SlideShare a Scribd company logo
1	
The New School
Eugene Lang College for Liberal Arts
The Social Life of Cities
LSOC 3026 // CRN 7807
Fall 2016
T/R 11:55 am - 1:35 pm
Location: Johnson/Kaplan 66 West 12th
, Room 716
Olimpia Mosteanu
New School for Social Research, Department of Sociology
Email: mosto995@newschool.edu
Office hours: by appointment
Cities are densities of stories, passions, hurts, revenge, aspiration, avoidance, deflection,
and complicity. As such, residents must be able to conceive of a space sufficiently
bounded so as to consolidate disparate energies and make things of scale happen. But at
the same time, they must conceive of a fractured space sufficiently large enough through
which dangerous feelings can dissipate or be steered away. (Simone 2004:11)
Course description:
The course introduces students to the field of urban sociology while taking our everyday
engagement with the city as a resource for critical reflection. It focuses on social
processes that define urban life, on the one hand, and the relationship between the city
and the self, on the other. The course covers a broad range of topics including street life,
urban violence, spatial and social segregation, gentrification, the impact of
suburbanization and globalization, urban citizenship, and the challenges posed by the
growing neoliberalization of cities. In addition to scholarly articles, the course draws on
literary texts, as well as fiction and nonfiction films as resources for thinking about the
social life of cities. Assignments will include a short ethnographic research project that
explores the everyday life of a public space in New York City. The course will prepare
students to reflect critically on urban life, and understand the study of cities not only as a
research tool, but also as a way to engage in the politics of everyday life.
Learning outcomes:
By the end of this course, students will be able to
• identify and explain the core questions, concepts and processes involved in the
study of urban sociology,
• understand the various social groups, political interests, technologies, and cultural
practices that shape cities over time and across space,
• critically evaluate and integrate information from various sources, including
written and visual materials, as well as personal observations,
• examine cities at a variety of scales - from street level interactions to municipal
politics to patterns of global change,
• work cooperatively in a small group environment.
2	
Assessment and Grading:
Walking tour ethnography: 25%
Mid-term exam: 15%
Final essay: 20%
Digital log: 20%
Class participation: 20%
Walking tour ethnography (25%):
For this assignment you will design a walking tour in the neighborhood where you live.
The purpose of this tour is to introduce your neighborhood to a person who does not live
in it. The duration of the walking tour should be approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Your own experiences of your neighborhood will not be enough to write this assignment.
However, you are required to use your own experiences as the basis for further
exploration. That is why, in preparation for the walking tour, you are asked to observe,
document and analyze everyday life in your neighborhood in a systematic manner. You
will try to understand the different layers of social life and the patterns of social
interactions that unfold in these urban spaces, drawing on concepts and issues covered by
the course readings, class discussions and films.
This preliminary ethnography will help you prepare a series of stories and facts that will
be used to present the places included in the walking tour. These narratives should, on the
one hand, clarify your own connections to these places and, on the other, seek to create a
connection between them and your audience (those who would join you on your tour).
The tour must include a variety of places ranging from cafes, parks, supermarkets, graffiti
spots, monuments, restaurants, shops, communal gardens, sidewalks, building walls, etc.
After designing the walking tour, you will have to put together a portfolio that (1)
introduces the places included in your walking tour, (2) presents the collected empirical
evidence that helped you design it, and (3) offers a 2-page critical reflection describing
what you have learned from putting together your walking tour.
The empirical evidence should include samples of field notes (for instance, descriptions
of the places included in the tour, snippets from conversations with neighbors, baristas,
shop owners/assistants regarding some of those places), and visual materials that helped
you design your walking tour. In addition to this minimum requirement, you are free to
include any other data you used to design your walking tour (this data can be historical,
archival, survey data, the census, newspaper articles, all sorts of visual illustrations, etc.).
Questions you should consider in your reflective essay:
Why did you choose to show these places? How does your life trajectory influence your
experience of these places? What kind of narratives did you use in order to give life to
these places? What kind of representations of the neighborhood/city do these narratives
(re)produce? Were there any particular spaces/stories/objects that you would have liked
to include in your walking tour but you didn’t? What does this tour teach you about your
own positionality, interests, your neighbors, your (discursive and embodied) knowledges
of the neighborhood, the city, etc.?
Mid-term exam: 15%
This assignment will be administered as a take-home essay. You will be asked to select
one from a list of three questions and prepare an essay of ca.1500 words.
3	
Final essay (20%)
This assignment will be administered as a take-home essay. You will be asked to select
one from a list of three questions and prepare an essay of ca.1500 words.
Digital log (on Canvas): 20%
Choose what you find most interesting from the assigned reading and visual materials
(e.g. theories, concepts, contexts, authors, questions, issues). To help you better navigate
these materials and class discussions, create 2 entries per week, about one ample
paragraph each. Half the class will have to submit their TWO weekly entries by 11.59 pm
on Monday, the other half by 11.59 pm on Wednesday in order for everyone to have time
to read them before our seminar meetings. You are required to read all the entries before
coming to class. They will be used to frame our class discussions.
*Please note: this digital log MUST include items gleaned from both readings and films.
You should bring print outs of your entries to use as a tool during class discussions. You
will draw on this digital log when working on your ethnographic research and written
