KERALA FIELDCOURSE 2013

1

1

Key Information

Academic Tutors: Mirela Barbu

Andrew

Michael Chadwick

Linda Newson

Mark Pelling

Location: Cochin and Kovalam, Kerala

Dates: 30November –8 December 2012

Flights/travel:

Departure
Date / Departure
Airport / Departure
Time / Arrival
Date / Arrival
Airport / Arrival
Time / Airline
21 Students and 4 Staff / 30/11/2013 / 09:45 / Gatwick / 30/11/2013 / 20:30 / Dubai / Emirates Airlines
30/11/2013 / 21:55 / Dubai / 01/12/2013 / 03:20 / Cochin International / Emirates Airlines
08/12/2013 / 04:35 / Cochin International / 08/12/2013 / 07:05 / Dubai / Emirates Airlines
08/12/2013 / 08:20 / Dubai / 08/12/2013 / 11:55 / Gatwick / Emirates Airlines
17 Students / 30/11/2013 / 09:45 / Gatwick / 30/11/2013 / 20:30 / Dubai / Emirates Airlines
30/11/2013 / 21:55 / Dubai / 01/12/2013 / 03:20 / Cochin International / Emirates Airlines
15/12/2013 / 04:35 / Cochin International / 15/12/2013 / 07:05 / Dubai / Emirates Airlines
15/12/2013 / 08:20 / Dubai / 15/12/2013 / 11:55 / Gatwick / Emirates Airlines

Please note that these are all local times and airlines reserve the right to amend exact flight details – it is your responsibility to monitor this.

7th October is also the date by which you can amend your return flights from India. Students need to do this directly with StudyLink Tours – additional charges will apply.

The field class commences at 10am on 1 December.

There will be a role callin the Hotel lobby at 10am (local time). For any student not present at this time, your mark for this module could be reduced to 0 (zero).

Any students deviating from the flight/travel plan shown on page 1 must inform Mark Pelling. It is assumed that NO students will do this.

All students also need to send Mark contact details of someone at home (i.e., in the UK) we can call in an emergency, your passport number and nationality and visa number. This must be completed by 20October.

Important Contact Addresses:

1

1

1 December
Quality Airport Hotel
Near CochinInternationalAirport,
Nayathode P.O., Angamaly,
Kochi - 683 572,
Kerala, India.
Tel: +91 484-2610366, 2610678

2-6 December

Abad TurtleHotel

Turtle Beach
Varankavala, Pollathai P.O,

Mararikulam,

Tel: + 91 0478 2186966
Fax: +91 0478 2860270

1

1

7 December

Abad Plaza, Cochin

M.G Road,Cochin-682 035
Phone : 91 484 2381122

Pre Fieldwork Meetings:

All lectures are Thursday, 10.00-12.00 in S-2.29

Thursday26 September: Mark Pelling, field class overview and an introduction to the

Kerala Model of Development.

Thursday 3 October.Andrew Brookes: Economic and social development in transition; discussion of group project ideas

Thursday10 October.Michael Chadwick, aquatic environmental change and management

Thursday 17 October: Linda Newson: Development in Context – governance and social change; discussion of group project ideas

Thursday 24 October: Mark Pelling: Confirming student research groups and room preferences.

Thursday 28 November, Mark Pelling, final questions, logistics, tickets etc

Student Research Preparation (times to be arranged with supervisor)

Week7: discuss research questions (homework – to research literature)

Week 8: discuss literature and potential methods (homework to pilot methods)

Week 9: discuss learning from pilot and final methods

NOTE: Attendance at all meetings is compulsory as important logistical and assessment related information will be given to you at these briefings. If you cannot attend these meetings for any reason, it is essential that you contact a tutor beforehand.

Practicalities

Medical Issues

For the purposes of the medical insurance all students on this course must inform Isobel Ige if they have:

(i) a pre-existing medical condition e.g. asthma, diabetes, epilepsy

(ii) recently taken/are taking any prescribed medication (excluding anti-malarials)

(iii) undergone any surgical procedure within the 12 months prior to the field course

All students will be required to take responsibility for organising their own vaccinations and anti-malarial drugs – listen carefully to the health briefing and follow the instructions given.

