Salzburg Geographical Expedition

Welcome to the Salzburg Geographical Expedition!  Throughout the year-long AP Human Geography course we embark on a series of 7 short explorations that are designed to help connect—or, ground truth—the concepts, theories and models of our classroom learning with what is actually happening on the ground in the City of Salzburg.  We see first-hand how these geographical concepts take shape in the city.  Each of the Expeditions is designed to deepen student engagement with themes from each of the 7 major units of the AP Human Geography course. Students document each of these 7 Expeditions with photographs, maps, notes and short writings.  Students share their findings with the public by publishing them to an online blog set up for this purpose.  For each of the 7 Expeditions one after-school walk is scheduled where interested students are guided through a section of the city to see more closely how certain geographical concepts can manifest in the landscape.

Unit I.  Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives

For Salzburg Geographical Expedition #1 students deepened their understanding of the “geographical imagination.”  This is one of the main concepts in modern geographical thought and fits well into the first unit of study as it lays down a foundation for some of the future themes of the course.  In order to challenge our thinking on the subject we visited a labyrinth etched into the landscape at Landeskrankenhaus Salzburg, a hospital campus located in downtown Salzburg.  The labyrinth form has been discussed at length in class as a model for thinking about the learning process (see About section).  We continued that discussion and proposed that a labyrinth provides a framework through which we organize space—both physical and conceptual—and could help us better understand the geographical imagination, a concept that underlies most, if not all, of our geographical thinking. This Expedition required that students find and examine the labyrinth at Landeskrankenhaus Salzburg on Google maps by switching back and forth between the map and satellite functions.  Later, students needed to follow the map effectively and arrive at the starting point of the guided walk on time.  As a group we walked over to the labyrinth at Landeskrankenhaus Salzburg and walk along its route in order to consider some of our questions.  Students documented the Expedition from beginning to end through maps, photographs and short responses to the following prompts/questions and posted in on their Expedition blogs.

  1. Describe the sensation of looking at the labyrinth on Google maps and then being inside of it on the ground at the Landeskrankenhaus Salzburg.
  2. How does actually being inside of the mapped terrain change your perspective?
  3. What is the relationship between the map and terrain?
  4. Describe the labyrinth.  Is the labyrinth a map?  Why?  Or why not?
  5. Does the labyrinth organize space?
  6. Does the labyrinth organize the way in which you think about space?
  7. The geographical imagination is how we structure our knowledge about the world.  Respond. Be sure to use the labyrinth as an example.

Additional Resources: For additional discussion of the geographical imagination listen to a selection of podcasts here: http://www.geographicalimaginations.org/episodes/. For additional reading consult the following handout: Massey, D. (2006) ‘The geographical mind’ in Balderston, D. (ed) Secondary Geography Handbook, Sheffield: Geographical Association.    

Unit II.  Population and Migration

For the Salzburg Geographical Expedition #2 students explored different ways international migration affects the urban landscape. Austria has a population of 8,584,926 residents (as of 1 January 2015), including 1,146,078 foreign citizens (13.3% of total population).  In 2014, around 1.7 million people with a migration background lived in Austria, that is 20.4% of the entire population.  According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2000 the number of immigrants to Austria was 65,954.  In 2013, 135,228.  There is an increasing number of immigrants coming to Austria each year. The main question for this expedition was: How do immigrants change the cultural landscape of their new city?   Salzburg is an ever-increasingly international city due to its popularity as a tourist destination.  Over 5 million people visit the City of Mozart each year!  But apart from the tourist-driven international feel of this relatively small urban center—the population of the City of Salzburg is 148,420—there are many people who come here for a better life.  It is estimated that nearly 20,000 immigrants (new and old) live in Salzburg. For this expedition students needed to document through photography and short writing sites and spaces in Salzburg that represent changes in the cityscape due to immigration.  They needed to document 3 different sites or spaces and describe each in less than 50 words (5 x 50=250). Additional Resources: The following website provides an excellent description of the cultural landscape.  http://debitage.net/humangeography/landscape.html.  You may want to spend extra time with the concept of cultural diffusion.  Look here specifically.  http://debitage.net/humangeography/landscape.html#CulturalDiffusion