assignments.
Class participation (20%)
You are expected to attend each meeting, come to class prepared and ready to participate
in an informed discussion about all the assigned reading and visual materials. Your active
engagement with the readings and films as well as your participation in class discussions
and activities will be decisive in whether the course is a success for you. If you are not
keeping up with the readings you will neither enjoy nor benefit from the course.
Unexcused absences will be reflected in your class participation grade: for every
unexcused absence you will be deducted 2 points (out of the possible total score of 100).
See also under Lateness and Absences.
Please note that attendance is not synonymous with class participation. You have to
regularly contribute to class discussion to get a high mark for this component of your
grade. However, note also that effective contribution does not mean constant intervention
in discussion. You can contribute both by making comments and raising questions and by
knowing when to allow others to speak. Please be attentive to your mode of participation;
if you tend to speak up often, make sure you leave room for others; if you tend to be
quiet, make an effort to share your thoughts.
Readings
All the required and recommended readings are available on Canvas. This course is a
reading and writing intensive course. Please always print and bring the readings we are
discussing to class. Preparing notes on the readings is also highly recommended.
Canvas
There is a Canvas site for the course that contains important information about the course
including the syllabus, supplementary material and special announcements. Additional
handouts will also be posted here. Please make sure to regularly check this site for up-to-
date information on the course.
Resources
The university provides many resources to help students achieve academic and artistic
excellence. These resources include:
4	
• The University (and associated) Libraries: http://library.newschool.edu
• The University Learning Center: http://www.newschool.edu/learning-center
• University Disabilities Service: www.newschool.edu/student-disability-services/
In keeping with the university’s policy of providing equal access for students with
disabilities, any student with a disability who needs academic accommodations is
welcome to meet with me privately. All conversations will be kept confidential. Students
requesting any accommodations will also need to contact Student Disability Service
(SDS). SDS will conduct an intake and, if appropriate, the Director will provide an
academic accommodation notification letter for you to bring to me. At that point, I will
review the letter with you and discuss these accommodations in relation to this course.
The Student Ombuds
The Student Ombuds office provides students assistance in resolving conflicts, disputes
or complaints on an informal basis. This office is independent, neutral, and confidential.
For further details see: http://www.newschool.edu/intercultural-support/ombuds/
Policies and Procedures
Lateness and Absences
Absences may justify some grade reduction and a total of four absences mandate a
reduction of one letter grade for the course. More than four absences mandate a failing
grade for the course, unless there are extenuating circumstances, such as an extended
illness requiring hospitalization or visit to a physician (with documentation); a family
emergency, e.g. serious illness (with written explanation); or observance of a religious
holiday. The attendance and lateness policies are enforced as of the first day of classes for
all registered students. If registered during the first week of the add/drop period, the
student is responsible for any missed assignments and coursework.
Lateness is disruptive and disrespectful to other participants. For significant lateness, the
instructor may consider the tardiness as an absence for the day. Students failing a course
due to attendance should consult with an academic advisor to discuss options. Divisional
and/or departmental/program policies serve as minimal guidelines, but policies may
contain additional elements determined by the faculty member.
Late or Missing Work
Extensions will be granted only in exceptional and well-founded cases and must be
requested before deadlines become effective. Computer related problems do not qualify
as a valid excuse. Late submission of essays and project portfolios will be marked down
by 5% per day and will receive 0 points if turned in more than a week after the deadline.
Written assignments must be typed, double-spaced, and submitted either electronically
via Canvas or as a hard copy in class on the due date.
Use of Electronic Devices
Use of electronic devices (phones, tablets, laptops) is ONLY permitted when the device
is being used in relation to the course’s work. All other uses are not allowed in the
classroom and devices should otherwise be turned off before class starts. I may choose to
disallow any use of technology in the classroom and if any student consistently misuses
technology in class, you may be asked not to bring it or take it out.
5	
Academic Honesty and Integrity
Compromising your academic integrity may lead to serious consequences, including (but
not limited to) one or more of the following: failure of the assignment, failure of the
course, academic warning, disciplinary probation, suspension from the university, or
dismissal from the university. Students are responsible for understanding the University’s
policy on academic honesty and integrity and must make use of proper citations of
sources for writing papers, creating, presenting, and performing their work, taking
examinations, and doing research. It is the responsibility of students to learn the
procedures specific to their discipline for correctly and appropriately differentiating their
own work from that of others. The full text of the policy, including adjudication
procedures, is found at
http://www.newschool.edu/provost/academic-honesty-and-integrity-policy.pdf
Resources regarding what plagiarism is and how to avoid it can be found on the Learning
Center’s website:
https://www.newschool.edu/university-learning-center/student-resources/
Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of someone else’s work as one’s own in all forms
of academic endeavor (such as essays, theses, examinations, research data, creative
projects, etc.), intentional or unintentional. Plagiarized material may be derived from a
variety of sources, such as books, journals, internet postings, student or faculty papers,
etc. This includes the purchase of written assignments for a course. A detailed definition