Dietary Requirements

Field course participants with any special dietary requirements (vegetarian etc) or food allergies must inform the field course leaders well in advance so appropriate meals can be booked.

Insurance

Travel insurance is provided through King’s College. If you are taking items not covered under this policy, ensure that you have adequate independent cover.

Accommodation

Accommodation organised during the fieldcourse itself is in international standard hotels, with air conditioning, etc.. Students staying on for a further week are responsible for making their own accommodation and travel arrangements.

Equipment

Luggage: Please check carrier rules – for all flight legs. If in doubt assume that ONE item of hand baggage is allowed; dimensions: 56 centimetres long [approximately 22 inches], 45 centimetres high [approximately 17.5 inches], 25 centimetres deep [approximately 9.85 inches] including wheels, handles, side pocket. All items of luggage which do not fit in the permitted cabin baggage size must be checked in to be placed in the aircraft hold.

Liquids:

  • Liquids may only be carried within separate containers each of which with a capacity not greater than 100ml.
  • These containers must be brought to the airport contained in a single, transparent, re-sealable plastic bag, which itself must not exceed 1 litre in capacity (approximately 20cms x 20cms). The contents of the plastic bag must fit comfortably and the bag must be sealed.
  • Each passenger may carry only one such bag of liquids. The bag must be presented for examination.

Liquids that can not be placed inside the re-sealable bag must be packed into the hold luggage and checked in. Liquids of any amount can still be carried in luggage checked into the aircraft hold.

'Liquids' include:

  • All drinks, including water, soup, syrups
  • Creams, lotions, oils, perfumes, mascara etc
  • Sprays and pressurized containers including shaving foam and spray deodorants
  • Pastes, including toothpastes
  • Gels, including hair and shower gel
  • Any other solutions and items of similar consistency

Medicines:Essential medicines may be permitted in larger quantities above the 100ml limit, but will be subject to authentication.

Airline rules are liable to change, students are responsible for keeping up to date with carrier and airport regulations.

Clothing: casual and suited to warm weather (cotton shorts & T-shirts ideal) but long sleeves and trousers needed to protect against insect bites morning & evening. Sweater/sweatshirt for cooler evenings. Sun hat. Lightweight waterproof jacket/kagool. Towel & swimwear. (NB – dust, heat and Indian hand-washing techniques can take a heavy toll on your clothing – do not take anything you expect to be pristine on your return!)

Footwear: tough outdoor-wear type sandals ideal; trainers, stout shoes or lightweight walking boots.

Other Equipment: water bottle, first aid kit (including high factor sunscreen lotion, insect repellent, insect bite cream, anti-diarrhoea tablets, 'diorhylte' (rehydration sachets)), torch & batteries, sunglasses (essential!).

Academic Equipment: hardback field notebook (ideally A5), A4 pad of lined paper, pens, pencils, eraser, ruler, coloured pencils, calculator & batteries.

Money

Sterling (UK£) cash or travellers cheques can be changed into Indian Rupees in banks, but also in the hotels we will be staying in. Exchange rates can fluctuate quite dramatically: at the time of writing £1 = approx 90 Rupees. Please note that although large-denomination Rupee bills (Rs.100 or Rs.500) may not seem to be very valuable in UK terms, they are within India where wage rates are often below £2/day. Be safe and be sensitive to local conditions: don’t openly display large quantities of cash.

Costs

The major items of field course expenditure (international flights, local travel, hotel rooms, etc.) are included in your payment to the department. Note that in addition you will have to provide for the following:

  • Medical expenses for necessary vaccinations and malaria prevention tablets
  • Meals, drinks & spending money (snacks, souvenirs, postcards) throughout the field course (£10/day will be ample for this).
  • Visa payments (VSF Global handles Indian Visa requests, see

NOTE: For students staying for an additional week in India, you should budget at around £15-£20/day for food and basic accommodation. Travel costs vary greatly: trains or shared taxis (which can be hired by the day) are the most economical means of transport.

IMPORTANT: ACTION YOU SHOULD TAKE IMMEDIATELY

  1. See your GP/travel clinic/university health centre and obtain necessary vaccinations & anti-malaria tablets for visiting Kerala. Remember that you will need to start taking anti-malarial drugs before leaving the UK (and after your return).
  2. Obtain your Tourist Visa. For this you will need a passport valid for at least 6 months after your return to the UK with two blank pages and two passport photos.
  3. Email details of your next of kin, passport number and nationality, visa numberand any independent flight details to Mark Pelling by20 October.

Please note: AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN, BANGLADESH, SRI LANKA and CHINESE passport holders of single or dual nationality, or those whose parents or grandparents hold the above nationalities will find the tourist visa application process more time consuming and should begin the process as soon as possible – in the past visas have been denied. Please also identify yourself to Mark Pelling

For visa applications:

UK referee: please use your parent or guardian

Indian referee: Dax Gueizelar, GLH India Travel, St Vincent Convent Road, Thammanam Pipe Line, Palarivattom, Cochin 682 025, tel: +91 9645411433

The Field Course

Field Course Itinerary

Saturday 30th November

Activities: Flight to India. Check-in 06.45 London Gatwick

Day 1: Sunday 1stDecember

Activities: Arrival (Arrive Cochin Airport 1stDecember 03.20),

Formal start to field class 10.00, Airport Hotel, Cochin, roll call in hotel lobby.

Orientation #1: Urban development in contemporary and historical Kochi

Evening:free time

Day 2: Monday 2ndDecember

Activities:Orientation #2: The rural agro-economy and peri-urban Kochi

Evening:Student presentations of planned project work

Day 3: Tuesday 3rdDecember

Activities:Student Project Day 1

Evening:Seminar on Development in Kerala

Day 4: Wednesday 4thDecember

Activities: Student Project Day 2

Evening: Group cultural event

Day 5: Thursday 5thDecember

Activities:Student Project Day 3

Evening: Write-up field-work

Day 6: Friday 6thDecember

Activities:Orientation #3: A transect through the Western Ghats

Evening:Prepare project presentation

Day 7: Saturday 7thDecember

Activities:Project feedback, field class de-brief.

Formal end to field class 14.00

Day 8: Sunday 9th December

Activities:Return to London: check-in Cochin airport 01.35

Aims and Objectives

Fieldwork is an important part of the geographer’s training and it is important to be clear about the overall aims and objectives. We are fortunate at King’s in being able to maintain a full and challenging programme of field excursions, but the programme is demanding and it is therefore important that you should prepare and participate fully in order to gain maximum benefit from this. The old adage ‘what you get out of it depends upon what you put into it’ applies particularly to field courses. The main aims and objectives of the course are as follows:

  • To gain understanding of how physical and cultural environments of Kerala shape patterns of human activity
  • To use Kerala to illustrate a number of broad geographical ideas and concepts important within the discipline as a whole enabling you to relate the subject matter to your specialised courses and to enrich the material you have learned about in lectures and reading at Kings’.
  • To enable you to assume a major part of the responsibility for your own learning experience.
  • To develop skills in problem solving, research design, interviewing (including via translators), data handling and report writing – providing valuable experience for your third year Independent Geographical Study and enhancing your research skills more generally
  • To give you experience of dealing with a variety of data sources, including library and web resources, field observations and interview and questionnaire responses.
  • To provide you with practice in a number of transferable skills, such as data gathering, working individually and in teams, meeting tight deadlines and compiling and presenting reports. These skills will be useful in a number of other situations, including future careers.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the field course you should have:

  • A knowledge and understanding of Kerala as an example of contemporary geographical, developmental and environmental issues
  • A knowledge and understanding of some of the main social, economic and environmental processes influencing local geographies
  • Experience of a range of field work practices and techniques (including working through interpreters)
  • Developed observational and interpretative skills
  • Experienced working as a member of a team
  • Planned a research project; recorded, analysed and presented evidence; drawn conclusions and presented this to others in written form and orally
  • Practised reflective thinking
  • Demonstrated self-reliance, the ability to overcome problems and effective time management

Above all, the Kerala field course offers an excellent opportunity to experience a fascinating environment at first hand.
Please ensure that you use this opportunity to the fullest extent!