Unit III. Cultural Patterns and Processes

For Salzburg Geographical Expedition #3 students had the choice of two cultural themes. OPTION A: Pilgrimage Background: Perhaps the most popular of pilgrimage destinations in the world, the Hajj to Mecca is for Muslims one of the most important aspects of their faith.  Other religions also have popular pilgrim destinations.  For centuries Catholics would choose to walk to Jerusalem, Rome or Santiago de Compostela in Spain as a way of showing penance and in order to live a life closer to God. Walking to Santiago de Compostela along the “Camino” has become very popular in recent years due to books published and films (Martin Sheen stars in The Way) distributed in a number of languages across the world.  This route is known as Jakobsweg here in Austria and it connects with a large network of marked trails in Europe that all lead to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwest Spain. For this Expedition students were required to:  Define pilgrimage.  Give 3 examples of walking pilgrimages in the world.  Find the Camino de Santiago/St. James’s Way/Chemin de Saint Jacques/Jakobsweg on the Internet and research its main routes.  Post an image of a map in the blog.  Imagine they were going to walk from Salzburg to Santiago de Compostela and create an itinerary of their proposed journey.  List the names of major towns they would need to go through if they walked from here to there.  List at least 20 towns/cities.  Walk one kilometer of Jakobsweg here in Salzburg and document their walk with 3 photos.  Back at home after the walk calculate the number of kilometres from Salzburg’s Cathedral to the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela following (more or less) the route previously listed above.  Place themselves in the shoes of a medieval pilgrim who would have left Salzburg and walked to Santiago.  Without a train or bus to take them back home, these pilgrims walked back so double the distance calculated above.  What obstacles might have been in their way?  How long did it take them?  What might this journey have meant to them?  This was a research-based expedition and students were expected to be able to find all materials on their own via Internet.   OPTION B: Folk Culture For the third Salzburg Expedition students also could have researched the traditional clothing worn in and around the City of Mozart by visiting shops and making observations in the historical center, or Old Town. While there, they needed to document the following in their blog through writings, drawings, and mappings.  They also needed to provide cartographic and photographic documentation of their research expedition.  For example, a map of the locations of the stores visited. Also, photos from the stores looking at labels or, better yet, trying on a dirndl or lederhosen*.   Students needed to frame their observations and commentaries around the following guidelines:

  1. Social geographers like to ask questions about race, class and gender.  Who wears the traditional clothing of this region in and around Old Town?  What gender?  What race and/or nationality (guess)?  How old are they (guess)?  What do you think is their socio-economic standing (low, middle, high)?  Give a short profile of 5 people you see wearing traditional clothing (can´t be workers in the stores).
  2. Economic geographers would ask about the cost of production and of purchasing the outfits.  Do you notice a difference in the quality of the workmanship in the clothing?  Where do you think it is made?  If it is handmade in Austria is it more expensive?  Is it made it China?  Lastly, how much would it cost you to outfit yourself with the full traditional wear if it is handmade in Austria?  How much if it is a cheaper product produced (maybe) outside the EU?
  3. Cultural geographers will ask how this tradition of dress fits into greater narratives that could help us better understand notions of community and nation in today’s Austria.  If there has been a return to wearing traditional clothing what is happening in the country to promote it?  What ideas about nation does it reinforce?

Pictures were posted of the different pieces of clothing worn by men and women in order to finish up the expedition.  Students needed to explain each article of clothing both men and women wear. Additional Resources: Background research may be required.  See wikipedia’s descriptions of the dirndl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirndl) and tracht (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracht).  Use Wikipedia to find a wealth of other resources available on the Web.

