geography and vocation

Project description
Your last writing assignment for the course is a 2-3 page paper reflecting upon the relationship among geography and vocation. In your paper you should respond to the following questions:

What do you believe is your current vocation and what do you think your vocation will be after you graduate from college? In what ways might your choice of vocation be tied to the task of changing the world or creating new geographies? How do you think you might you use some of the knowledge you have gained in this class in a future vocation (in the workplace, in your family, or in your community)?

The discussion below and the readings will help you to better understand what vocation is and how geography and vocation are related. You are encouraged to quote from and use ideas from the articles in discussing the answers to these questions. The paper does not have to follow the five paragraph format, but should be well organized with an introduction and conclusion and should use supporting evidence from the articles or from your own life to illustrate the points it makes. As usual your paper should be typed (or word-processed), double spaced, in 12 pt font, stapled, and with 1 inch margins all around. You must cite any direct quotes AND paraphrased ideas from the article or other sources as directed in Citing Sources in GEO 101. Papers that do not properly cite sources will lose points.

To Prepare for Discussion: This discussion asks a big question: How does one go about changing the world? The question, of course, assumes first that the world needs changing and that we know what to do to change it. Because we are asking this question in the context of an introductory human geography class we should also ask a related question: What role is there for geography and geographers in making a difference in the world? There are no correct or final answers to these questions, but I think that they are valuable ones to ask and to contemplate.

In this class we have explored the geography of some of the worlds problems. At the beginning of the course we discussed the seemingly impossible problems of population growth and environmental destruction. Here at the end of the semester we have addressed issues of poverty and segregation. What has not been made as explicit in this class is that people around the world are working to solve all of the problems we have discussed this semester. One of the biggest lessons that you should take away from this class is that the geographies we live with day in and day out are not in any sense natural or inevitable. This means that in fact there are indeed solutions to the problems we have been discussing. Furthermore knowledge of the geographical concepts and ideas that we have discussed this semester might even be useful in figuring out solutions to some of the problems we have discussed.

If youll stick with me for a moment I want to digress a bit and see if I can connect some of what Im talking about here with two ideas you might have encountered attending this university. I am not an expert on Lutheran Theology, and I know that many of you may know much more about the topic than I do. Nevertheless, it seems to me that there are some ideas in the air at a place like VU that might have some relevance for our discussion. That is, I want to suggest that some of what you have learned in this class may be directly related to some of what you learn by attending a Lutheran University (and what I learn by teaching at a Lutheran University) and that you (and I) would not learn by attending another type of educational institution. One theological notion that is central to education at a Lutheran university is the idea of vocation (Schwehn). Some might say that a vocation is what you are called to do with your life. It is also more than just ones choice of career. Your career is just one of the many vocations that you may engage in simultaneously. For example, you may also be a parent, a citizen, or a neighbor at the same time that you work as a fast food restaurant manager or a civil engineer. Any of these vocations might provide opportunities to serve ones neighbor and to improve the state of the world, even if just in a small way. The idea of vocation has a geography because it is concerned not just with what we do with our own lives, but also with what we do in the world. That is it is about how through our work and our actions we change the world for better or worse, and in so doing change ourselves. In short our vocations involve us in creating and recreating the world.

This is related to another theological concept that is in the air here at VU; that is the idea of Luthers Two Kingdoms in which a heavenly or spiritual kingdom coexists with an earthly or secular kingdom. It is this idea that allows a University like VU to exist for it is the separation of theological and secular concerns that allows for the academic freedom so necessary for intellectual inquiry we are engaging in with this very discussion topic (Solberg). What interests me about Luthers two kingdoms is that it is a geographical metaphor that expresses a particular notion of space. While the two kingdoms are separate spaces or realms they are also related or interconnected. This is similar to the notions of social space or relative space that I have advanced in this course. Space is not a container for things but is rather the relationships among things. Because it is rooted in this particular understanding of space, the two kingdoms idea suggests not a choice between two worlds, either withdrawal from the secular world toward some spiritual or heavenly world or being mired in the secular world without participation in a spiritual one, but rather active engagement with the secular world informed by simultaneous engagement with the spiritual world. Now my interpretation of these ideas may not fit with interpretations of those who are better versed in these matters and who can speak with better authority on them (see the references below for examples of more authoritative discussion). Nevertheless, these two ideas point toward some other less obvious ways that people might usefully engage their talents in making the world a better place. That is that we change the world not just though things like public protest but also through our vocations and through the ways we live our everyday lives.