of plagiarism in research and writing can be found in the fourth edition of the MLA
Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, pages 26-29. Procedures concerning
allegations of plagiarism and penalties are set forth in the Lang catalog.
Intellectual Property Rights:
http://www.newschool.edu/student-rights-and-responsibilities/intellectual-property-policy
.pdf
Disabilities
The University has a policy of providing equal access for students with disabilities. If you
need accommodations, contact Student Disability Services, which will provide you with
an Academic Adjustment Notice that you should bring to me. Student Disability Services
is located at 79 Fifth Avenue - 5th Floor. The phone number is (212) 229-5626. The
webpage can be found at http://www.newschool.edu/studentaffairs/disability/
Overview of Substantive Topics
• Who speaks for the city?
• What is a city?
• Everyday life in the city
• Changing urban form: suburbanization and sprawl
• Private and public consumption in the city
• Spatial and social inequality
• Urbanization in Eastern Europe
• Urbanization in the “Global South”
• Global cities?
• Neoliberalization of cities
• Post-cities
6	
1. Who speaks for the city?
8/30 (T):
Introductions & Film screening & Discussions
• [screening in class] Documentary: The Human Scale [directed by Andreas Dalsgaard,
Denmark | Bangladesh | China | New Zealand | USA, 2012, 83 min]
• [we will read it in class] Cameron, Euan. 2015. “Patrick Modiano: ‘I became a
prisoner of my memories of Paris’.” The Guardian, October, 31. Accessed August
25, 2016.
9/1 (R):
• Harvey, David. 2003. “The Right to the City” International Journal of Urban and
Regional Research 27(4): 939-941.
• Benjamin, Walter. 1999. “The Flâneur.” In The Arcades Project. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press: 416-455.
Recommended:
• Heathcott, Joseph. 2005. “‘The Whole City Is Our Laboratory’: Harland
Bartholomew and the Production of Urban Knowledge” Journal of Planning History
4(4): 322-355.
2. What is a city?
9/6 (T):
• Mumford, Lewis. 2011 [1937]. “What Is a City?” In The City Reader, edited by
Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. London: Routledge. Pp. 91-97.
• Wirth, Louis. 2011 [1938]. “Urbanism as a Way of Life.” In The City Reader, edited
by Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. London: Routledge. Pp. 96-104.
Recommended:
• Haraway, Donna. 1991. “Situated Knowledges: the Science Question in Feminism
and the Privilege of Partial Perspective.” In Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The
Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge. Pp. 183-201.
9/8 (R):
• Simmel, George. 1971 [1903] “The Metropolis and Mental Life.” In On Individuality
and Social Forms, edited by Donald N. Levine. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press. Pp. 324-339.
• Morrison, Toni. 2004 [1992]. Jazz. New York: Vintage Books. Pp. 7-9.
• Fiction film: Modern Times [directed by Charlie Chaplin, USA, 1936, 87 min]
9/13 (T):
• Whyte, William. 2011 [1988] “The Design of Spaces.” In The City Reader, edited by
Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. London: Routledge. Pp. 510-517.
• Bendiner-Viani, Gabrielle, Elliott Maltby. 2010. “Hybrid Ways of Doing: A Model
for Teaching Public Space” International Journal of Architectural Research 4(2-3):
407-417.
7	
• Documentary: The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces [directed by William H. Whyte,
USA, 1988, 60 minutes]
Recommended:
• Lynch, Kevin. 1960. “The City and its Elements.” In The Image of the City.
Cambridge: MIT Press. Pp. 46-49 and pp. 62-66.
9/15 (R):
• Simone, AbdouMaliq. 2004. “People as Infrastructure: Intersecting Fragments in
Johannesburg” Public Culture 16(3): 407-429.
• Documentary: Man with a Movie Camera [Dziga Vertov, Russia, 1929, 68 min]
Recommended:
• Hoffman, Lisa. 2014. “The Urban, Politics and Subject Formation.” International
Journal of Urban and Regional Research 38(5): 1576-1588.
3. Everyday Life in the City
9/20 (T):
• Kusenbach, Margarethe. 2003. “Street Phenomenology: The Go-Along as
Ethnographic Research Tool” Ethnography 4: 445-485.
9/22 (R):
• Bendiner-Viani, Gabrielle. 2005. “Walking, Emotion, and Dwelling. Guided Tours in
Prospect Heights, Brooklyn” Space and Culture 8(4): 459-471.
• Aoki, Julia, Ayaka Yoshimizu. 2015. “Walking Histories, Un/making Places:
Walking Tours as Ethnography of Place” Space and Culture 18(3): 273-284.
Recommended:
• Glaeser, Andreas. 1998. “Placed Selves: The Spatial Hermeneutics of Self and Other
in the Postunification Berlin Police” Social Identities 4(1): 7-38.
• Wynn, Jonathan R. 2005. “Guiding Practices: Storytelling Tricks for Reproducing the
Urban Landscape”	Qualitative Sociology 28(4): 399-417.
9/27 (T):
• Duneier, Mitchell. 1999. Part Two: “New Uses of Sidewalks.” In Sidewalk. New
York: Farrar Straus and Giroux. Pp.115-155.
Recommended:
• Jacobs, Jane. 2003. “The Uses of Sidewalks: Safety.” In The City Reader, edited by
Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. London: Routledge. Pp. 105-109.
9/29 (R):
• Wacquant, Loic. 2002. “Scrutinizing the Street: Poverty, Morality, and the Pitfall of
Urban Ethnography” American Journal of Sociology 107(6): 1468-1486.
• Documentary: And This Is Free: Life and Times of Chicago's Legendary Maxwell St.
[USA, 1965, 56 min]
Outline of walking tour ethnography due in class
8	
4. Private and Public Consumption in the City
10/4 (T):
• Crawford, Margaret. 1992. “The World in a Shopping Mall.” In Variations on a
Theme Park: the New American City and the End of Public Space, edited by Michael
Sorkin. NY: Hill and Wang. Pp. 3-31.
10/6 (R):
• Knafo, Saki. 2015. “Is Gentrification a Human-Rights Violation?” The Atlantic,
September 2.
• Zukin, Sharon. 2010. “How Brooklyn Became Cool.” In Naked City: The Death and
Life of Authentic Urban Places. New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 35-61.
• Fiction film: Do the Right Thing [directed by Spike Lee, 1989, USA, 120 min]
Recommended:
• Smith, Neil. 1979. “Toward a Theory of Gentrification: A Back to the City
Movement of Capital, Not People.” Journal of the American Planning Association
45(4): 538-548.
Midterm exam posted on Canvas after seminar meeting
10/11 (T):
• Clarke, David B., Michael G. Bradford. 1998. “Public and Private Consumption in
the City.” Urban Studies 35 (5-6): 865-888.
• Lees, Loretta. 2012. “The geography of gentrification: Thinking through comparative
urbanism” Progress in Human Geography 36(2): 164-171 [only two sections of this
article are assigned, as follows: section V, “A Postcolonial Perspective,” and section
VI, “Conclusion”]
10/13 (R):
• Didion, Joan. 2008 [1968]. “Goodbye to All That.” In Slouching Towards Bethlehem.
NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Pp. 225-238.
• Glaeser, Edward, Jed Kolko, Albert Saiz. 2004. “Consumers and Cities.” In The City
as an Entertainment Machine, edited by Terry Nichols Clark. NY: Elsevier. Pp.177-
183.
Midterm exam due in class
5. Changing Urban Form: Suburbanization and Sprawl
10/18 (T):
• Burgess, Ernest. 2011 [1925]. “The Growth of the City.” In The City Reader, edited
by Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. London: Routledge. Pp. 161-169.
• Jackson, Kenneth T. 2011 [1985]. “Drive-In Culture.” In The City Reader, edited by
Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. London: Routledge. Pp. 65-74.
10/20 (R):
• Duany, Andres, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Jeff Speck. 2010. “What is Sprawl, and
Why?” In Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American
Dream. Pp. 3-21.
• GM promo [1940, 23 min]: To New Horizons; archive.org/details/ToNewHor1940
9	
Recommended:
• Gans, Herbert. 1962. “Urbanism and Suburbanism as Ways of Life: A Re-evaluation
of Definitions.” In Human Behavior and Social Processes, edited by Arnold Rose.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Pp. 625-649.
6. Spatial and Social Inequality
10/25 (T):
• Lefebvre, Henri. 1974. The Production of Space. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Pp. 26-46
and 53-59.
10/27 (R):
• Riis, Jacob. 1890. How the Other Half Lives. Studies among the Tenements of New
York. NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Pp. 1-20.
• Madanipour, Ali. 2011 [1998]. “Social Exclusion and Space.” In The City Reader,
edited by Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. London: Routledge. Pp. 186-194.
11/1 (T):
• Venkatesh, Sudhir. 2000. “Introduction.” In American Project: the Rise and Fall of a
Modern Ghetto. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Pp. 1-13.
• Wilson, William. 2011 [1996]. “From Institutional to Jobless Ghettos.” In The City
Reader, edited by Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. London: Routledge. Pp.
117-126.
• TV series: selection from The Wire [directed by David Simon, 2002, USA, 60 min]
11/3 (R):
• Forment, Carlos. 2016. “Everyday Civility and Ordinary Politics among Buenos
Aires’ Scavengers: Emergent Forms of Plebeian Citizenship Across the Global
South.” Forthcoming.
Recommended:
• Holston, James. 2011 [2009]. “Dangerous Spaces of Citizenship in Brazil. Gang Talk,
Right Talk and Rule of Law in Brazil.” Readings in Urban Theory. Malden, MA:
Wiley-Blackwell. Pp. 460-479.
Ethnographic portfolio due in class
7. Urbanization in Eastern Europe
11/8 (T):
• Szelenyi, Ivan. 1996. “Cities Under Socialism: and After.” In Cities after Socialism,
edited by Gregory Andrusz, Michael Harloe and Ivan Szelenyi. Oxford: Blackwell.
Pp. 286-317.
• Fiction film: The Death of Mr. Lazarescu [directed by Cristi Puiu, 2005, Romania,
153 min]
Recommended:
• French, R. A., F. E. Ian Hamilton. 1979. “Is There a Socialist City?” The Socialist
City: Spatial Structure and Urban Policy. New York: Wiley. Pp. 1-21.
10	
11/10 (R):
• Liviu Chelcea and Georg Pulay. 2015. “Networked Infrastructures and the ‘Local’:
Flows and Connectivity in a Postsocialist City.” City 19(2-3): 344-355.
Recommended:
• Bodnar, Judit. 1996, “‘He that Hath to Him Shall Be Given’: Housing Privatization in
Budapest after State Socialism.” International Journal of Urban and Regional
Research. 20(4): 616-636.
8. Urbanization in the “Global South”
11/15 (T):
• Kasarda, John and Edward Crenshaw, 1991. “Third World Urbanization: Dimensions,
Theories, and Determinants.” Annual Review of Sociology 17: 467-501.
• Fiction film: The White Elephant [directed by Gianfranco Albano, 1998, Italy |
Germany | France, 180 min]
11/17 (R):
• Davis, Mike. 2003. “The Prevalence of Slums.” Readings in Urban Theory. Malden,
MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Pp. 441-459.
• Rao, Vyjayanthi. 2006. “Slum as Theory: The South Asian City and Globalization.”
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 30(1): 225-232.
Recommended:
• Simone, AbdouMaliq. 2004. For the City Yet to Come: Changing African Life in
Four Cities. Durham: Duke University Press. Pp. 1-21.
11/22 (T): NO CLASS: Wednesday classes meet instead
11/23-11/27: Thanksgiving break
9. Global Cities?
11/29 (T):
• Davis, Diane E., Kian Tajbakhsh. 2005. “Globalization and Cities in Comparative
Perspective” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 29(1): 89-91.
• Eade, John. 2000. “Representing the Global City: Contemporary Tourist Guides,” and
“Conclusion.” In Placing London: from Imperial Capital to Global City. NY:
Berghahn Books. Pp. 33-48 and 177-186.
Recommended:
• Saskia Sassen. 1991. “A New Urban Regime?” In The Global City. Princeton:
Princeton University Press. Pp. 323-339.
12/1 (R):
• Samers, Michael. 2002. “Immigration and the Global City Hypothesis: Towards an
Alternative Research Agenda” International Journal of Urban and Regional
Research 26(2): 389–402.
• Fiction film: Babel [directed by Alejandro Iñárritu, France | USA | Mexico, 2006, 143
min]
11	
10. Neoliberalization of Cities
12/6 (T):
• Greenberg, Miriam. 2009. “New York City as a Symbol of Neoliberalism” In
Branding New York: How a City in Crisis Was Sold to the World. NY: Routledge. Pp.
227-251.
Recommended:
• Brenner, Neil and Nik Theodore. 2002. “Cities and the Geographies of the Actually
Existing Neoliberalism” Antipode 34(3): 349–379.
12/8 (R):
• McLean, Heather. 2014. “Digging into the Creative City: A Feminist Critique”
Antipode 46(3): 669-690.
• Fiction film: Two Days, One Night [directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc
Dardenne, Belgium | France | Italy, 2014, 95 min]
Final essay prompt posted on Canvas after seminar meeting
11. Post-cities
12/13 (T):
• Harvey, David. 1992. “Social Justice, Postmodernism, and the City” International
Journal of Urban and Regional Research 16: 588-601.
Recommended:
• Fainstein, Susan. 2011. “Cities and Diversity: Should we want it? Can we plan for
it?” Readings in Urban Theory. Pp. 115-128.
12/15 (R):
• Neuwirth, Robert. 2007. “Squatters and the Cities of Tomorrow” City 11(1): 71-80.
• TV mini series: Berlin Alexanderplatz, final part [directed by Rainer Werner
Fassbinder, Germany | Italy, 1983]
Recommended:
• Soja, Edward. 1989. “History: Geography: Modernity.” In Postmodern Geographies.
The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory. London: Verso. Pp. 11-42.
• Vasudevan, Alexander. 2015. “The Makeshift City: Towards a Global Geography of
Squatting” Progress in Human Geography 39(3) 338-359.
• Milicevic, Aleksandra Sasha. 2001 “Radical Intellectuals: What Happened to the New
Urban Sociology?” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 25(4):
759- 783.
Final essay due in class.

More Related Content

Similar to _Syllabus_The Social Life of Cities_Fall 2016_Final draft_sept 1_updated

Final Argentine
Final ArgentineFinal Argentine
Final Argentine
kimmysen
 
Assignment 2 (RA 2) Cultural Influences in DevelopmentIn this as.docx
Assignment 2 (RA 2) Cultural Influences in DevelopmentIn this as.docxAssignment 2 (RA 2) Cultural Influences in DevelopmentIn this as.docx
Assignment 2 (RA 2) Cultural Influences in DevelopmentIn this as.docx
maribethy2y
 
1 Spring 2022 HISTORY 111 – WORLD HISTORY SINCE 1500
1  Spring 2022 HISTORY 111 – WORLD HISTORY SINCE 1500 1  Spring 2022 HISTORY 111 – WORLD HISTORY SINCE 1500
1 Spring 2022 HISTORY 111 – WORLD HISTORY SINCE 1500
VannaJoy20
 
Week 1 Lecture Slides
Week 1 Lecture SlidesWeek 1 Lecture Slides
Week 1 Lecture Slides
RMIT University
 
IDp Lab 2010 2 Assignment
IDp Lab 2010 2 AssignmentIDp Lab 2010 2 Assignment
IDp Lab 2010 2 Assignment
priek825
 
IDp Lab/Co-operative 2010 Assignment 2
IDp Lab/Co-operative 2010 Assignment 2IDp Lab/Co-operative 2010 Assignment 2
IDp Lab/Co-operative 2010 Assignment 2
priek825
 
EDSE 604 Final Project: Justin Stosuy
EDSE 604 Final Project: Justin StosuyEDSE 604 Final Project: Justin Stosuy
EDSE 604 Final Project: Justin Stosuy
Stosuy32
 
Dunce Spring Series Workshop #1 - Making the Most of Your Summer
Dunce Spring Series Workshop #1 - Making the Most of Your SummerDunce Spring Series Workshop #1 - Making the Most of Your Summer
Dunce Spring Series Workshop #1 - Making the Most of Your Summer
Jonas Ellison
 
In this assignment, you will apply your knowledge of cultural influe.docx
In this assignment, you will apply your knowledge of cultural influe.docxIn this assignment, you will apply your knowledge of cultural influe.docx
In this assignment, you will apply your knowledge of cultural influe.docx
rochellscroop
 
Week 1 course overview
Week 1 course overviewWeek 1 course overview
Week 1 course overview
Johns Hopkins University
 
Developing the "Other" Literacy: How Visual Arts Have the Potential to Deepen...
Developing the "Other" Literacy: How Visual Arts Have the Potential to Deepen...Developing the "Other" Literacy: How Visual Arts Have the Potential to Deepen...
Developing the "Other" Literacy: How Visual Arts Have the Potential to Deepen...
Paige Vitulli
 
ERASMUS + project "Life and Job Skills for Successful Europeans"
ERASMUS + project "Life and Job Skills for Successful Europeans"ERASMUS + project "Life and Job Skills for Successful Europeans"
ERASMUS + project "Life and Job Skills for Successful Europeans"
lifeandjobskills
 
Essentials Grid for Lindsay Booze’s Unit on Urban, Suburban, and R.docx
Essentials Grid for Lindsay Booze’s Unit on Urban, Suburban, and R.docxEssentials Grid for Lindsay Booze’s Unit on Urban, Suburban, and R.docx
Essentials Grid for Lindsay Booze’s Unit on Urban, Suburban, and R.docx
SANSKAR20
 
Final Paper Image Analysis15 of final grade3-4 pages, do.docx
Final Paper Image Analysis15 of final grade3-4 pages, do.docxFinal Paper Image Analysis15 of final grade3-4 pages, do.docx
Final Paper Image Analysis15 of final grade3-4 pages, do.docx
mydrynan
 
