• Upon completion of the course, the instructed are expected to be able to know, understand, analyze, assess critically and synthecize introductory geographies of culture/ civilization. More specifically:
• To negotiate, at an introductory level, the cultural constitution and articulation of space and of cultural identity, through the exploration of geographies of ways of life, thought and expression, around the world, and, particularly, in Greece.
• To employ the concepts of culture and civilization, as they have been employed in the geographical science and in connection with broader theoretical considerations and practical geographical applications. 
• To handle and assess the multiplicity of “cultural geographies”, which have been developed and practiced by geographers in the course of the formative decades of contemporary geography, as well as in empirical geographical applications of cultural geography research
• To apply geographical perspectives to human ways of life, thought and achievement in time-space, both analytically and synthetically, interweaving different facets of the human society: social, political, economic, historical, philosophical, etc
• To employ geographical concepts, such as space, place, region, landscape and identity, as these have been constructed, used and transformed, in conjunction with the cultural system concept, in the context of the human-environment relationship, through time.

The objective of this course is an introductory negotiation of the cultural constitution and articulation of space and of cultural identity, through the exploration of geographies of ways of life, thought and expression, around the world, and, particularly, in Greece. The concepts of culture and civilization are analyzed, as they have been employed in the geographical science and in connection with broader theoretical considerations and practical geographical applications. The course is developed as an introduction to the multiplicity of “cultural geographies”, which have been developed and practiced by geographers in the course of the formative decades of contemporary geography, as well as in empirical geographical applications of cultural geography research.

LECTURE UNITS

Introduction. Subjectivity and objectivity in the social sciences. Culture, civilization, cultural systems: a brief theoretical investigation of basic concepts.Cultural Geography: scientific legacy, historical evolution and prospects, contribution to the geographical science. Cultural perspective of basic geographical precepts and practices.The world map of civilization and its historical trajectory: socio-cultural variables and cultural systems. Theories of cultural diffusion of ideas and practices.Geographical methods of cultural analysis. Humanistic approaches and phenomenology.Value systems. Culture and ideology. Tradition and modernization. High, popular, mass, folk, vernacular and other forms of culture. Globalization and consumerism.Geographical approaches of cultural identities. The Greek cultural identity: Hellenism, concepts and realities.

1. Terkenli, T. S. (1996) The Cultural Landscape: Geographical Perspectives. Athens: Papazissis Publications
2. Tsaousis, D., ed. (1988) Hellenism, Greekness. Athens: Hestia Publications
3. Bonnet, A. (2010) Geography: an Introduction. Athens: Kritiki Publications
5. Gizelis, G. (1980) The Cultural System and its Communicational Character. Athens: Gregoropoulos Publications.
7. Terkenli, T. S.; Iosifides, T. and Chorianopoulos I., eds. (2007) Human Geography: Humans, Society and Space. Athens: Kritiki Publications