Themes in Geography

Course Description

Objectives

The course aims to provide an introduction to Erasmus students that come to Harokopio University about different aspects of Greek and Athenian geography. Having completed this course the students should be able: 

• To have an understanding of different geographical issues in Greece
• Able to better understand the country and the city that the Erasmus students find themselves in.
• The course paves the way and it is a process of learning about the natural and manmade environment of the country, characteristic spaces, landscapes and places, planning policies as well as causal forces and generating dynamics.

Content 

The module is based on the idea that geography is an interdisciplinary subject that brings together natural and social sciences, multiple temporal and spatial scales of consideration, positivistic and non-positivistic epistemological traditions. In this sense, geography, more than other disciplines, offers many different lenses for viewing the world. The course is structured around a wide variety of lectures, where each one draws on a specific geographical field, and extends over a sequence of scales from the micro to the macro level. However, the main conceptual thread that holds these lectures together is that the course apart of the geographical knowledge that it produces (and/ or re-produces), it functions also as a source of knowledge about the hosting country (Greece) to all incoming Erasmus students. In particular, the course provides the students with abundant information and data on many facets and features of the country, at the national, regional, urban, district, neighborhood levels in both mainland Greece and island areas. In this sense, apart from a solid academic module, this course is also an introduction to the Greece’s physical environment, society, economics, politics, demography, urban and regional planning, mapping material, history, geological setting, atmospheric and climate systems, environmental protection and climate change policies, etc. This course should be taken by all incoming Erasmus students of our department and its successful completion should lead to the acquisition of 5 ECTS units.   

Teaching & Assessment 

Lectures in physical classroom.

Essay writing along with presentation in the class (100% of the grade).