Unit IV. Political Organization of Space

For the Salzburg Geographical Expedition #4 students will have a choice of two expeditions related to political geography. OPTION A – Analysis of first-hand accounts Students visited Tobias Zielony’s “A Colonial Landscape” photo exhibition at FOTOHOF (www.fotohof.at). The following text was taken from the exhibition description found at http://www.fotohof.at/content.php?lang=en. “Developed in Ramallah in autumn 2013, this is Zielony’s photographic study of the extremely precarious political situation in Palestine. His first explicit landscape work is all about the West Bank as a place where conflict rages over land, water, and infrastructure, but also questions of identity. The title of the exhibition is based on the textual work by Philip Rizk entitled A Colonial Landscape. At Tobias Zielony’s request, the German-Egyptian filmmaker and author Philip Rizk created a text to accompany the photographs that has been incorporated into the exhibition as a literary work in its own right. The text, written independently of the photographic works, addresses what is often merely subtly hinted at in Tobias Zielony’s photographs: namely, seeking out the stories of individual people inseparably linked with a form of neo-colonisation that individualises the region’s inhabitants through consumerism and loans, undermining any sense of political solidarity.” Students needed to read the 5-page A Colonial Landscape (Philip Rizk), visit the exhibition and document (through photos and notes) their visit and then revisit their notes, photographs and the Rizk text back home and reflect on the following questions:

  • What is the political situation in Palestine?
  • How do the photographer and essayist frame this situation?

Student blog entries included a map of the region, photographs of the exhibition, their notes and a short essay (no more than 500 words) that summarized their reflections.   OPTION B – Internet research Students researched the political geography of Salzburg during the last 100 years since the beginning of World War I (1914).  Their key question was: how has the political geography of Salzburg changed in terms of borders, type of government, and occupation?  Their blog entry needed to include cartographic material (maps) that highlighted the changes in boundaries and borders. Students were required to include (at a minimum) the following moments:

  • post-WWI dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
  • Anschluss 
  • post-WWII Allied zoning
  • “permanent neutrality”
  • current type of government (All 3: Salzburg City, Land, Austria).

Students needed to describe how they would be politically represented as a citizen living at 106 Moosstrasse.  They framed their narratives as a 20th century historical political geography of Salzburg using maps and write short descriptions of how Salzburg’s political geography has evolved over the last 100 years.  

Unit V. Agriculture, Food Production and Rural Land Use

For the fifth chapter of the 2015-16 Salzburg Geographical Expedition students had the choice of two topics.  Each required them to think about processes and networks. OPTION A: Photographic Essay (with accompanying short text) that shows local/regional agricultural processes: including farming activities, farmers, tractors on the road, stands at farmer markets, etc…  10 photograph minimum with photos each showing a different node in the network of agricultural processes.  Write original short (less than 50 word) descriptions for each photograph. OPTION B: Internet Research that shows understanding of the EU’s regulations on food production.  As Salzburg is a large dairy producer, students used milk as their example and examined all of the regulations placed on milk production.  Short descriptive writing walks the reader from farm to table learning about the regulations along the way.

Unit VI. Industrialization and Economic Development

For the sixth installment of the Salzburg Geographical Expedition students deepened their understanding of community/economic development. 

This was their scenario:  You are a member of (i.e. employee) a new NGO based in Salzburg that has a sister city relationship with Teniente Morales, Paraguay.  You have never been there before but you know the village has 1000 inhabitants and is located 25 kilometres from a major town in the centre of the country.  The main source of income for families is from their small, 5 hectare farms.  Farmers plant cotton, mandioca, beans, sugar cane, bananas and yerba mate.  Cotton prices have fallen, though, and it is not profitable to plant cotton anymore.  They do not have many vegetable gardens.  They have dirt roads, a small health care facility and have electricity but no running water.  School children can attend primary school but need to go to the major town to complete secondary studies.     

Your NGO has 25,000 Euros for a project.  For this project you need to address the following questions: What does it mean to be a sister city?  Can you help Teniente Morales in community (economic, social) development?  What would you propose?  Do you need to know more about the community before you devise a plan?  What do you need to know?  Be specific.  How would you invest the 25,000 Euros?

Unit VII. Cities and Urban Land Use

For their last chapter of the Salzburg Geographical Expedition students explored the changes in land use marked on the urban landscape as one enters and leaves the CBD of the City of Salzburg. 

What better way to do this than to ride a city bus across the city!  Students were required to take the 21 bus from anywhere on the Moosstrasse in the direction of Bergheim.  They needed to go to the end of the line in Bergheim (one hour) and then return on the same 21 bus.  Once they returned to the CBD they terminated the expedition.  

While traveling along this transect (line) students documented in both photographs and written descriptions the kind of land use encountered all along the way.  They needed to identify, take a photo of, and describe at least 5 types of land use.