GEOG3867: SPACES OF HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

• Any Level 2 Geography Module

• None

• To introduce different ways of understanding geographies of health and well-being through exploration of key concepts and theoretical approaches
• To explore a range of applications and case studies to demonstrate spaces of health and well-being in practice
• To promote critical reflection on research findings and their interpretation

• Recent developments in geographies of health and well-being research have brought to the fore a wide and diverse set of perspectives on what it means to be healthy. With a specific underpinning focus on space and place this module discusses some of the ways in which health has been conceptualised both for populations and individuals. By drawing on a range of examples and case studies the module explains and critically evaluates aspects of health-promoting and health-damaging spaces. We also consider how interrelationships between people and their physical and social environments are important, and how health geography makes important practical as well as theoretical contributions to knowledge about health and well-being.
• Introductory concepts: geographies of health and medicine, space and place; landscapes of health and well-being
• Spaces of risk and health: risky places; representing health and risk; risk perceptions
• Situating health and well-being: where health is produced; where responsibility lies for health; where unequal health outcomes are shaped
• The geographies of healing places and therapeutic landscapes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• On successful completion of the module students will be able to:
• Demonstrate understanding of complex relationships between health, space and place
• Demonstrate understanding of a range of applications of health and well-being

Subject-specific Skills:

• On successful completion of the module students will be able to:
• Critically appraise literature on complex relationships between health, space and place and a range of applications of health and well-being
• Relate wider conceptual debates to a range of specific empirical examples in the geographies of health

Key Skills:

• Critically assess material presented in lectures and wider reading
• Effectively critique literature
• Communicate logical written arguments
• Develop time management and planning skills through seen examination assignment

• Lectures will provide the necessary breadth of coverage, overview and study guide required by the aims and objectives
• Tutorials will allow students in smaller groups to discuss and appraise a range of key debates and examples in the geographies of health and well-being
• Student-led presentation seminar will enable students to work in groups to discuss and generate ideas about space and place in health and well-being. This will be formatively assessed via an oral group presentation which will involve working effectively in a small team, skills of oral communication and using visual aids
• The summative assessment will enable students to demonstrate detailed knowledge of specific theoretical and/or empirical aspects of the module

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