Vermette soc 101_13_w_syllabus_spring_2016
Vermette soc 101_13_w_syllabus_spring_2016Vermette soc 101_13_w_syllabus_spring_2016
Vermette soc 101_13_w_syllabus_spring_2016
Linda Vermette
 
Advocacy Poster
Advocacy Poster Advocacy Poster
Advocacy Poster
pdunlap
 
Advocacy Poster group 4-1
Advocacy Poster  group 4-1Advocacy Poster  group 4-1
Advocacy Poster group 4-1
pdunlap
 
Paper detailsStep 1 Select only ONE of the following two option.docx
Paper detailsStep 1 Select only ONE of the following two option.docxPaper detailsStep 1 Select only ONE of the following two option.docx
Paper detailsStep 1 Select only ONE of the following two option.docx
honey690131
 
Paper detailsStep 1 Select only ONE of the following two option.docx
Paper detailsStep 1 Select only ONE of the following two option.docxPaper detailsStep 1 Select only ONE of the following two option.docx
Paper detailsStep 1 Select only ONE of the following two option.docx
karlhennesey
 
CUR 516: Signature Assignment
CUR 516: Signature AssignmentCUR 516: Signature Assignment
CUR 516: Signature Assignment
DeShoneWatson
 

Similar to _Syllabus_The Social Life of Cities_Fall 2016_Final draft_sept 1_updated (20)

Final Argentine
Final ArgentineFinal Argentine
Final Argentine
 
Assignment 2 (RA 2) Cultural Influences in DevelopmentIn this as.docx
Assignment 2 (RA 2) Cultural Influences in DevelopmentIn this as.docxAssignment 2 (RA 2) Cultural Influences in DevelopmentIn this as.docx
Assignment 2 (RA 2) Cultural Influences in DevelopmentIn this as.docx
 
1 Spring 2022 HISTORY 111 – WORLD HISTORY SINCE 1500
1  Spring 2022 HISTORY 111 – WORLD HISTORY SINCE 1500 1  Spring 2022 HISTORY 111 – WORLD HISTORY SINCE 1500
1 Spring 2022 HISTORY 111 – WORLD HISTORY SINCE 1500
 
Week 1 Lecture Slides
Week 1 Lecture SlidesWeek 1 Lecture Slides
Week 1 Lecture Slides
 
IDp Lab 2010 2 Assignment
IDp Lab 2010 2 AssignmentIDp Lab 2010 2 Assignment
IDp Lab 2010 2 Assignment
 
IDp Lab/Co-operative 2010 Assignment 2
IDp Lab/Co-operative 2010 Assignment 2IDp Lab/Co-operative 2010 Assignment 2
IDp Lab/Co-operative 2010 Assignment 2
 
EDSE 604 Final Project: Justin Stosuy
EDSE 604 Final Project: Justin StosuyEDSE 604 Final Project: Justin Stosuy
EDSE 604 Final Project: Justin Stosuy
 
Dunce Spring Series Workshop #1 - Making the Most of Your Summer
Dunce Spring Series Workshop #1 - Making the Most of Your SummerDunce Spring Series Workshop #1 - Making the Most of Your Summer
Dunce Spring Series Workshop #1 - Making the Most of Your Summer
 
In this assignment, you will apply your knowledge of cultural influe.docx
In this assignment, you will apply your knowledge of cultural influe.docxIn this assignment, you will apply your knowledge of cultural influe.docx
In this assignment, you will apply your knowledge of cultural influe.docx
 
Week 1 course overview
Week 1 course overviewWeek 1 course overview
Week 1 course overview
 
Developing the "Other" Literacy: How Visual Arts Have the Potential to Deepen...
Developing the "Other" Literacy: How Visual Arts Have the Potential to Deepen...Developing the "Other" Literacy: How Visual Arts Have the Potential to Deepen...
Developing the "Other" Literacy: How Visual Arts Have the Potential to Deepen...
 
ERASMUS + project "Life and Job Skills for Successful Europeans"
ERASMUS + project "Life and Job Skills for Successful Europeans"ERASMUS + project "Life and Job Skills for Successful Europeans"
ERASMUS + project "Life and Job Skills for Successful Europeans"
 
Essentials Grid for Lindsay Booze’s Unit on Urban, Suburban, and R.docx
Essentials Grid for Lindsay Booze’s Unit on Urban, Suburban, and R.docxEssentials Grid for Lindsay Booze’s Unit on Urban, Suburban, and R.docx
Essentials Grid for Lindsay Booze’s Unit on Urban, Suburban, and R.docx
 
Final Paper Image Analysis15 of final grade3-4 pages, do.docx
Final Paper Image Analysis15 of final grade3-4 pages, do.docxFinal Paper Image Analysis15 of final grade3-4 pages, do.docx
Final Paper Image Analysis15 of final grade3-4 pages, do.docx
 
Vermette soc 101_13_w_syllabus_spring_2016
Vermette soc 101_13_w_syllabus_spring_2016Vermette soc 101_13_w_syllabus_spring_2016
Vermette soc 101_13_w_syllabus_spring_2016
 
Advocacy Poster
Advocacy Poster Advocacy Poster
Advocacy Poster
 
Advocacy Poster group 4-1
Advocacy Poster  group 4-1Advocacy Poster  group 4-1
Advocacy Poster group 4-1
 
Paper detailsStep 1 Select only ONE of the following two option.docx
Paper detailsStep 1 Select only ONE of the following two option.docxPaper detailsStep 1 Select only ONE of the following two option.docx
Paper detailsStep 1 Select only ONE of the following two option.docx
 
Paper detailsStep 1 Select only ONE of the following two option.docx
Paper detailsStep 1 Select only ONE of the following two option.docxPaper detailsStep 1 Select only ONE of the following two option.docx
Paper detailsStep 1 Select only ONE of the following two option.docx
 
