HW for May 5: Ecotopia

  Watch this video with Ernest Callenbach about his visionary novel Ecotopia (1975), about the secession from the US of the eco-minded in Northern California, Oregon and Washington. Comment on two good ideas devised by the citizens of Ecotopia and/or two that would have met with serious challenges or resistance.

HW for April 28th: Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" (1893)

  Comment on one or both:

1. How can you relate the above picture with Jackson Turner's "thesis of the frontier"?

2. Turner codifies types of manly behavior in accordance with their mobility/progression and fixation in the land. Describe how this typification works and comment on it.

HW for Apr 23: Leo Marx, intro to The Machine in the Garden

Answer to either (or relate them in one answer):

1. Read Leo Marx's text in pp. 194-206, and comment on how what you read added to your understanding of "pastoralism" in the United States

2  Comment on the following image, called "American Landscape" (by Charles Sheeler, 1930) in light of Leo Marx's thinking: 

Leadership compass and environmental determinism?

 Remember basic concepts of "Cultural Geography" by Mark Paterson in our anthology, p. 26, where the author asserts that the Berkeley School in the 1920s was the starting point of the discipline and further states: 

"The influence of the Berkeley School persists in cultural geography in the US. This movement focuses on cultural interventions in transforming the surface of the earth, and is thus most interested in material culture and space. It emerged against the prevailing background of "environmental determinism" in the early twentieth-century, where human-environment relations were specified as determined by a starightforward causality." (p. 995 of the encyclopedia entry).

The word "straightforward" is key and should make us wary of simplistic attempts to define behaviours or human types according to geographical locations. One such example is perhaps the "leadership compass" positied by some corporate preachers of leadership:

                                                  in www.monitask.com

Environmentalism without class struggle...

 

HW for Apr. 21: Los Angeles in relation to Yi-Fu Tuan (pp. 162-189)

Choose one or more:

1. Comment on Yi-Fu Tuan's insigths on LA and how its urban planning served the automobilie age.

2. What symbols do you connect more with LA? How are they contradictory? (perhaps, along with some remarks by Yi.Fu Tuan, this poem might help)

3. From pp. 183-188 (anthology), Yi-Fu Tuan talks about the "Skid rows" of America. What do you know about "Skid Row" in LA and how does Yi-Fu Tuan analysis help you understand it?

What does an annotated bibliography look like? (for the next step of final paper - due April 18 (10 a. m.)

Annotated bibliography - where you reference and explain briefly two sources that you plan to use - ONE at least has to be a scholarly article / book or book excerpt - see an example in the second part of this post).

 Preferred citation style is that of MLA 9th 

 An annotated bibliography starts with the bibliographic details of a source (the citation) followed by a brief annotation. As with a normal reference list or bibliography, an annotated bibliography is usually arranged alphabetically according to the author’s last name. An annotated bibliography summary for each entry should not be more than 100 words. Another 100 words whould be reserved for an evaluation (why the work is useful) on the relevance of the citation for the research paper).

   Sample entries for annotated bibliography, based on the documentary

Anderson, Kelly and Allison Lirish Dean. My Brooklyn. New Day Films, 2012. Kanopy Streaming. (

 1. Jacobs, Jane. Life and Death in American Cities. 1963. Modern Library, 1992.  introduction, part II, chapter 8; part III, chap. 15)

 In this book I find especially relevant the “introduction”, chapter 8 of part II (“the need for primary mixed uses”), and chapter 15 of part III (“Unslumming and slumming”). Jacobs critiques mid-20th-century urban planning (e.g., "Radiant Garden City" models, highway expansions, and top-down renewal projects) for ignoring how cities actually function. She argues that cities thrive through organic complexity, and community involvement. Her basic tenets for city development revolve around: i)“density” (namely, amount of people – and strangers – met while walking in the city); ii) varied types of buildings (including old ones); iii) “mixed-uses” (residential, commercial, office and cultural spaces); iv) short and walkable blocks. [summary: 104 words] 

