Mapping Morality: Visible and Invisible Geographies

Issues related to morality have been discussed in the geography literature off and on for the past fifty years. Since morality deals with correctness—right vs. wrong, good vs. bad, or correct vs. incorrect—it is not difficult to understand how these value labels also exist in geography contexts. The geography literature often deals with morality questions in a light or superficial way which leaves geographers and others wondering if there are more value questions we might address in studying human actions and behavior. Three major foci are addressed in this discussion. The first is to explore moral questions geographers might address when looking at cultural behavior, economic development, social policies, allocation of resources, environmental understanding and interpretation of places and landscapes. The second focus is on mapping moralities, including examples of maps that display visible and invisible geographies about moral places and spaces. The third discusses how this moral thread is worthy of further study in many fields of human and human/environmental geography. A greater understanding these threads will strengthen our understanding and appreciation of “why things are the way they are” but also “why we make decisions that we do” at local and global scales.

ENVIRONMENTAL GEOGRAPHY. SUBJECT, OBJECTAND TASKS OF SIENSE

В статье рассматриваются проблемы экологической географии, объекты, предмет и основные задачи научного направления, предлагается трактовка понятия эколого-географической ситуации. The article discusses the problems of ecological geography, objects, subject and main tasks of the scientific direction, offers an interpretation of the concept of ecological-geographical situation.

THE PANDEMIC AND THE ‘ENVIRONMENTALISATION’ OF GEOGRAPHY. AN EPISTEMIC-POLITICAL CHALLENGE

The purpose of this article is to extract from the COVID-19 pandemic a lesson for geographers: although without intending (or being possible) to simply go back to the past, it is necessary to re-value, nevertheless, the very quintessence of the identity of the geographical discourse, which has been characterised by a way of building epistemic objects that is committed to a dialogue between social research (represented by what we usually call‘human geography’) and natural research (represented by what we usually call ‘physical geography’). This project, presently called ‘environmentalisation,’ does not aim at anything overly ambitious: there is no case here for an exclusionary thesis in the style ‘geography should be this, and nothing else’; in fact, it just defends the idea that an approach such as that of environmental geography, resulting from an attempt at ‘environmentalisation,’ must have its place assured. Environmental geography, being committed to the construction of hybrid epistemic objects, allows us to mobilise the interfaces and knowledge necessary to deal with complex tasks such as the analysis of the short and long-term effects of the pandemic (among many other issues). However, the environmental geography project not only has to deal with intellectual challenges (integrating what knowledge, how and for what purpose?), but, in the end, it must also face political obstacles: the concrete power relations in the academic world and the zeal with which ‘borders’ and ‘territories’ are patrolled and defended, not to mention the resistance of many researchers to leave their thematic and theoretical-methodological comfort zones.

Pengembangan Bahan Ajar Geografi Lingkungan Berbasis Konstruktivis Dengan Model Pembelajaran Cooperatif Learning