CUR 516: Signature Assignment
CUR 516: Signature AssignmentCUR 516: Signature Assignment
CUR 516: Signature Assignment
 

_Syllabus_The Social Life of Cities_Fall 2016_Final draft_sept 1_updated

  • 1. 1 The New School Eugene Lang College for Liberal Arts The Social Life of Cities LSOC 3026 // CRN 7807 Fall 2016 T/R 11:55 am - 1:35 pm Location: Johnson/Kaplan 66 West 12th , Room 716 Olimpia Mosteanu New School for Social Research, Department of Sociology Email: mosto995@newschool.edu Office hours: by appointment Cities are densities of stories, passions, hurts, revenge, aspiration, avoidance, deflection, and complicity. As such, residents must be able to conceive of a space sufficiently bounded so as to consolidate disparate energies and make things of scale happen. But at the same time, they must conceive of a fractured space sufficiently large enough through which dangerous feelings can dissipate or be steered away. (Simone 2004:11) Course description: The course introduces students to the field of urban sociology while taking our everyday engagement with the city as a resource for critical reflection. It focuses on social processes that define urban life, on the one hand, and the relationship between the city and the self, on the other. The course covers a broad range of topics including street life, urban violence, spatial and social segregation, gentrification, the impact of suburbanization and globalization, urban citizenship, and the challenges posed by the growing neoliberalization of cities. In addition to scholarly articles, the course draws on literary texts, as well as fiction and nonfiction films as resources for thinking about the social life of cities. Assignments will include a short ethnographic research project that explores the everyday life of a public space in New York City. The course will prepare students to reflect critically on urban life, and understand the study of cities not only as a research tool, but also as a way to engage in the politics of everyday life. Learning outcomes: By the end of this course, students will be able to • identify and explain the core questions, concepts and processes involved in the study of urban sociology, • understand the various social groups, political interests, technologies, and cultural practices that shape cities over time and across space, • critically evaluate and integrate information from various sources, including written and visual materials, as well as personal observations, • examine cities at a variety of scales - from street level interactions to municipal politics to patterns of global change, • work cooperatively in a small group environment.
  • 2. 2 Assessment and Grading: Walking tour ethnography: 25% Mid-term exam: 15% Final essay: 20% Digital log: 20% Class participation: 20% Walking tour ethnography (25%): For this assignment you will design a walking tour in the neighborhood where you live. The purpose of this tour is to introduce your neighborhood to a person who does not live in it. The duration of the walking tour should be approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes. Your own experiences of your neighborhood will not be enough to write this assignment. However, you are required to use your own experiences as the basis for further exploration. That is why, in preparation for the walking tour, you are asked to observe, document and analyze everyday life in your neighborhood in a systematic manner. You will try to understand the different layers of social life and the patterns of social interactions that unfold in these urban spaces, drawing on concepts and issues covered by the course readings, class discussions and films. This preliminary ethnography will help you prepare a series of stories and facts that will be used to present the places included in the walking tour. These narratives should, on the one hand, clarify your own connections to these places and, on the other, seek to create a connection between them and your audience (those who would join you on your tour). The tour must include a variety of places ranging from cafes, parks, supermarkets, graffiti spots, monuments, restaurants, shops, communal gardens, sidewalks, building walls, etc. After designing the walking tour, you will have to put together a portfolio that (1) introduces the places included in your walking tour, (2) presents the collected empirical evidence that helped you design it, and (3) offers a 2-page critical reflection describing what you have learned from putting together your walking tour. The empirical evidence should include samples of field notes (for instance, descriptions of the places included in the tour, snippets from conversations with neighbors, baristas, shop owners/assistants regarding some of those places), and visual materials that helped you design your walking tour. In addition to this minimum requirement, you are free to include any other data you used to design your walking tour (this data can be historical, archival, survey data, the census, newspaper articles, all sorts of visual illustrations, etc.). Questions you should consider in your reflective essay: Why did you choose to show these places? How does your life trajectory influence your experience of these places? What kind of narratives did you use in order to give life to these places? What kind of representations of the neighborhood/city do these narratives (re)produce? Were there any particular spaces/stories/objects that you would have liked to include in your walking tour but you didn’t? What does this tour teach you about your own positionality, interests, your neighbors, your (discursive and embodied) knowledges of the neighborhood, the city, etc.? Mid-term exam: 15% This assignment will be administered as a take-home essay. You will be asked to select one from a list of three questions and prepare an essay of ca.1500 words.
  • 3. 3 Final essay (20%) This assignment will be administered as a take-home essay. You will be asked to select one from a list of three questions and prepare an essay of ca.1500 words. Digital log (on Canvas): 20% Choose what you find most interesting from the assigned reading and visual materials (e.g. theories, concepts, contexts, authors, questions, issues). To help you better navigate these materials and class discussions, create 2 entries per week, about one ample paragraph each. Half the class will have to submit their TWO weekly entries by 11.59 pm on Monday, the other half by 11.59 pm on Wednesday in order for everyone to have time to read them before our seminar meetings. You are required to read all the entries before coming to class. They will be used to frame our class discussions. *Please note: this digital log MUST include items gleaned from both readings and films. You should bring print outs of your entries to use as a tool during class discussions. You will draw on this digital log when working on your ethnographic research and written assignments. Class participation (20%) You are expected to attend each meeting, come to class prepared and ready to participate in an informed discussion about all the assigned reading and visual materials. Your active engagement with the readings and films as well as your participation in class discussions and activities will be decisive in whether the course is a success for you. If you are not keeping up with the readings you will neither enjoy nor benefit from the course. Unexcused absences will be reflected in your class participation grade: for every unexcused absence you will be deducted 2 points (out of the possible total score of 100). See also under