Lecture 1: Introduction,

Module Overview
and Landscape Concepts

Objectives

Module components

What are landscapes and why are

geographers interested in them?

Reading: Chapter 1 of textbook

In this module,
we are concerned with

Singapores 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?

What is landscape?
Well known structures and buildings?

What is landscape?
Ordinary sites and environments?

What is landscape?
Human activities over space?

Thus landscapes

Are 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

Symbolic Landscapes:

Landscape can also be described

symbolically by what it signifies, such
as when it depicts abstract ideas.

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 such
A 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 Remarks

Landscapes 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.