can you do this assignment based on the book?
the place i chose is the university library
Jon Anderson, Understanding Cultural Geography: Places and Trace s, 2d edition (Routledge, 2015). Referred to as "Anderson"
TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2018
Field Exercise: Place & Power (Part 3 + Write-Up)
Exercise:
Review your observations and notes on how the place is ordered and bordered and what is natural and normal do there.
Make note of how your sense of what to do is based both on what you see people doing locally and also from your experiences in similar places at different locations (in other words, what are the trace chains that connect this place to others places).
Observe, reflect, and take note of how what people do can be related to local choices and influence (or localized power) and also on ideologies of what's natural and normal beyond the local scale, e.g., what people do regionally or nationally.
Look for and take note of any explicit traces of influence from places at other scales, e.g., posted state or federal laws or regulations.
The keywords for this part of the exercise are: sense of place and scale. See Anderson, chapter 6 and discussion on T 1/30.
Write-up:
- MAIN PROMPT: Based on your observations for all three parts of the exercise, write a critical* account of power and place that begins: "Power is exercised in this place through ..."
- THESIS. This should be a concise, one to two sentence, statement of your response to the main prompt. In this case, your thesis should be about how power is exercised in place.
OBSERVATIONS. Choose your most important or salient observations to discuss. That is, observations that demonstrate your thesis. Focus on the traces, and trace makers, that you would say have the greatest influence on what people do here and what those traces mean for what's natural, what's normal and what's novel and how the ordering and bordering of the place promotes those definitions. Be sure to include a discussion of how your novel act helped you to understand the exercise of power in this place.
CONCLUSIONS. Explain or illustrate how what you observed supports your thesis. In particular, explain what the implications are for belonging: what are people invited or expected to do here and what does that mean for how different individuals may feel about being there. Use your own sense of place to demonstrate this conclusion.
REFLECTION. Discuss the limitations of your observations. Questions to think about: what might you have missed? Are there observations that you would have liked more opportunity to explore? How could you address these limitations, say, with more time and opportunity? Which conclusions are most tentative for you?
Your Write-up should also include at least one (1) quote from chapters 4, 5 or 6 in Anderson that helps to explain your interpretation of how power is exercised in place.
Submit your Write-up via Moodle by 5:00 pm on F 2/2 8:00 am on M 2/5. You will also have until that day and time to request an extension. Additional details on Moodle.
Assessment:
- Your Write-up should interpret the interrelationships between people and place by explaining those relationships in terms of power, or the traces in place that influence what people do.
Your interpretation should be clearly based on on evidence gathered from your observations and from your use of the required quote from the text. This is a key feature of Inquiry & Analysis.
Your Write-up should show connections between your own experience and course material and demonstrate reflection and self-assessment, both of which are important features of Integrated Learning, and are related to observation of your own sense of place.
Your Write-up should demonstrate an attitude of openness, which is key feature of Intercultural Knowledge & Competence.
Your Write-up is an opportunity to apply geographic concepts in communicating about the world. Compose your Write-up as if you are writing for other students in the class. So, for individuals who also know the material but who may have a different understanding of the concepts.
You can use two to four (2-4) pages as a guideline for the length of the Write-up.