Main undergraduate courses given in recent years

This list of undergraduate courses presents the different courses given over the last ten years at the Université Paris Cité, my home institution, but also as adjunct professor at the Institut des Sciences Politiques de Paris for two years

Bachelor’s course: Global Issues, Local Issues

The general objective of this course is to deepen the analysis and understanding of the relationships between the global and local scales in various issues of urban and rural geography. The teaching is organised in two sets of courses. The first is based on the study of two thematic objects (e.g. food security and the urban fabric) to analyse and exemplify the multiple interdependencies between global and local. A second set of courses aims to analyse how urban and rural studies have considered the question of scales, global, local, but also regional. This second set of courses is reflexive, analysing the evolution of the production of scientific knowledge in geography as well as in the social sciences as a whole.

Bachelor’s course: City in Social Sciences

The course focuses on the urban fact in its diversity, considers the city in the field of social sciences and places the major works of the field of urban studies in the context of their elaboration and dissemination. The aim is to enable students to better understand the diversity of contemporary debates on the functioning and meaning of the city. It combines two distinct parts. The first is a theoretical approach to the city, the urban phenomenon and urban planning. The second part is dedicated to a reflection on urban development and planning strategies and on city projects through case analyses.

Bachelor’s course: Global Asia, new concept, new realities?

During the last decades, Asia has experienced tremendous cultural, economic and social changes, linked with the deepening of globalization. Rapid growth, opening of the economy, building of multinational companies, broadening of a large middle class are notable indicators associated with these changes. This course aims to study similarity and difference between and inside the many countries that make up this new Asia, from the mountains of Afghanistan to the busy eastern coasts of Japan, from the desert of Mongolia to the woodlands of Timor Leste. Its objective is also to understand the explanatory factors behind these developments, from long historical trends to the global forces of the present days.

Each course will be divided in two parts. The first part will discuss some issues linked with relevant historical factors and spatial scales. It will explore the Asian cultural, political, economic and social situations and changes in their complexity. The second part will be devoted to the analysis of some insightful maps and geographical documents.

Bachelor’s course: Geography of Korea

The course focuses on the regional polarizations and disparities of the Korean peninsula, first approached as a geographical whole, then differentiated into two distinct territorial systems according to the political division resulting from the Cold War. The courses consist of both thematic and regional studies focusing on the impact of urbanisation and industrialisation processes on the organisation of the territory, on the problems of rural areas and on the recent changes linked to the phenomenon of globalisation.