Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Reviews several traditional and contemporary theories of urban economic development, exploring the historical context, content and policy implications of each.

COURSE DETAILS:

Metropolitan areas are chief sites of economic activity and prosperity around the world.  Concomitantly, cities are also the heartlands of economic decline, poverty, social inequality, and environmental degradation.  Through the disciplinary lenses of critical political economy and economic geography, this course will develop in students a strong understanding of the history, theory, process, practice, and context of urban economic development policies and approaches.  The objectives of the course are to:  

1. Provide an introduction to key concepts, ideas, strategies, and the (often contradictory) goals of economic development;
2. Understand the impact of global and state economic policies and shifts at the city-scale;
3. Understand the complex politics of the urban economic policymaking environment;
4. Observe and compare theories of economic development with on-site field observations;
5. To critically reflect on the outcomes of economic development efforts, through the asking of questions such as: who benefits?  

Course topics include neoliberalism and the urban condition; housing and racialized urban displacement; the decline of the industrial city; the rise of the creative class; corporate occupation of urban spaces; the role of the craft industry; as well as urban blight and gentrification.  Students can expect to participate in experiential field visits, conduct ethnographic observation exercises in aims of linking theory with observed and ‘actually existing’ urban economics, and to hear from private and public sector guest speakers.  

A background in economics is not a prerequisite for this course.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: