Cambridge Geography Reading List

(Tentative - compiled from college websites) 

HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

S Corbridge, N Thrift & R Martin (eds): Money, Power and Space

R A Dodgshon: The European Past: social evolution and spatial order

D Gregory, R Walford (eds): Horizons in Human Geography

D Gregory, R Martin & G Smith (eds): Human Geography.  Society, Space and Social Science

D Harvey: The Condition of Postmodernity

P Jackson, S Smith: Exploring social geography

R J Johnston: Geograply and geographers: Anglo-American human geography since 1945 (5th edition)

R J Johnston, P J Taylor (eds): A World in Crisis?  Geographical perspectives (2nd edition)

D Livingstone: The geographical tradition

D Massey: Spatial divisions of labour

R Muir: Political Geography

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

G C Brown, C J Hawkesworth, C L Wilson (eds): Understanding the Earth: a new synthesis

R J Chorley, S A Schumm, D Sugden: Geomorphology

M J Clark, K J Gregory, A Gurnell (eds): Horizons in Physical Geography

A S Goudie: Environmental change

K J Gregory: The nature of physical geography

R Haines-Young, J Petch: Physical geography: its nature and methods

S J Harrison, D Mottershead, I White: Environmental systems

G Petts, I Foster: Rivers and landscape

F Sandbach: Environment, ideology and policy

For 'People Space and Geographies of Difference'

• Held, D. (ed) 2004 A Globalizing world? Culture, Economics, Politics, Routledge / Open University Press, 2nd edition
• Murray, W.E. 2006 Geographies of Globalization, Routledge
• Gough, J., Eisenschitz, A. and McCulloch, A. 2006 Spaces of Social Exclusion, Routledge

For Historical Geography

• Davis, M. 2000 Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino Famines and the Making of the Modern World Economy, London: Verso
• Graham, B and Nash, C (eds) 2000 Modern Historical Geographies, Prentice Hall
• Pomeranz, K. 2000 The Great Divergence: China, Europe and the Making of the Modern World Economy, Princeton University Press

For Society Environment and Development

• Adams, W.M. 2001 Green Development: environment and sustainability in the Third World, Routledge, 2nd edition
• Allen, T. and Thomas, A. (eds) 2000 Poverty and Development into the 21st Century, Oxford University Press
• Lawson, V. 2007 Making Development Geography, Hodder Arnold, London

For the Physical Geography courses (Environmental Processes and Environmental Change)

• Barry, R.G., Chorley, R.J. and Chase, T. 2003 Atmosphere, weather and climate, Routledge
• Masselink, G. and Hughes, M.G. 2003 An introduction to coastal processes and geomorphology, Hodder Arnold
• Gaston, K. and Spicer, J. 2004 Biodiversity, Blackwell, 2nd edition
• Francis, P. and Oppenheimer, C. 2004 Volcanoes, Oxford University Press

General Reading

• Adams WM (2008), Green Development 3rd edition. Routledge, London
• Cloke P, Crang P and Goodwin M eds (2005), Introducing Human Geographies 2nd edition. Hodder Arnold, London
• Cook I, Crouch D, Naylor S and Ryan J eds (2000), Cultural Turns, Geographical Turns. Prentice Hall, Harlow
• Daniels P, Bradshaw M, Shaw D and Sidaway J eds (2008), An Introduction to Human Geography: Issues for the 21st Century. Prentice Hall, Harlow
• Dicken P (2007), Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy. Sage, London
• Graham B and Nash C eds (2000), Modern Historical Geographies. Prentice Hall, Harlow.

General Reading

• Christopherson RW (2008), Geosystems: an introduction to physical geography 7th Edition. Prentice Hall, Harlow
• Grotzinger J and Jordan TH (2010), Understanding Earth 6th Edition. WH Freeman and Co., New York
• Holden J (2005), An introduction to physical geography and the environment. Prentice Hall, Harlow
• Kump LR, Kasting JF and Crane RG (2009), The Earth System. Pearson, NJ
• Slaymaker O, Spencer T and Embleton-Hamann C eds (2009), Geomorphology and Global Environmental Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

C.Y. Leung's policy address

The Hong Kong C.E.'s policy address tackles these main issues:

1. Education - free 15 year education program starting from kindergarten-aged children, to boost Hong Kong's social wellbeing.
2. Housing - 20,000 private houses and 20,000 public houses per year increase, with there being a few thousand Home Ownership Scheme houses from the 20,000 public houses designated for sale and purchase by the young, up-and-coming middle class. 
3. More land supply has to be produced and the Chief Executive has promised to use the 4 R's : - Reclamation, Resumption (taking back of some 13 parts of Hong Kong's 50% country park areas and using them for residential purposes), Re-using of old industrial land e.g. East Kowloon and turning them into residential buildings, and Re-zoning , whereby land use will have to accomodate the demand of the people. 
4. All 4 aspects touch upon Geographers - reclaimation will involve Environmental Impact assessments and cause environmental impacts, both good and bad. Resumption will lead to more social conflict as some green groups like WWF will object to losing country park land. 
5. Re-using and re-zoning all involve change, and change is difficult to implement successfully without careful and balanced planning. To a geographer like myself, I see huge potential for contribution in this area as good urban planning to cater for changing needs and demands will need a holistic approach in planning. The degree I will be pursing will be very relevant and give me up-to-date knowledge on how best to tackle the human and the physical aspects, which I hope to contribute back to HK in the future. 

Thomas Hobbes- Leviathan and State of Nature

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke are political theorists with contrasting views on 'The State' and why humans have to obey the state and sovereign.

Thomas Hobbes wrote Leviathan  - a famous political thought text.

Hobbes

Hobbes said that without governance of any form, human beings are in a 'State of Nature' where everyone fights everyone, using brutal force to pursue self-motivated gains. In this state of nature, each man is entitled to everything, and hence conflict, fighting and death will result from the innate selfishness of mankind.

By forming a state, each man gives all his "rights" to the sovereign or leading body, which distributes and controls these "rights", often limiting them or restricting them for the good of the majority. An example would be to make murder punishable.

Hence a social contract is formed between the state and each person - and man has to obey the state because it is an act of mutual consensus for the benefit of everyone.

For Hobbes, man kind was born nasty, selfish and self-centered. The state of nature is brutal, nasty and short, full of death and suffering. Each individual fends for himself and has no security against attacks.

It is only when we give our rights to the state that we have a duty of care to the others. Natural psychology of the human mind and a desire for personal security drives us to commit to organized society.

Critique of Hobbes:

- He assumes that human beings are inherently nasty, selfish and greedy. We still cannot prove this and there's no solid evidence for what the true state of human nature is.

-He assumes men and women are the same in the State of Nature - are women as violent and savage as men in nature ? What about physical strength and struggle - if women are physically weaker than men, then does that mean in a State of nature, no one cares for the women ?

- He ignores family institutions - a male and his mate and children will be one unit instead of individual, selfish people. They, at most, can be brutal as a unit (or can they ?) but there is some form of structure and society already in place. Perhaps the woman obeys the man - is that a micro-state ?

- He ignores the possibility of corruption of the sovereignty. What if the powers are misused ? Hobbes does not mention that people should revolt or oppose. They should put blind trust in the state instead. This doesn't seem, to me, very practical in real life. Locke suggests a limited government.

- Can man kind ever be moral naturally ? Man may have the capability to make naturally good decisions even in a State of Nature. To what extent is Hobbe's state of nature true ? 

- Cooperation for mutual benefit rather than to avoid a brutal life (Dawkins) 

Update - I got accepted into Cambridge

Geography each day DOES keep the rejection letter away! I got accepted into Cambridge University to read Geography as of a few days ago. The notification came via email and I was really happy about this since it's been 2 years of hard, tough work. I struggled, fought, cried, smiled, ate and had strongly striven for my goal - Cambridge.

I'm going to hopefully keep this blog up for the next 3 years of my Geographical life. It will serve as an online notebook for me, to write down the news I read everyday and reflect on their topics, themes and relate them back to what I'm studying at university.

Term commences in October 2013 - Geography here I come!