Geography with Business BA Hons

The module provides you with introductory knowledge about current issues in human geography. It critically examines the complex relations between people and places through key themes and concepts in current human geography.

Attention is given to innovative work in cultural, historical, medical, environmental, economic and development geography and to the traditionally broad perspective of human geography as a whole. The module will examine a variety of key themes that may vary from year to year. This module provides a foundation for more specialised human geography modules at levels 2 and 3.

The module introduces you to geographical research on place, conveying current research in the field, including that carried out within the School of Geography. You will gain knowledge of key concepts and methodological approaches, with understanding developed through the examination of place-based case studies.

Lectures will outline developments in the geographical study of place in recent decades, and explore key themes such as place and memory, place and knowledge, and place and identity. The challenges and opportunities offered by the digital exploration of place will be outlined, using case studies of digital mapping and the public display of geographical information. Regional case studies will show how the research themes presented in the module can be brought together around the study of specific places and landscapes.

Throughout the module, staff will draw upon their own research as well as the wider academic literature, giving students a sense of the possibilities of geographical research exploring place.

This module provides the basic statistical concepts and techniques required for the study of geography. Topics include:

• spreadsheets and statistical packages
• introduction to statistical concepts 
• descriptive statistics and distributions
• exploratory data analysis
• parametric and non-parametric tests
• correlation and regression
• ANOVA

The module provides you with the theoretical background and practical training to undertake basic spatial analysis within a contemporary Geographic Information System (GIS). 

It is built upon a structured set of paired theory lectures and practical sessions, supported by detailed theory topics delivered via Moodle, which contain linkages to associated textbook resources. It aims to ensure competency in the use of a contemporary GIS software package whilst developing transferable ICT skills.

It also encourages you to develop the analytical skills necessary for the creation of workflows that utilise the built-in analytical functionality of a GIS to solve a spatial problem.

The module introduces you to contemporary and historical approaches to understanding economic globalisation and its spatial unevenness. You will develop knowledge relating to globalisation as a set of discourses and practices using case studies relating to key themes of relevance.

Lectures will outline the key debates relating to globalisation as a phenomenon and will interrogate the relevance of the concept through an examination of commodities, labour and work, governance and money and finance.

You will also explore the spatial unevenness of globalisation, and develop understandings of the ways in which globalisation has contributed to an increasingly unequal and differentiated society at a variety of scales. Alternatives to globalisation will also be discussed, focusing upon various counter-globalisation strategies in the forms of localism, activism and protest.

Throughout the module, staff will draw upon their own research as well as the wider academic literature, giving you a sense of the complexity, and importance, of globalisation as a set of theories and a set of sited realities.

Small group tutorials in both the autumn and spring semesters in which emphasis will be placed on discussion, essay writing and seminar presentations which will be based on topics in the qualifying year geography modules and from broader intellectual, cultural and political fields.

This module covers:

• self-marketing and CVs
• preparing for interviews and assessment
• careers for geographers
• subject-focused vocational talk
• postgraduate study (masters and PhD) 
• guest lectures (for example, from Royal Geographical Society - Institute of British Geographers) 
• career planning 

Topics will be delivered by the school's Career Advisor from the Careers and Employability Service and academics from the School of Geography.

Importantly, you will be expected to make regular use of the Careers and Employability Service to assist with progress during the year and attend a range of employer presentations and other events (for example, employer fairs).

This module will cover the ways in which marketing and consumption drive business and shape society. It will provide an historical perspective, consider marketing professions and leadership within organisational contexts, and examine contemporary environments for marketing and consumption with particular attention to globalisation, innovation (including the transformative force of new technologies), and ethical and sustainability issues.

This module will introduce you to the basic ideas of organisational behaviour. The content will encourage you to develop an understanding of managing and developing people within business organisations.

The module will draw its primary material from the major theorists and theories of both organisational psychology and organisational behaviour. The module will also develop links with other aspects of the business school curriculum such as general management and international business.

The module explores the nature of work and society. The module will look at the development of our understanding of work and society. The development of the industrial and the post-industrial society will be explored and its impact on the nature of work, organisation and management.

There will be a historical and critical review of the schools of thought and key writers. Examples of research into individual and group experiences of work, organisation and management will be discussed.