While Jacob’s chapter 8 about "mixed uses" might be fallaciously used to support gentrification processes like Brooklyn's Fulton Mall dismantlement (which served a homogeneous Black/Hispanic community), the documentary shows how this commercial area stabilized residents and fostered culture. Luxury developments may mimic mixed-use theory (starting with the argument of need for office-space) but exclude marginalized groups. Chapter 15 on "unslumming" explains the failures of clearing urban areas through abstract theories rather than reinvestment that keeps residents in place. Although Brooklyn is not properly a slum, the principle of non-displacement in the guise of urban improvement is applicable. [rationale: 96 words] 

2.  Tuan, Yi-Fu. Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values. 1974. Columbia UP, 1990. 

 In Topophilia, Tuan’s Chapter 12 ("Physical Settings and Urban Lifestyles") examines how city environments are reshaped through market forces that both vitalize and standardize urban spaces. He hints at how commercial districts may evolve from organic community hubs into sanitized, profit-driven zones. Chapter 13 ("American Cities: Symbolism, Imagery, Perception") while analysing city symbolism, also contrasts elite vs. street-level perceptions of place (subsection “the view from below”). In this way his axiologic vision includes symbolic stratification, questions of who gets to move through neigborhoods in the city, and who cares for certain neighborhoods. [summary: 92 words] 

Tuan’s observation in Topophilia concerning Harlem —"filthy yet many businesses cater to beautification" (p. 219)—parallels My Brooklyn’s Fulton Mall: a marginalized area that people condemn despite thriving Black-owned shops. Luxury redevelopment, like elite "views from above," imposes sterile order while erasing local commerce and culture. The documentary’s footage of hair salons and record-selling benches mirrors Tuan’s "view from below," revealing how communities sustain identity amid neglect. Here, "beautification" isn’t absent—it’s just deemed illegitimate by planners and so-called “developers”. [rationale: 80 words]

How to go about writing your documentary review

Your 1200-word review should critically examine and evaluate the documentary, partly using Doel’s (2010) cultural geography framework (on moodle and elsewhere in this bolog), integrating as much as possible visual and narrative structures into your discussion. 

[good news: you no longer need to write an afterwards reflection 

Here is a sample structure: 

 Introduction (150 words) Briefly introduce the documentary (title, director, subject). State its main argument/purpose and why it’s relevant to cultural geography. 

Analysis (800 words) Apply 2-4 key questions from Doel, weaving in visual/narrative techniques:

e.g., - How/why was it made? illustrate with cinematography, editing, or storytelling choices. 

- What power relationships does it reveal? illustrate with short discourse analysis of one differences in speech of two stakeholders

 - What identities does it promote? Discuss character portrayals or symbolic imagery.). 

Use 2 research sources to support your claims (cite properly and include bibliography): the in-text exploration of the quotation need not be very expanded. It can be as simple as bringing in a concept as defined in the first three introductory articles of our antholoy, pp. 3-45)

Evaluation & Recommendation (250 words) Assess the documentary’s effectiveness: Does it achieve its goals? Are its methods persuasive or problematic? Recommend (or not) based on its cultural/political value, accuracy, and relevance to geography. Suggest how it could be improved or alternative perspectives to consider.

Deadlines: Bring first draft to class on May 14th; deliver final review by June 2

HW for April 9 - Media Literacy

 Using some aspects of the media literacy disk, compare the news on the 6th of April "Hands off Rally" in Washington DC in WUSA9 here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfK7NBUs98A and in Fox News here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMmo7NfT8YY

Alternatively, use these analysis indicators to speak about the documentary you have to review...

HW for April 7 - Jane Jacobs (anthology, pp. 133-155) and Yi-Fu Tuan (pp. 183-189)

 Answer one or both:

1. What are Jane Jacobs' beliefs about the needs for a living city? How does she see "the verities of orthodox modern city planning" (p.147) as regards those needs, and how does her introduction resonate with the themes of the documentary "My Brooklyn"?

2. Yi-Fu Tuan's subchapter, "the view from below" mostly focused on "Harlem" and then on Chicago's Skid Row, but how do some of his considerations bear on the diversity of neighbourhoods defended by Jacobs, and/or on what you noted down about the Brooklyn documentary?