Life Course Geographies: Social Transformation and Intergenerational Justice

GEOG30212 Life Course Geographies: Social Transformation and Intergenerational Justice 20 Semester 2 Undergraduate Level 3 Amy Barron Unit coordinator Geography 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Last part of a Bachelors ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 10.0 Youth activism has highlighted how the young face the burden of climate change, a problem created by the lifestyles of previous generations, while at the same time, ageing societies have prompted important questions about infrastructures of care. This module critically considers the role of the life-course, age and ageing in relation to a raft of urban, social and cultural thinking from Human Geography and cognate disciplines. The life-course relates to the sequence of events that individuals and age-cohorts go through, as shaped by a whole host of social, cultural, economic and political factors. The life-course is pertinent to all of our lives and questions of ageing and intergenerational justice are increasingly central to the events of our time. Whether in relation to social mobility, COVID-19, or Brexit, questions of age and generational divisions have featured prominently. In considering a range of intergenerational issues, this module asks whether intergenerational justice is possible to achieve, asking questions of responsibility, reparation and the enduring presence of the past. In thinking critically about age and the life-course, the module troubles linear portrayals of the life-course and the representational whitewashing of categories such as ‘youth, ‘adulthood’ and ‘older age’. It explores how (in)fertility, birth, death, loss, absence, remembering, forgetting and encounters intersect with austerity, cultural ideals, political community, and aspirations to complicate the standardised life-cycle. It examines how age intersects with class, gender, sexuality and other factors to shape individuals’ lived experience and subjectivities, complicating reductive representations, catch-all policies and simplistic accounts of ‘generational divides’. This course will equip students with the conceptual tools to explore the twin questions of how we achieve intergenerational justice and an age-inclusive society.In the first half of the module we will look at literature that challenges these periods of life and what they mean. The second half of the module will focus on a number of themes including memory and materiality, place-making, how age-friendly policies are linked with cultural assumptions about age and how different groups experience the city. We will look forwards to consider indebted futures and intergenerational questions around climate activism and sustainability. We will look backwards and think about reparations, responsibility and the ways in which past injustices, such as slavery and colonialism, come into the present. Towards the end of the module we will hold a seminar debate about intergenerational justice, what it might look like, whether it is possible, and in relation to what issues. This seminar will connect the theoretical material we have discussed in class with the issues we are all living with.This module will be structured around 2 blocks of teaching: Rethinking the life-course (Block 1) and Pasts, presents and futures (Block 2).(This unit description is subject to change)   Youth activism has highlighted how the young face the burden of climate change, a problem created by the lifestyles of previous generations, while at the same time, ageing societies have prompted important questions about infrastructures of care. This module critically considers the role of the life-course, age and ageing in relation to a raft of urban, social and cultural thinking from Human Geography and cognate disciplines. The life-course relates to the sequence of events that individuals and age-cohorts go through, as shaped by a whole host of social, cultural, economic and political factors. The life-course is pertinent to all of our lives and questions of ageing and intergenerational justice are increasingly central to the events of our time. Whether in relation to social mobility, COVID-19, or Brexit, questions of age and generational divisions have featured prominently. In considering a range of intergenerational issues, this module asks whether intergenerational justice is possible to achieve, asking questions of responsibility, reparation and the enduring presence of the past. In thinking critically about age and the life-course, the module troubles linear portrayals of the life-course and the representational whitewashing of categories such as ‘youth, ‘adulthood’ and ‘older age’. It explores how (in)fertility, birth, death, loss, absence, remembering, forgetting and encounters intersect with austerity, cultural ideals, political community, and aspirations to complicate the standardised life-cycle. It examines how age intersects with class, gender, sexuality and other factors to shape individuals’ lived experience and subjectivities, complicating reductive representations, catch-all policies and simplistic accounts of ‘generational divides’. This course will equip students with the conceptual tools to explore the twin questions of how we achieve intergenerational justice and an age-inclusive society.In the first half of the module we will look at literature that challenges these periods of life and what they mean. The second half of the module will focus on a number of themes including memory and materiality, place-making, how age-friendly policies are linked with cultural assumptions about age and how different groups experience the city. We will look forwards to consider indebted futures and intergenerational questions around climate activism and sustainability. We will look backwards and think about reparations, responsibility and the ways in which past injustices, such as slavery and colonialism, come into the present. Towards the end of the module we will hold a seminar debate about intergenerational justice, what it might look like, whether it is possible, and in relation to what issues. This seminar will connect the theoretical material we have discussed in class with the issues we are all living with.This module will be structured around 2 blocks of teaching: Rethinking the life-course (Block 1) and Pasts, presents and futures (Block 2).