Hocbigg - Political Geography
Contents
Summary
The Political Geography curriculum is a complete education in Political Geography using online materials.
Political Geography examines the spatial aspects of political processes, including territories, borders, geopolitics, electoral systems, and resource distribution.
Organization
This repository is organized into 2 main components:
- Core Curriculum (this page): the foundational knowledge of the field;
- Advanced Topics: focused study in specific areas;
Process: Learners may work through the curriculum independently or collaboratively, and either sequentially or selectively.
- For simplicity, courses in the Core Curriculum are ordered according to their prerequisites.
- The Core Curriculum provides a shared foundation and is intended to be completed in full.
- Advanced Topics are optional; learners are encouraged to select one area of focus and complete all courses within that topic.
Note: When there are courses or books that don't fit into the curriculum but are otherwise of high quality, they belong in extras/courses, extras/readings.
Communities
- Subreddits:
- Discord servers:
- You can also interact through GitHub issues. If there is a problem with a course, or a change needs to be made to the curriculum, this is the place to start the conversation. Read more here.
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Join our Discord server (for discussions around this and other curricula):
Curriculum
- Foundations: Spatial Thinking and Political Basics
- Maps, Space, and Territorial Representation
- Core Political Geography
- Geopolitics and Global Power
Study these first (before moving to Advanced Topics), in this order:
Foundations: Spatial Thinking and Political Basics: Start here. This part teaches you how to think spatially and introduces the most important political ideas you will use throughout the entire curriculum.
Maps, Space, and Territorial Representation: Next, learn how maps work, how space is represented, and the basics of geographic information systems. These skills are used in almost every later topic.
Core Political Geography: This is the heart of the discipline. Study the main concepts, theories, and ways political geographers think about states, territory, and power.
Geopolitics and Global Power: Finish the core by understanding how political geography explains power relations, conflict, and strategy at the international scale.
Foundations: Spatial Thinking and Political Basics
| Subject | Resource(s) |
|---|---|
| Spatial Thinking for Social Sciences | Introduction to Spatial Thinking (Esri) |
| Introduction to Human Geography | The Cultural Landscape (James M. Rubenstein) – Open Edition Human Geography – CrashCourse |
| Core Political Concepts | Introduction to Political Science (Saylor Academy) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (state, sovereignty entries only) |
Maps, Space, and Territorial Representation
| Subject | Resource(s) |
|---|---|
| Cartography and Map Literacy | Cartography (open textbook) Map Projections (USGS) |
| Geographic Information Systems (Conceptual Level) | MIT OpenCourseWare – GIS Tutorial (Conceptual Sections Only) |
Core Political Geography
| Subject | Resource(s) |
|---|---|
| Political Geography (Core Field) | An Introduction to Political Geography: Space, Place and Politics (Jones et al., Routledge) |
| The State, Territory, and Sovereignty | The State and Territory – Open University Sovereignty (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) |
| Borders, Boundaries and Territoriality | Territory: A Short Introduction (David Delaney) (select chapters) |
Geopolitics and Global Power
| Subject | Resource(s) |
|---|---|
| Classical and Critical Geopolitics | Geopolitics: A Very Short Introduction (Klaus Dodds) Prisoners of Geography (Tim Marshall – introductory overview) |
| International Relations (Spatial Perspective) | MIT OCW – Introduction to International Relations IR Theory (LSE Public Lectures) |