Last modified: 16 Oct 2025 15:16
Human mobility defines our contemporary world. With 281 million international migrants globally, approximately 1 in 30 people live beyond their country of origin—a threefold increase since 1970. These movements, spanning international borders and internal relocations, fundamentally transform our societies. The course explores how these processes shape societal issues from local to global scales, examining both the drivers of contemporary displacement and how communities respond to crisis and change.
| Study Type | Undergraduate | Level | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Term | Second Term | Credit Points | 30 credits (15 ECTS credits) |
| Campus | Aberdeen | Sustained Study | No |
| Co-ordinators |
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Human mobility defines our contemporary world. With 281 million international migrants globally (World Migration Report 2024), approximately 1 in 30 people live beyond their country of origin—a threefold increase since 1970. These movements, spanning international borders and internal relocations, fundamentally transform our societies and reshape geographic landscapes.
This course examines migration and mobility studies through multiple lenses, from intimate personal narratives to global demographic shifts. Students will critically analyse how movement and displacement manifest in daily life, exploring Urry and Lash's concept that contemporary society is inherently characterised by mobility and flux.
The curriculum is organised around five interconnected themes: Intro to Migration - shaping geographies, Migration governance, Economic migration and the ideal migrant, Migrant Lives, and Crisis-driven movement in an unstable world. Through these themes the course positions human mobility within broader social, political, and economic contexts, examining both the drivers of contemporary migration and societal responses to displacement, migrants and their descendants.
Through this comprehensive approach, students will develop nuanced understandings of how mobility shapes identity, belonging, and social change in our interconnected yet divided world.
Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 50 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
1,750-word essay worth 50% of the overall grade. |
Word Count | 1750 | |
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Conceptual | Analyse | Analyse how migration and the migrant is constructed as a geopolitical and/or societal problem. |
| Conceptual | Evaluate | Explain and synthesise geographical theories on migration and mobility. |
| Conceptual | Evaluate | Discuss migration as a process for societal transformations (e.g. demographic, economic, political, socio-environmental change) across a range of scales. |
| Factual | Understand | Understand patterns and trends relevant to internal and international migration, across different geographical context. |
| Procedural | Create | Advance reasoned, factually supported and critically aware arguments, both orally and in writing. |
| Procedural | Evaluate | Examine critically and interpret different types of primary and secondary material, with creative reference to theoretical frameworks and wider contexts. |
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 50 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
2-hour exam worth 50% of the overall grade. |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Conceptual | Analyse | Analyse how migration and the migrant is constructed as a geopolitical and/or societal problem. |
| Conceptual | Evaluate | Explain and synthesise geographical theories on migration and mobility. |
| Conceptual | Evaluate | Discuss migration as a process for societal transformations (e.g. demographic, economic, political, socio-environmental change) across a range of scales. |
| Factual | Understand | Understand patterns and trends relevant to internal and international migration, across different geographical context. |
| Procedural | Create | Advance reasoned, factually supported and critically aware arguments, both orally and in writing. |
| Procedural | Evaluate | Examine critically and interpret different types of primary and secondary material, with creative reference to theoretical frameworks and wider contexts. |
| Assessment Type | Formative | Weighting | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
Group presentation (formatively assessed). |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
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| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 100 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback | ||||
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Factual | Understand | Understand patterns and trends relevant to internal and international migration, across different geographical context. |
| Conceptual | Evaluate | Explain and synthesise geographical theories on migration and mobility. |
| Conceptual | Analyse | Analyse how migration and the migrant is constructed as a geopolitical and/or societal problem. |
| Conceptual | Evaluate | Discuss migration as a process for societal transformations (e.g. demographic, economic, political, socio-environmental change) across a range of scales. |
| Procedural | Evaluate | Examine critically and interpret different types of primary and secondary material, with creative reference to theoretical frameworks and wider contexts. |
| Procedural | Create | Advance reasoned, factually supported and critically aware arguments, both orally and in writing. |
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