Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Current concepts and approaches in urban geography regarding the development of built environments. Central concerns are the relationships between urbanization and the state, capital, and civil society at various scales. Students with credit for GEOG 362 may not take this course for further credit. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:

Is the city a thing or a process?  In this course, we’ll have the chance to think about urban built environments – buildings, sidewalks, parks, roads, bike lanes, etc. – as fixed concrete elements of the landscape and, simultaneously, as constantly changing restless social processes.

Why is it important to think of cities as fixed/fluid social environments?  By doing so, we get beyond the apparently stable, concrete surface of cities and beyond orthodox stories about how and why they are built and regulated.  We get to think critically about the social, economic, and political forces that underlie and produce urban built environments under contemporary capitalism.  We’ll begin to understand the various interests involved in (re)shaping cities through development, planning, political activism, and everyday life.  By focusing on these often-obscure forces of urban change, we can become more engaged, critical urban citizens with more ability to evaluate and promote change.

Note:
This course may be applied toward the Certificate in Urban Studies
There will be no tutorials in the first week of class

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

Through lecture and discussion, the course will provide an understanding of:  (1) the changing relationships between cities and their regional, national, and global contexts; (2) how the state, capital, and civil society interact to shape built environments; (3) the relationship between identity and urban change; and (4) current theoretical perspectives on cities and urban life.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: