Human Geography
Human geography examines how people, places and societies shape one another, exploring the social, cultural, economic and political forces that determine how people live and work across the globe and how places are made, contested and transformed over time. It is a discipline that operates at multiple scales, from the experience of individual neighbourhoods and cities through national patterns of development and inequality to the global flows of capital, people and culture that link distant places in complex webs of interdependence. Questions of development, identity, difference, migration, sustainability, urbanisation and social justice all fall within its scope.
At the University of Southampton this three-year, full-time BA in Human Geography takes a clear-eyed approach to these questions, developing your ability to understand how social, cultural and economic influences affect how people live across the world. You will study social and cultural geography, economic geography, urban geography, political geography and development studies, developing both the conceptual frameworks and the research methods to investigate these questions empirically. Qualitative and quantitative methods, fieldwork, GIS and archival research are all tools you will use throughout the programme, building the skills to engage with geographical questions rigorously and independently.
Human geography graduates are valued in many professional settings for their combination of analytical depth, social awareness and research capability. Careers include urban and regional planning, community development, the civil service and local government, international development and NGO work, social research, environmental consultancy, education, journalism, public health and a range of roles in the public and voluntary sectors that require understanding of how social and spatial factors shape human lives. Many graduates also continue to postgraduate study in geography, urban planning, international development or a related social science.