This module is taught by formal lectures, scheduled preliminary fieldwork, and supervision meetings with your dissertation tutor. It covers the following:

• Introduction to the dissertation process and procedures 
• What is a dissertation? 
• Ethics, risk and safety implications when conducting geographical research 
• Preparing a dissertation proposal 
• Writing and presenting a dissertation
• Evaluation of past dissertations

This module will cover the following topics:

• Changing economic geographies of the world economy during the 20th and 21st centuries 
• Global cities, financial geographies and advanced producer services 
• Alternative economies and labour resistence 
• Economic geographies of the Global South
• Economic geographies of forced labour and migration
• Feminist economic geography

This module will cover the breadth of world-leading research being carried out in the School of Geography and is reflected in the school's research themes:

• Cultural and Historical Geography
• Economic Worlds
• Environment and Society
• Geosciences

For students taking Geography with Business or Environmental Sciences, content of tutorials will be restricted to meet the aims of these courses.

This module allows you to understand and experience human geography research methods through participation in three practical projects. The module covers methods for: arts and humanities research (such as archival research, visual and textual analysis); social science research (such as interviewing, questionnaires and discussion groups); and quantitative human geography research (such as mapping and visualisation).

Topic covered include:

• environment
• theory of multinational enterprises
• entry strategies
• international leadership
• operating in international markets

This module considers several of the transformations that have arisen in contemporary organisations as a result of the use of information systems. Topics include different ways to understand the relationship between technology and organisation and implications of technology for knowledge management and other management areas.

This module introduces you to cultural and historical geography including the:

• development of cultural and historical geography as sub-disciplines
• key thematic areas of contemporary cultural and historical geography, including landscape, identity, culture, power and knowledge 
• theoretical underpinnings of cultural and historical geography 
• links between cultural and historical geography and other fields of enquiry in the humanities and social sciences 
• methods and sources used in cultural and historical geographical research, including archives, texts and images, and field study 
• work of key figures from the sub-disciplines past and present

This module provides a consideration of the following:

• Introduction to GI science/systems/studies/services 
• Spatial data types and sources 
• Vector processing algorithms 
• Raster processing algorithms
• Spatial analysis and decision making 
• Professional training in ArcGIS 

This module provides a general introduction to the subject of earth observation. This involves analysing remotely sensed images, typically acquired from instruments on board satellites or aircraft, to investigate spatial phenomena on the Earth's surface.

Example topics include the use of global image data sets to investigate climate change, analysis of satellite sensor imagery to identify wildlife habitats and conservation concerns, and urban land use mapping from detailed aerial photography. Theoretical lectures cover the concepts underpinning remote sensing, including the physical principles determining image creation, fundamental image characteristics, methods of image analysis and uses or applications of earth observation.

There is also a strong practical component to the module, with regular practical exercises on various forms of digital image analysis.

This module explores aspects of medical geography, with special reference to the geography of infectious diseases. Topics include:

• the nature of medical geography and the geography of health
• the history of medical geography
• epidemiological concepts 
• the disease record 
• the epidemiological transition 
• spatial diffusion of infectious diseases 
• the geography of disease emergence and re-emergence 
• islands as epidemiological laboratories 
• geography of war and disease 
• disease forecasting and control

This module explores a range of rural environmental issues in the global South and modern Britain from the perspective of a range of different stakeholders. Particular attention is placed on how environmental use and management varies over time and space and in relation to socio-economic status, gender and community. Key topics examined are:

• the growth of environmentalist and conservationist thinking
• the evolution of development thinking
• the impacts of colonial policy-making on rural environments in the global South
• agrarian change, the green revolution and sustainable agriculture
• different types of environmental knowledge, including indigenous and certified expertise
• gender, environmental use and management
• participatory appraisal approaches in the global South
• the ways in which policy has shaped the British countryside since the post-World War II period
• the rise of agri-environmentalism
• rural sustainable development
• rural resource conservation
• the prospects for future landscape change in Britain

This module introduces  you to urban geography, including the:

• historical development of urban geography as a sub-discipline
• key thematic areas of contemporary urban geography, including research in the social, economic and cultural and historical geographies of cities
• theoretical underpinnings of approaches to urban geography
• importance of cities in understanding social difference, cultural landscapes and economic development in the Global North and South
• work of key figures from the sub-disciplines past and present

This module introduces you to the nature and scope of the macroeconomic policy agenda, and develops the analytical frameworks necessary for the evaluation of policy instruments. The module enables you to understand the economic arguments that underlie different views and to evaluate relevant arguments. 

Content to be confirmed.

