Nature - autonomous learning

essays and exam questions 249‘Whoever utters the word “nature” deserves to be needled by the question: “whichnature?” ’ (Beck 1995: 342). Explain and evaluate Beck’s assertion.‘Nature is a chaotic concept’. To what extent do you agree with statement?‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me’. Assess theapplicability of this schoolyard rhyme to the word ‘nature’.‘Social constructionism has helped destabilise the longstanding notion thatbodies are “simply natural” or biological’ (Longhurst 2000: 23). Critically evaluatesocial constructionist approaches to the human body.‘A person’s sexual identity is given not so much by their genital anatomy as by theirsexual preferences’ (Wade 2002: 42). Do you agree?‘Geography is a divided discipline because human and physical geographers haveentirely different understandings of nature’. Discuss.‘The one thing that is not natural is “nature”’ (Soper 1995: 7). To what extent isthis assertion a defensible one?What is the relation between the nature of geography as a discipline and the naturethat geographers study?‘If you’re not a realist when it comes to nature then you must be a relativist’.Evaluate this claim.‘Those who embrace [the] tenets of realism will often draw arrows from the quiverof constructionism’ (Gergen 2001: 16). Explain this statement.Imagine that you are a physical geographer by profession. How would you defendthe reliability of the environmental knowledge you produce if questioned by ahuman geographer with a ‘nature-sceptical’ attitude?‘Like all . . . powerful ideas, the idea of nature as wilderness – as somethingseparate, pristine, eternal, and harmonious – has in many ways become moreimportant than the reality it purports to describe’ (Budiansky 1996: 21). Assessthis contention.