decolonising geography: postcolonial perspectives’,
in Dissident geographies: an introduction to radical ideas and practice.
(Singapore: Prentice Hall, 2000) [ISBN 9780582294899]. Read Chapter 5
only.
Driver, F. Geography militant: cultures of exploration and empire. (Oxford:
Blackwell, 2000) [ISBN 9780631201120].
Livingstone, D. The geographical tradition. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992) [ISBN
9780631185864].
Maddrell, A. ‘Discourses of race and gender and the comparative method in
geography school texts, 1830–1918’, Environment and Planning D: society
and space 16 1998 pp.81–103.
Mitchell, T. Colonising Egypt. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988)
[ISBN 0520075684].
Said, E. Culture and imperialism. (London: Vintage, 1993) [ISBN
9780679750543].
Smith, N. and A. Godlweska (eds) Geography and empire. (Oxford: Blackwell,
1994) [ISBN 9780631193852].
Approaching the question
This question is about the roots of the discipline of geography in
colonialism, a colonialism that was racist to the core. It identifies the birth
of (British) geography in the geographical expeditions in Africa, Asia, the
Middle East and the Americas in the mid to late 1800s. These expeditions
were led by white middle-class men who believed in their own superiority,
which was enforced on indigenous populations for the purposes of empire
building and in that economic exploitation. The question is framed as a
statement you can either agree or disagree with and it would be hard to
disagree, as the evidence is stacked in favour of agreement. It would be
interesting to consider when and why geographers became aware and selfcritical of this racist history; of course the ideas on social constructivism
from the cultural turn were important here as they showed knowledge to
be socially produced and a product of its time.
Question 8
What are some of the ‘unnatural discourses’ around ‘race’ and gender in
geography?
Reading for this question
Blunt, A. and J. Wills ‘Embodying geography: feminist geographies of gender’
in Dissident geographies: an introduction to radical ideas and practice.
(Singapore: Prentice Hall, 2000) [ISBN 9780582294899] pp.90–127.
Jackson, P. and J. Penrose (eds) Constructions of race, place and nation.
(London: UCL Press, 1993 or USA edition, University of Minnesota Press,
1994) [ISBN 9780816625055].
Jackson, P. (ed.) Race and racism: essays in social geography. (London:
Routledge, 1987) [ISBN 9780043050026].
Kobayashi, A. and L. Peake ‘Unnatural discourse: “race” and gender in
geography’, Gender, place and culture 1 1994 pp.225–243.
Massey, D. Space, place and gender (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota
Press, 1994) [ISBN 9780816626175].
Mitchell (2000).
Rose, G. Feminism and geography: the limits of geographical knowledge.
(Cambridge: Polity Press, 1993) [ISBN 0745611567].
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Examiners’ commentaries 2016
Smith, S. The politics of ‘race’ and residence: citizenship, segregation and
white supremacy in Britain. (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1989) [ISBN
9780745603599].
Women and Geography Study Group of the IBG, Feminist geographies:
explorations of diversity and difference. (Addison Wesley: Longman, 1997)
[ISBN 9780582246362].
Approaching the question
The key text in answering this question is Kobayashi and Peake’s
‘Unnatural discourse: “race” and gender in geography’. This is now a
classic text. Both race and gender are social cleavages, aspects of identity.
They are also related to how we are placed/located in society. Each
of these aspects of our identity is socially constructed and the work in
geography that has been undertaken on them is a little different in each
case. It would be useful to draw on the other texts in the guide on race
and gender to broaden out your discussion beyond Kobayashi and Peake.
Race and ethnicity need to be articulated separately – gender is different
to sex! Each of these literatures has a different underbelly; for example,
the geography literature on gender is embedded in feminist theory more
generally.
Question 9
‘There is a new gender order of space in the post-industrial city.’ Discuss.
Reading for this question
Bowlby (1991).
Greed (1994).
Laurie, N. et al. Geographies of new femininities. (London: Longman, 1999)
[ISBN 9780582320240].
Leslie, D. ‘Femininity, post-Fordism, and the “new traditionalism”’, Environment
and Planning D: society and space 11 1993 pp.689–708.
Massey (1994).
MATRIX (1984).
McDowell, L. ‘Life without Father and Ford: the new gender order of postFordism’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 16 1991
pp.400–416.
Mitchell (2000) Read Chapter 8 only.
Pratt, G. Working feminism. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004)
[ISBN 9781592132645].
Pratt, G. and S. Hanson ‘Gender, class and space’, Environment and Planning D:
society and space 6 (1988) pp.15–35.
Approaching the question
The following issues need to be discussed in answering this question: with
the advent of a new gender order associated with post-Fordism, gendered
spaces in the Western city have changed. Consumer-led gendering of
space has continued, shopping malls are the postmodern equivalent of the
modern city’s department store. The two main features of the new gender
order of post-Fordism are: 1) more women go into the traditionally male
workplace of the city; and 2) more men stay at home in the traditionally
female space of the suburb/home. This has both a gender and a class
dimension. In the move to post-Fordism, to a new more socially and
economically flexible era, gender is yet again being used to structure men’s
and women’s places in the labour market. Under Fordism, men tended to
benefit from work patterns and women tended to lose out; women usually,
but not always, undertook reproductive labour at home. The opposite has
happened under post-Fordism, causing a crisis in masculinity for some
men.
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GY3153 Space and culture
Question 10
What is a soundscape? Discuss one soundscape of your choice in detail.
Reading for this question
Duncan (1993).
Hall, S. (ed.) Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices.
(Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1997) [ISBN 9780761954323].
Lorimer, H. ‘Cultural geography: the busyness of being more-thanrepresentational’, Progress in human geography 29(1) 2005 pp.83–94.
Mitchell (2000) Chapters 4 and 5.
Rodaway, P. Sensuous geographies: body, sense, place. (London and New York:
Routledge, 1994) [ISBN 9780415088291].
Smith, S. ‘Soundscape’, Area 26(3) 1994 pp.232–40.
Thrift, N. ‘Non-representational theory’ in Johnston, Gregory, Pratt and Watts
(2000).
Approaching the question
The key reading for answering this question is Smith (1994). Your answer
must locate the idea of a soundscape in the work on landscape as text
that emerged as a result of the cultural turn. It must, as part one of the
question asks, tell us what a soundscape is. Then you have a lot of scope
to take the essay where you want in part two in terms of discussing a
soundscape of your own choice (this can be from the academic literature
or it can be a soundscape you know well or even take part in yourself).
This question gives you a much wider remit than the other questions on
the exam paper; this can be positive for a strong student who writes and
argues well, less good for a weaker student.
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