URBS 303 - Advanced Debates in Urban Studies

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)

This seminar focuses on selected issues of importance in Urban Studies. Topics vary according to the instructor. The course is required of all majors and may be taken during the junior or senior years; it can be repeated for credit if the topic has changed.

Topic for 2013/14a: Greening the City: Sustainable Streets and Public Spaces. The creation of urban green spaces faces continuing socioeconomic, political, and ecological challenges, despite the growing importance of making cities environmentally sustainable and resilient in the face of climate change. This seminar focuses on past and present efforts to remake cities with more livable and socially inclusive streets, plazas, parks, and other public spaces. Through the theoretical lens of urban political ecology and tactical urbanism, we examine the legacies of the environmental history, changing discourses of sustainability, “complete street” programs that accommodate pedestrians and bicyclists, new trends in park design and community gardens, and shoreline protection in an era of rising sea levels. We also consider possible problems with contemporary approaches, such as new forms of social exclusion and ecological gentrification. Course materials focus on such cases as New York City, Poughkeepsie, and San Francisco, while students research a particular place of their own choosing. Overall, we seek expanded conceptions of sustainability in the contemporary urban environment.

Topic for 2013/14b: Urban Inequality. As centers of political power and capital accumulation, cities have long featured socioeconomic, spatial, multicultural, and other forms of inequality. What are the causes and consequences of inequality within cities, between cities, and across the urban/ suburban/ rural landscape? Topics for study include: urban (de)industrialization and economic restructuring; the relationship of economic inequality to other forms of inequality (political, educational, environmental, and more); inequality and growth; world cities and globalization; technological innovation and wealth generation; governmental responses to inequality, and citizens movements to fight poverty and inequality. 2013/14a: Mr. Godfrey. 2013/14b: Mr. Koechlin.

Prerequisite(s): URBS 100 and URBS 200 or equivalent.

One 3-hour period.

Note: Enrollment by special permission.