The Setting: Kerala

Kerala provides a rich and fascinating introduction to South Asian landscapes and culture. Kochi has been an important centre of global trade and exchange for many centuries, and this history is evident through the influence of Arabic, Jewish, Chinese, Portuguese, British and non-Keralan Indian cultures on the urban landscape. Today, the city remains firmly imbedded in dynamic global networks, with international trade, tourism, and labour migration to the Gulf states being important parts of the local economy. Rural Kerala is equally fascinating: as well as being home to the complex agro-ecological system of the backwaters, Kerala has been described as a success story of rural development, with high levels of female literacy, political empowerment and life expectancy, despite its relatively low per capita income.

The introductory briefings will give you some initial insights into the area, its history and development. But in order to get the most from this field course, you should do your utmost to familiarise yourself with the area before your departure. This means looking through the supporting materials in the appendices to this handbook and the library.

FIELDCOURSE DIARIES: Recording observations and reflections

Learning Aims

  • To develop recording and observational skills
  • To develop reflective and thinking skills

The Notebooks

Keeping a field notebook is an essential tool of geographers (and many other field scientists). Accurately and completely recording data collected in the field (and your responses to them) is a vital skill for effective field research whether on a field course or conducting your dissertation. Your field notebook is also a valuable record containing primary material for writing up fieldwork projects.

You will produce a 1,200 word report based on your field course notebook as an assessed component of the field course.

The Notebook Itself

It should be portable and robust. Ideally A5, hardback and preferably not spiral bound because the pages can fall out easily. You may need to take more than one notebook in case of calamity (notebooks have been known to be dropped in rivers, or left on a plane…) or you run out of pages.

What Should I Put in My Field Notebook?

Essential Things to include:

  1. Observations (what you see, hear, feel), sketches (clearly labelled), interviews, notes from lecturers in the field, reflections (what you think), sketch maps.
  2. Analysis. For each Observation day think about a potential IGS research question and propose a methodology. This should be done in no more than 200 words per observation. We will look for policy relevance, originality of ideas, appropriateness of methodology and achievability.

Optional Things to Include: Relevant newspaper cuttings, photos, postcards, maps. An overall schedule or route map.

DO

  • Put your name and address inside the front cover requesting return if lost (unlikely, but you never know…).
  • Number the pages (this helps with indexing themes on a longer project)
  • Start each day's entry/entries on a fresh page clearly dated
  • Record relevant details of date, time, place and weather at each new entry
  • Check spellings (from a guidebook, map, tutor, guide or local person) of unfamiliar places and features
  • Leave gaps to insert photos next to landscape sketches, for example
  • Be systematic, neat and label your entries well
  • Record entries as you go along each day so they are fresh
  • Tidy up (check spellings etc) entries at the end of each day
  • Remember you can work both from the front and back of your notebook - e.g. to separate independent project work from day-to-day observations during the field course.
  • Remember you can start your field notebook with notes from pre-field course briefings & preparations

DON'T

  • Include every ticket and receipt you collect – the field notebook is not a souvenir scrapbook

Assessment:

The assessment will be based on tutors’ evaluations of a 1,200 essay on a particular theme of your choice using the field notebook as the primary source for material. The field notebook must also be submitted and will be reviewed but not marked.

This component comprises 30% of the total module mark: details are given in the coursework header. Note that both clarity of style, relevance and depth of content as well as quality of presentation are being assessed here. Assessment criteria and typical grades are as follows:

1,200 word essay and field notebook

First

Content & Style: Full, complete, well organised and clear coverage of the main observation opportunities with intelligent interpretation of observations. Accurate and confident recording of evidence and examples seen in the field. Based on consistent and conscientious recording both as guided by tutors and independently. Beyond this, the report content may show some originality or innovation, and/or make intelligent linkages between theoretical frameworks (e.g. ideas from lectures, pre-course reading) and details observed in the field.

Presentation has a high degree of professionalism. The inclusion of photos, maps, sketches, cuttings is extremely well done e.g. appropriate, accurately labelled and well integrated. This is an engaging report that shows evidence of thought and reflection by the writer.