Seminar in Political Geography: The Geography of Peace
In this course we will provide a geographic perspective on peace. After an introduction to the historical role of peace in the discipline of geography and to general philosophies of peace, we will look at areas where peace is maintained through force, such as military occupation and peacekeeping. These more abstract spaces of peace – expressions of what peace scholars call 'negative' peace – are complemented by a focus on places of peace and their associated practices in the section that follows. Here, we will discuss communes, nonviolent strategies, and new social movements and conceive peace not simply as the opposite of war, but as the pursuit of a non-violent and socially just society. In the last section, we will turn to case studies to examine how peace is waged at different scales and in different contexts and forms. (Open to seniors only; others by waiver) 3 hrs. sem.