Adapun produk yang dihasilkan dalam penelitian pengembangan ini adalah buku ajar geografi lingkungan berbasis konstruktivis dengan model pembelajaran cooperatif learning. Berdasarkan penelitian yang dilakukan, produk penelitin yang dihasilkan berupa buku ajar geografi lingkungan berbasis konstruktivis dengan model pembelajaran cooperatif learning layak digunakan oleh mahasiswa dan dosen geografi lingkungan untuk meningkatkan motivasi dan hasil belajar, hal ini didasari oleh: 1) penilaian yang telah dilakukan oleh para ahli baik ahli isi, ahli bahasa, maupun ahli desain dengan nilai baik; 2) tanggapan atau penilaian yang dilakukan oleh mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Geografi dan dosen geografi lingkungan dengan kategori baik; dan 3) hasil uji coba, baik uji coba terbatas maupun uji coba lebih luas, menunjukkan peningkatan motivasi dan hasil belajar yang cukup signifikan hal ini bisa dilihat dari nilai pretes dan postes. Selanjutnya, hasil validasi model menunjukkan bahwa kelas eksperimen yang diajarkan dengan produk hasil pengembangan memiliki motivasi dan hasil belajar yang lebih baik bila dibandingkan dengan kelas kontrol yang diajarkan mengunakan metode pembelajaran ceramah, diskusi dan tanya jawab. Hasil penelitian ini diharapkan dapat digunakan sebagai referensi utama dalam perbaikan mutu pembelajaran geografi lingkungan.Kata Kunci : bahan ajar, geografi lingkungan, konstruktivis, cooperatif learning, motivasi dan hasil belajarThe products produced in this development research are constructivicist-based environment teaching books with a cooperative learning model. Based on research done, the product that produced the results of a constructivist-based environmental geographic teaching book with a cooperative learning model is appropriate for students and environmental geography lecturers to Improve motivation and learning outcomes, this is based on: 1) assessments that have been performed by experts in both content experts, linguists, and good value design experts; 2) Responses or assessments conducted by students of Geography education study Program and lecturer of environmental geography with good category; and 3) test results, both limited trials and wider trials, demonstrate increased motivation and significant learning outcomes this can be seen from the value of pretes and postes. Further, model validation results show that experimental classes taught with product development have better motivation and learning outcomes when compared to the control class taught using learning methods Talks, discussions and FAQs. The results of this research are expected to be used as a major reference in improving the quality of environmental geography learning.Key words: teaching materials, environmental geography, constructivicist, cooperative learning, motivation and learning outcomes

Environmental aspects in Earth sciences and environmental management: a brief overview of author's developments against the background of global trends

Earth science and geography are experiencing a new Renaissance, called environmentalism. It is due to the growing importance of threats for the global community because of the negative reaction of the natural environment to the growing workload. The purpose of this article is to show innovation and investment opportunities that must significantly change the attitude to geography and Earth sciences in general and identify opportunities for the formation and development of environmental geography by radically modernizing the approach, especially research methods, mainly through the latest geographical education, making it an urgent social need. The article summarizes the experience and results of the author and his colleagues’ work over two decades of research. Main material. Presentation of the basic content of the article is organized into 3 rubrics. The trends of conceptual changes are considered as an extension of traditional ecology to environmentology. There is a transformation of the subject - object dualism of classical ecology to the realization of complex interaction. It is generally the subject of environmentology. Only in this case, the consumer attitude to the natural environment transforms into the knowledge of natural systems as a stakeholder of mankind. This trend is due to the awareness of the importance of complex natural systems, arbitrarily called the natural environment, in relations with humanity. The relations have to become partnership ones, not aggressive ones. The science that deals closest with this problem is environmental geography. The importance of the territory as an integral resource of the society is stressed in the trends of sustainable development. It is considered not only as a necessary, though non-economic condition of existence, but as an economic object, that is natural capital. The latter requires a different attitude to itself than just the environment: inventory procedures (like other means of production), objective assessment, amortization, ever-increasing investment and economic transformation into the actual trend. Intangible natural resources -the prospect of environmental geography. In this case, natural environment of the external conditions of human existence will become an essential and indispensable part of the global and national wealth of countries. Natural-resource rents should become a way of filling the gross domestic product at different levels of the society’s structuring (environmental economy). Along with material and energy resources, the value of intangible natural resources and relevant environmental management is significantly increasing, which environmental geography also should deal with. Conclusions and prospects. 1. In fact, at present humanity is possessed by geographical problems of the environment. Determining the general trend of the world community development, they are at the core of sustainable development. At the same time, these problems are still being solved without the involvement of geographical science and geographical technologies. 2. In the context of the information era, when the problems of negative environmental changes become public and are regarded as the first threat to human existence, geography should become environmental geography. For this purpose, it must change people’s attitude to the natural environment, considering it to be an equitable subject of relations with humanity. 3. The approaches to the environment as natural capital, which provides significant economic surplus value and social value, are considered effective. Unfortunately, these qualities of nature have not received a value expression yet. They remain public resources, while they should be assets of the environmental economy. 4. The formation of these development trends is able to make environmental geography join the list of avant-garde sciences, providing the prospect of sustainable development of mankind.