This module aims to provide you with a critical understanding of the context, strategies, issues and key debates of International Human Resource Management (IHRM). Areas covered include:

• Globalisation and HRM
• HRM in multinational companies
• HRM in emerging economies

This module is designed to focus on the strategic and operational aspects of marketing management. It will examine:

• understanding the marketing concept
• the role of marketing within business and its contribution to business performance and enhancing value
• developing marketing strategy
• segmentation, targeting and positioning
• managing the marketing mix
• planning and implementation

This is a 10,000 word individual project based on a geographical topic involving fieldwork and/or secondary data, and agreed by the candidate with their tutor and a specialist supervisor.

Part I - Principles and Systems

1. Introduction: the past, present and the future (Overview of the remote sensing model, its origins, present status and where the future lies for this continually evolving science)
2. Electromagnetic radiation and the terrestrial environment (Radiation physics for remote sensing, how it is utilised for mapping and monitoring)
3. Interaction of radiation with matter (Reflected radiation: visible, near infrared and middle infrared wavelengths)
4. Interaction of radiation with matter (Emitted radiation: thermal and microwave wavelengths)
5. Sensing systems
6. Remote sensing scale and data selection issues (Understanding and optimising data)

Part II - Information Extraction

1. Digital image processing, with particular focus on image classification for land cover mapping
2. Using remote sensing data (Practical based sessions)
3. Exploiting advances in the spatial, spectral and temporal domains
4. Exploiting strengths of data: data fusion
5. Technological innovations (for example, laser scanning)
6. Integrating remote sensing and GIS
7. Practising remote sensing (External speaker, for example, DMCii, OS, BGS, Optech)

The module addresses issues of landscape and culture in England from the 18th century to the present day. Key themes throughout include landscape and national identity and relations of city and country.

The module utilises sources including archives, literature, paintings, prints, poetry, maps, film and photography.

The first semester focuses on issues of landscape and Englishness since 1880. Topics covered include tradition and modernism, competing notions of heritage, the cultural politics of land, and questions of citizenship and the body. The second semester focuses on landscapes of Georgian England. Topics covered include parks and gardens; colonial landscapes; agriculture; industry and science; towns; and transport and travel.

Throughout the module the focus on landscape allows the exploration of key areas of cultural history. A one-day field trip to Derwent Valley is arranged, full costs will be provided nearer the time of the trip.

This module investigates key linkages between development, livelihood and environmental issues in the global South with particular reference to competition and conflict over environmental resources. Attention is placed on exploring these from the perspectives of different income, gender and community groups and contrasting their everyday realities with key development concepts and aggregate statistics.

Major themes include:

• linkages between poverty, environmental quality and livelihoods 
• integration of environmental issues into development thinking and practice 
• debates about overpopulation versus overconsumption 
• urban environmental issues, slums and informality
• water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and livelihoods 
• industry-related environment, development and livelihood issues
• competition and conflict in agrarian environments 
• forest-based development and livelihood issues

This module will expose you to current practices, technologies and ideas existing at the forefront of environmental modelling. The module offers an opportunity for you to experience the theory and practice associated with key developments that are occurring in major modelling domains and the most recent advances from the research community. 

The module will comprise four parts:

1. Introduction 
2. Modelling the impacts of climate change 
3. Modelling biogeography 
4. Hydrology and hydroinformatics

This module covers:

• the historical development of a major European city, to be visited on a field excursion (full costs will be supplied nearer the time of the trip)
• a critical approach to the cultural, historical, social and economic geography of same city
• a wide range of methodologies for conducting urban field work

Small group teaching is integral to the module. You are assigned into a group of three or four for the purposes of conducting small group project work while in Berlin. Frequent meetings are held between teaching staff and the small groups before, during and after the field course to support preparation for and the carrying out of research while in Berlin, as well as the writing-up of individual reports.

This module will review the history of geography over the past three centuries to provide a deeper understanding of contemporary debates, and provide a cultural and historical analysis of the nature of geography as an academic subject and field of knowledge.

The first semester considers the emergence of geography as a self-consciously 'enlightened' 18th century science and reviews some of the factors that influenced its subsequent development, including cartography and mapping, exploration and field observation, evolutionary and early social scientific theories, the rise of civic education, national and imperial politics, radical and revolutionary ideas, and warfare and geopolitics.

