Geography is concerned with both the natural and the human environments created on the earth's surface, and with the relationships between them. It is an inherently interdisciplinary subject with links to a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and sciences.
The aim of the geography programme is to give students an holistic understanding of contemporary environmental and social issues, and the links between them, through the critical application of geographical concepts and methods of analysis.
The subject matter consists of both human and physical geography and their sub-fields. Topics covered by the programme include: landforms, processes and materials of the natural environment; population growth, urbanisation, and the spatial patterns of resource exploitation and consumption; the dynamics of development, and the distribution of economic activity and wealth; global, regional and local environmental change through time.
A balanced approach to instruction and assessment is adopted. As well as lecture courses, learning is fostered through laboratory work (part of which is computer-based), tutorials, seminars, and group work. Field work forms a central element of the programme, and all students taking geography to degree level are required to participate in a number of field weekends. Field work has taken place in a wide range of locations both in Ireland and Europe.
Introduction to Geography, what is Geography?, contemporary approaches in Geography; weather and climate, energy and weather, atmospheric circulation, global, regional and local climates, ocean circulation; biogeochemical cycles and the biosphere, environmental systems, ecosystems, biomes, soils; development, vulnerable environments, the developing world, global patterns and dynamics; demography, world population, migration, settlement patterns; cultural systems and identity, religion, language, culture and society, ethnicity and space, race and place, sexual geographies, gender, disability and space
Climate change over geological time, causes of climatic variation and global warming; environmental issues, the environment in crisis, water resources and pollution; air pollution; sustainable development; the rural environment; food production and consumption, land-use and economic patterns; globalisation; urbanisation and contemporary towns and cities; ethnicity and nationalism, inter-relationship of ethnicity and nationalism, conflicts among ethnicities and nationalisms, ethnic cleansing; geopolitics; the changing geography of the state, external relationships, boundaries and frontiers; the globalisation of terror.
The geological time scale; plate tectonics; the Grampian, Caledonian, Variscan and Alpine Orogenies; the closure of the Iapetus Ocean; the formation and disintegration of supercontinents; the Tertiary Period; the Quaternary Period, glacial and interglacial phases, the Last Glacial Maximum, glacial sediments and landscapes; fluvial geomorphology; the formation of karstic landforms; periglacial processes and landforms; coastal geomorphology, changing coastlines, causes and effects of relative sea level change.
Power, space and political geography; geopolitics, places, politics and international relations; geopolitical structure and agency; geopolitical codes and representations; geopolitics and national identities; boundary geopolitics; geopolitical metageographies, internationalisation of terror; state processes and patterns; making states work, the variety of local state systems; state bureaucracy; institutional and political cleavages; state and civil society; territorial and multi-level governance; nations and nationalism; multiculturalism; nationalism and conflict; future of the nation-state.
Approaches to the study of economic geography; techno-economic paradigm shifts and the changing geographies of production; from Fordism to flexible production, the spatial impact of technological change; transnational corporations, foreign direct investment and economic globalisation; de-industrialisation and the growth of the service economy; the transformation of work and employment; new information and communication technologies and the changing geographies of services; innovation, industrial clusters and the knowledge economy.
Nature and types of geographical research; using databases and electronic journals to find previous work; secondary data sources; theory and methods of sampling; methods and instruments for social surveys; introduction to the use of basic field equipment and instrumentation; coding and inputting data; exploratory data analysis; measuring relationships; analysing qualitative data; use of topographical maps; creating thematic maps; writing a research proposal.
Biogeographical theory; historical biogeography; island biogeography; domestication and agriculture; coastal biogeography; ecosystems; biodiversity; environmental change; conservation and habitat management; human impact on ecosystems.
The study of Irish historical geography, concepts and methods of analysis; primary and secondary sources; pre-historic Ireland, geography and archaeology; ‘celtic’ landscapes; society and settlement in the iron age; early medieval Ireland, Vikings, proto towns, the development of the early Irish church; medieval landscapes in Ireland, from Gaelic to feudal power; 17th century landscapes, the civil and down surveys; plantation landscapes; society and settlement in 18th century Ireland; landlords, enclosures and famine, the changing nature of the 19th century landscape.
The nature of climate and climatic variation over geological time; climate system feedback mechanisms; Quaternary environmental change; reconstructing vegetation and landscape history; reconstructing environmental pollution; lithological evidence, glacial and periglacial sediments, palaeosols, lake and peatland sediments, marine sediments, wind-blown sediments, cave deposits, ice cores; biological evidence, terrestrial, marine and freshwater macro- and microfossils; dating and chronological techniques, stratigraphical correlation; field methods and techniques.
Concepts of the region and the locale; area-based or geographical development; policies, practices and innovations; the development of urban and rural territories; neighbourhood dynamics and interventions; economic processes and disparities; peripherality and deprivation; territorial competitiveness; drivers and agents of development; spatial planning; transnational and inter-territorial collaboration.
Understanding tourism, concepts and methods of analysis; prospects and challenges for tourist provision, global, national and local issues; rethinking tourism impacts; economic impacts; physical impacts; social impacts; tourism planning and policy at the international and supranational level; tourism planning and policy at the national and sub-national level; sustainable tourism; understanding heritage, concepts and methods of analysis; heritage landscapes; heritage management; heritage providers; heritage representation in areas of conflict; heritage interpretations; future role of the heritage industry.
Global climate change; past climates, air quality, air pollution, biological response to climate change; human impact on the earth’s surface, agriculture, deforestation, desertification, irrigation, biodiversity loss, coastal zone issues; water resources and pollution, demand for water, marine and freshwater pollution, groundwater abstraction.
Contemporary patterns of urban growth and development; differential urbanisation and the cycle of urbanisation; the size distribution of urban settlements; specialisation and diversity in the urban economic base; the distinctive city; world cities and transnational urban networks; models and patterns of land value and land use; household location and the socio-spatial structure of urban areas; social polarisation and residential segregation in the post-Fordist city; the urban role of government; land use planning, zoning and development control; urban renewal and regeneration; the sustainable city; governance and jurisdictional fragmentation in the contemporary metropolis.
Space, place, and territory in contemporary Europe; political systems and modes of organisation; cultural identities and cleavages; inter-territorial dynamics; structures and processes of the EU and other supranational bodies; workings, outputs and impacts of supra-nationalism; Europe and the world; international relations; transatlantic dynamics; towards a common foreign and security policy; enlargement and European order; socio-cultural and demographic perspectives.
Supervised study of an approved geographical topic, in which students apply the concepts and methods of geographical analysis.