Lecture 1: Introduction, Module Overviewand Landscape Concepts

ObjectivesModule components

What are landscapes and why are geographers interested in them?

Reading: Chapter 1 of textbook

In this module,we are concerned withSingapores built, cultural or physical environment, an outcome of peoples interactions with each other and peoples interactions with the environment.

More importantly, we are concerned with how Singapores myriad landscapes have changed over the years, not only as a result of state policies but also the actions of ordinary Singaporeans, and regional and global forces.

What is landscape? Natural Sceneries?

Well known structures and buildings?What is landscape?

Ordinary sites and environments?What is landscape?

Human activities over space?What is landscape?

Thus landscapesAre not just the natural features of the earth's surface such as a desert, glacial or mountain range, a rugged coastline, plains, beaches, jungles, volcanoes etc

But also features of the earths surface produced by humans, both those that inspire awe (e.g. iconic structures) and more ordinary scenes and environments.

Landscapes can also refer to spatialised individual and collective human actions (e.g. shopping, makan, sports, aerobics, lepak-ing or hanging out etc) as much as they refer to physical (built or natural) environment.

Material Landscapes:Landscapes can be tangibly perceived as well as represented in a book, on a postcard, through a film, as a painting etc

Landscape can also be described symbolically by what it signifies, such as when it depicts abstract ideas.

Symbolic Landscapes:

Why are Geographers interested in landscapes?Landscapes are expressions of physical processes, personal/cultural values, social systems/practices, individual/collective identities and ideologies.

Landscapes can thus be seen as repositories of how societies function at any time as different eras of human occupation/actions leave specific clues and traces in landscape that can be detected/examined.

Landscapes therefore provide a window or a lens to allow us an understanding of how society works.

Why are Geographers interested in landscapes?Landscapes can also indicate the importance of spatial scales to everyday geographies of people:

In the context of this module, local refers to the nation, which can then be further sub-divided into the scale of the individual, family, ethnic group etc;

Regional scale refers to an area larger than a particular country such as the space occupied by ASEAN or by the European Union;

Global scale refers to worldwide linkages between countries. Interconnections between events occurring at different scales the local, the regional and the global obviously exist, often intertwined in complex ways

As suchA landscape can be the result of individual choices, national policies as well as regional and global forces.

Thus to understand a landscape, there is a need to consider not only what is happening locally but also regionally and internationally. Also, we need to consider how local incidents affect internationally.

Concluding RemarksLandscapes are not simply sites/places that we see on a day-to-day basis

Geographers are interested in landscapes because they provide a lens for us to understand society and its transformations

Landscapes (and their changes) are shaped by peoples and forces functioning at different scales- from the global to regional to local.

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