The second semester focuses on the 20th century to consider connections between field cultures and geographical knowledge, the visual cultures of geography, links between geography and Cold War politics, and ideas of geography as spatial science. Attention is given throughout to the biographies of key figures exercising the geographical imagination.

This module covers a range of issues relating to the geographies of fashion and food. Topics covered include:

• Commodity chains and global networks of supply
• Governing and regulating food and fashion
• Commodity biographies and origins
• Slow and fast fashion and food
• Theorising value and quality
• Transforming and industrialising food
• City fashionscapes and foodscapes
• Doing food and fashion 'differently', spatially and temporally
• Contentious commodities

Through this module you will study the geographies of migration in relation to historical, political, economic, and cultural processes. You will be introduced to theories of migration and mobility which will be examined in relation to past and ongoing events.

Emphasis is placed on who is affected by migration and how this is embedded in wider political processes. You will learn how to interpret contemporary media reports, theoretical discussions, and methodological debates regarding the geographies of migration.

This module explores the economic geographies of money and of contemporary processes of financialisation. Competing theories of money, and the changing landscapes of finance and the financial services industry are explored at a variety of spatial scales.

Spaces examined include the global financial system, the UK retail financial market, the City of London and the emergence of local currency systems. More specifically, the following core topics are covered:

• Financial crisis
• The history and theory of money
• Financial services and financial intermediation
• Globalisation and the international financial system
• The City of London as international financial centre
• Landscapes of retail financial services
• Alternative and imagined landscapes of money

This module will cover:

• political, historical, and cultural geographies of war 
• spaces of internal violence and non-violence relating to colonialism, anti-colonialism, religious nationalism, and decolonisation/partition 
• spaces of terrorism and the war against terror 
• case studies from a variety of national and international contexts

An interdisciplinary module which introduces the principles of historical ecology and landscape history, drawing on a wide range of sources including historical maps and documents, field survey of vegetation and landscape features and oral history using Liguria as a case study. This includes a field trip to Liguria, full costs will be supplied nearer the time of the trip.

The module will cover:

• the historical development of a major North American city, to be visited on a field excursion (full costs will be supplied nearer the time of the trip)
• a critical approach to the cultural, historical, social and economic geography of same city
• a wide range of methodologies for conducting urban fieldwork

This module explores business-society relations through the theories and practices of business ethics and social responsibility. The module will consist of two parts.

The first part will address the concept of business ethics, a discussion of citizenship theory and the challenges of globalisation and sustainability. It will also look at the normative nature of ethical theories, how business ethics has evolved and prescriptions from theoretical frameworks as to how business should be managed.

The second part of the module will address the issues, impacts of business on individual stakeholder groups and analyse business ethics and social responsibility in relation to each group.

This module introduces and develops frameworks which enable businesses to understand the buying behaviour of consumers.

This module introduces you to key contemporary debates and practices, giving you a chance to engage with these debates and practices. You will gain an understanding of the human resource management approaches managers take as you grapple with the challenges of the global economy and a demanding and diverse workforce within an international context.

This module covers:

• definitions of entrepreneurship/entrepreneurial activity
• the theoretical perspectives underpinning the study of entrepreneurship
• understanding what shapes the practice of entrepreneurship both in different settings (for example, social entrepreneurship) and due to contextual influences (for example, entrepreneurship in the media and the influence of gender)

An overview of marketing and society, macro-marketing issues, responsible and sustainable marketing, consumer response to marketing activities, marketing's impact on society and consumption.

The ability to develop and manage new product and services is crucial for the long-term survival of the firm and lies at the heart of the marketing concept. This module is designed to develop an appreciation of the latest theory and practice in the management and development of new products and services.

This module aims to develop an understanding of new product and service development (NPSD) as a strategic process and will explore and apply a variety of approaches to its management. In particular it pays attention to the role of market research/marketing analytics, and new approaches to using the Internet and social media. The NPSD process models will be evaluated and this will include critiques of the ideation process/creativity, design, new product launch management and marketing communication strategies.

In addition, contemporary themes around user innovation, co-creation, sustainability and international NPSD will be explored.

This module examines the managerial and organisational factors that influence the formation and subsequent realisation of strategy. It enables you to develop skills in the analysis of strategic processes and practice with particular reference to the role of organisation in strategy development and execution, strategic leadership, strategic change, internationalisation and stakeholder management in strategic management.

This module aims to provide you with the skills, knowledge and practical experience required to respond to the challenges involved in managing, commercialising and marketing technological innovation and new business development.