(This unit description is subject to change)   <ul><li>Understand geographical and social scientific approaches to the life-course, age and ageing </li><li>Enable students to understand the range of economic, political and cultural implications of age and ageing</li><li>Critically consider questions of social transformation and intergenerational justice</li><li>Examine and disrupt representations of age categories (e.g. youth and older age) and the life-course  </li></ul> <ul><li>Understand and deploy a range of geographical and social approaches to understanding age, ageing and the life-course</li><li>Discuss the key social, political and cultural implications of the life-course and ageing</li><li>Critically evaluate policy approaches to age inclusivity and intergenerational justice  </li></ul> <ul><li>Think critically about lived experience in relation to representations</li><li>Evaluate and apply key concepts and approaches to study the life-course and ageing  </li></ul> <ul><li>Communicate effectively when discussing the life-course, ageing and urban geographical analysis</li><li>Communicate effectively with non-academic audiences through blog writing  </li></ul> <ul><li>Demonstrate critical reflection and analysis</li><li>Demonstrate a capacity for independent learning, information gathering and critical appraisal  </li></ul> (indicative curriculum content):Block 1 – Rethinking the Life-CourseWeek 1: Introducing Geographies of the Life-CourseWeek 2: Rethinking the Life-CourseWeek 3: Children's Geographies and YouthWeek 4: Middle AgeWeek 5: Ageing and the Geographies of Older AgeWeek 6: Study Week - Coursework 1 dueWeek 7: Geographies of Death & ReproductionBlock 2 – Pasts, Presents and FuturesWeek 8: Intergenerationality and Generational (In)JusticeWeek 9: Nowanup Bush University: Life-courseWeek 10: Life-Courses, Biographies and Histories in ContextWeek 11: The Future of the Life-CourseWeek 12: Study Week - Coursework 2 due(This syllabus is indicative and subject to change)   This course is delivered through a range of lectures, seminars and independent learning activities. 10 x 2-hour lectures will introduce key concepts, ideas and case studies relating to ageing and its social, political and cultural implications. These will usually be delivered in-person and synchronously. In the 10 x 1-hour in-person synchronous seminars, students will develop and demonstrate a detailed understanding of the subject matter, working interactively in small groups. In their independent learning, students will draw upon weekly reading lists to sharpen, deepen and widen their understanding. All course materials will be available on Canvas. Discussion boards will be available online. 0 Other 100% Formative Assessment Task:   Length (word count/time)    How and when feedback is providedAssessment 1: Blog post – formative seminar activity. Students bring a proposed blog title, standfirst, and draft structure to a seminar for discussion.Preparation in advance of a 1-hour seminar (no set word count for formative task).    Feedback:  Verbal formative feedback is provided during the seminar through peer discussion and tutor feedback from the lecturer and, where appropriate, the Teaching Assistant. Ongoing formative feedback is also provided through opportunities for questions in lectures, a digital anonymous pedagogic question box, and weekly student consultation hours.Assessment 2: Essay – coursework surgery seminar. Students discuss two possible essay questions, outline plans, key readings, and potential real-world examples.   Preparation in advance of a 1-hour seminar (no set word count for formative task).    Feedback: Verbal formative feedback is provided during dedicated coursework surgery seminars through peer feedback and tutor feedback from the lecturer and, where appropriate, the Teaching Assistant. Additional formative support is provided through lecture Q&A time, a digital anonymous pedagogic question box, and weekly student consultation hours.Summative Assessment:Blog Post. Students will write a blog post about an age category (e.g. children, youth, adults, middle-age, older age) and how it is represented. The assessment will allow students to practice communicating the subject matter to non-academic audiences in relation to information they have gathered.Length: 1,000 words    Feedback: Online and verbally. Feedback will be provided within 15 working days and ahead of the final assessment. Formative feedback will be provided through seminar discussions and in student hours.    Weighting:  40%Essay. Students will choose from three questions which will allow them to demonstrate a detailed understanding of urban, social and cultural thinking on ageing and to connect themes across the module.Length: 1,800 wordsFeedback:  Online. Feedback will be provided within 15 working days. Formative feedback will be provided through seminar discussions and in student hours.Weighting: 60%   Y  •    Barron, A., 2026. Making sense of ‘middle-age’: thinking from and through the middle. Social & Cultural Geography, 27(1), pp.108-127. •    Barron, A., 2019. More-than-representational approaches to the life-course. Social & Cultural Geography, pp.1-24. •    Barron, A., 2021. The taking place of older age. cultural geographies, p.14744740211020510. •    Budworth, P., 2025. Beyond normativity: negotiating chronicity as young people with an ostomy. Social & Cultural Geography, pp.1-21. •    del Río, S., Hall, S.M., Ackerley, E. and Fenton, L., 2025. Austere life-courses and foreclosed futures: A relational geographical approach to work, housing, and family across austerity Europe. Dialogues in Human Geography, p.20438206251316005. •    Diprose, K. and Valentine, G., 2019. Climate change, consumption and intergenerational justice: Lived experiences in China, Uganda and the UK. Bristol University Press. •    Ho, E.L.E., Chua, V. and Feng, C.C., 2024. Ageing in networks: The unbounded geographies of non-migrant and migrant older adults. Progress in Human Geography, 48(6), pp.737-751. •    Horschelmann, K. and Van Blerk, L., 2013. Children, youth and the city. Routledge. •    Hoelscher, S. and Alderman, D.H., 2004. Memory and place: geographies of a critical relationship. Social & Cultural Geography, 5(3), pp.347-355. •    Jassal, L.K., 2015. Necromobilities: The multi-sited geographies of death and disposal in a mobile world. Mobilities, 10(3), pp.486-509. •    Latham, A. and McCormack, D.P., 2004. Moving cities: rethinking the materialities of urban geographies. Progress in human geography, 28(6), pp.701-724. •    Nash, C., 2015. Genetic geographies: the trouble with ancestry. U of Minnesota Press. •    Romanillos, J.L., 2015. Mortal questions: Geographies on the other side of life. Progress in Human Geography, 39(5), pp.560-579. •    Simpson, P., 2020. Non-Representational Theories. London: Routledge. •    Skinner, M.W., Cloutier, D. and Andrews, G.J., 2015. Geographies of ageing: Progress and possibilities after two decades of change. Progress in Human Geography, 39(6), pp.776-799. •    Stevenson, O., Kenten, C. and Maddrell, A., 2016. And now the end is near: enlivening and politizising the geographies of dying, death and mourning. Social & Cultural Geography, 17(2), pp.153-165. •    Valentine, Gill. "Age inequality: Geography’s overlooked dimension of difference." Progress in human geography (2025): 03091325251398859.   Lectures 20 Seminars 10 0 170