Module Information

Module Identifier

GS10220

Module Title

Conflict and Change: the making of urban and rural spaces

Academic Year

2025/2026

Co-ordinator

Rhys Dafydd Jones

Semester

Semester 1

Exclusive (Any Acad Year)

DA10520

Reading List

View example reading list on Aspire

Other Staff

Course Delivery

Assessment

Assessment Type	Assessment length / details	Proportion
Semester Assessment	End of module assessment End of module assessment (to be submitted to Blackboard).	50%
Semester Assessment	Essay (1,500 words)	50%
Supplementary Assessment	End of module assessment End of module assessment (to be submitted to Blackboard).	50%
Supplementary Assessment	Essay 1500 Words	50%

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

1. Identify and explain the key processes shaping contemporary urban and rural change.

2. Evaluate the key processes shaping contemporary urban and rural change.

3. Apply a range of relevent theoretical and conceptual literatures to explain urban and rural change.

4. Evaluate the policy implications emerging from such changes.

5. Demonstrate the skills of critical reading, interpretation and evaluation.

Brief description

This module examines the ways in which geographers and other social scientists have understood and explored urban and rural spaces, and the connections between them. These approaches are examined through the context of economic, demographic, social, and cultural changes over the past seventy years or so in both urban and rural settings. Such changes have often brought conflict around the meanding attributed to urban and rural spaces, and the people, values, and behaviour the 'belong' there. The module also considers how tension is namifested in different forms, and strategies for more harmonious coexistence.

Content

The module is divided into weekly lectures (2x 1-hour sessions per week, where the focus is on content - although this does not preclude active learning strategies) and active learning workshops (5x 2-hour sessions writing laboratories, applied knowledge/employablility sessions, feedback session, and revision clinic) to support student engagement with content, assignment preparation, and skills.

The lectures are divided into four parts, bookended by introductory and concluding sessions:

Introduction

Part I: Urban worlds

Part II: Rural resilience

Part III: Migration

Part IV: Conflict and cohesion

Conclusions

Module Skills

Skills Type	Skills details
Application of Number	Not explicitly, although this may well come into course content on occasion.
Communication	Yes; written communication skills for the assessments; oral communication skills through class discussions etc.
Improving own Learning and Performance	Yes, through practical sessions attached to the module focussed on supporting content and study skills.
Information Technology	Yes, through the production of the coursework and making use of VLEs
Personal Development and Career planning	Yes, with applied knowledge / employability-focussed practicals (2x 2-hours)
Problem solving	Yes, through course content (e.g. defining urban and rural spaces; examining policy implications)
Research skills	Yes, through engaging with current research to produce the essay and revise for the exam
Subject Specific Skills	Yes, engagement with current theoretical ideas underpinning current debates in urban and rural geography.
Team work	Yes, through small group discussions in class

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 4