Lateness and Absences. Please note that attendance is not synonymous with class participation. You have to regularly contribute to class discussion to get a high mark for this component of your grade. However, note also that effective contribution does not mean constant intervention in discussion. You can contribute both by making comments and raising questions and by knowing when to allow others to speak. Please be attentive to your mode of participation; if you tend to speak up often, make sure you leave room for others; if you tend to be quiet, make an effort to share your thoughts. Readings All the required and recommended readings are available on Canvas. This course is a reading and writing intensive course. Please always print and bring the readings we are discussing to class. Preparing notes on the readings is also highly recommended. Canvas There is a Canvas site for the course that contains important information about the course including the syllabus, supplementary material and special announcements. Additional handouts will also be posted here. Please make sure to regularly check this site for up-to- date information on the course. Resources The university provides many resources to help students achieve academic and artistic excellence. These resources include:
  • 4. 4 • The University (and associated) Libraries: http://library.newschool.edu • The University Learning Center: http://www.newschool.edu/learning-center • University Disabilities Service: www.newschool.edu/student-disability-services/ In keeping with the university’s policy of providing equal access for students with disabilities, any student with a disability who needs academic accommodations is welcome to meet with me privately. All conversations will be kept confidential. Students requesting any accommodations will also need to contact Student Disability Service (SDS). SDS will conduct an intake and, if appropriate, the Director will provide an academic accommodation notification letter for you to bring to me. At that point, I will review the letter with you and discuss these accommodations in relation to this course. The Student Ombuds The Student Ombuds office provides students assistance in resolving conflicts, disputes or complaints on an informal basis. This office is independent, neutral, and confidential. For further details see: http://www.newschool.edu/intercultural-support/ombuds/ Policies and Procedures Lateness and Absences Absences may justify some grade reduction and a total of four absences mandate a reduction of one letter grade for the course. More than four absences mandate a failing grade for the course, unless there are extenuating circumstances, such as an extended illness requiring hospitalization or visit to a physician (with documentation); a family emergency, e.g. serious illness (with written explanation); or observance of a religious holiday. The attendance and lateness policies are enforced as of the first day of classes for all registered students. If registered during the first week of the add/drop period, the student is responsible for any missed assignments and coursework. Lateness is disruptive and disrespectful to other participants. For significant lateness, the instructor may consider the tardiness as an absence for the day. Students failing a course due to attendance should consult with an academic advisor to discuss options. Divisional and/or departmental/program policies serve as minimal guidelines, but policies may contain additional elements determined by the faculty member. Late or Missing Work Extensions will be granted only in exceptional and well-founded cases and must be requested before deadlines become effective. Computer related problems do not qualify as a valid excuse. Late submission of essays and project portfolios will be marked down by 5% per day and will receive 0 points if turned in more than a week after the deadline. Written assignments must be typed, double-spaced, and submitted either electronically via Canvas or as a hard copy in class on the due date. Use of Electronic Devices Use of electronic devices (phones, tablets, laptops) is ONLY permitted when the device is being used in relation to the course’s work. All other uses are not allowed in the classroom and devices should otherwise be turned off before class starts. I may choose to disallow any use of technology in the classroom and if any student consistently misuses technology in class, you may be asked not to bring it or take it out.
  • 5. 5 Academic Honesty and Integrity Compromising your academic integrity may lead to serious consequences, including (but not limited to) one or more of the following: failure of the assignment, failure of the course, academic warning, disciplinary probation, suspension from the university, or dismissal from the university. Students are responsible for understanding the University’s policy on academic honesty and integrity and must make use of proper citations of sources for writing papers, creating, presenting, and performing their work, taking examinations, and doing research. It is the responsibility of students to learn the procedures specific to their discipline for correctly and appropriately differentiating their own work from that of others. The full text of the policy, including adjudication procedures, is found at http://www.newschool.edu/provost/academic-honesty-and-integrity-policy.pdf Resources regarding what plagiarism is and how to avoid it can be found on the Learning Center’s website: https://www.newschool.edu/university-learning-center/student-resources/ Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of someone else’s work as one’s own in all forms of academic endeavor (such as essays, theses, examinations, research data, creative projects, etc.), intentional or unintentional. Plagiarized material may be derived from a variety of sources, such as books, journals, internet postings, student or faculty papers, etc. This includes the purchase of written assignments for a course. A detailed definition of plagiarism in research and writing can be found in the fourth edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, pages 26-29. Procedures concerning allegations of plagiarism and penalties are set forth in the Lang catalog. Intellectual Property Rights: http://www.newschool.edu/student-rights-and-responsibilities/intellectual-property-policy .pdf Disabilities The University has a policy of providing equal access for students with disabilities. If you need accommodations, contact Student Disability Services, which will provide you with an Academic Adjustment Notice that you should bring to me. Student Disability Services is located at 79 Fifth Avenue - 5th Floor. The phone number is (212) 229-5626. The webpage can be found at http://www.newschool.edu/studentaffairs/disability/ Overview of Substantive Topics • Who speaks for the city? • What is a city? • Everyday life in the city • Changing urban form: suburbanization and sprawl • Private and public consumption in the city • Spatial and social inequality • Urbanization in Eastern Europe • Urbanization in the “Global South” • Global cities? • Neoliberalization of cities • Post-cities
  • 6. 6 1. Who speaks for the city? 8/30 (T): Introductions & Film screening & Discussions • [screening in class] Documentary: The Human Scale [directed by Andreas Dalsgaard, Denmark | Bangladesh | China | New Zealand | USA, 2012, 83 min] • [we will read it in class] Cameron, Euan. 2015. “Patrick Modiano: ‘I became a prisoner of my memories of Paris’.” The Guardian, October, 31. Accessed August 25, 2016. 9/1 (R): • Harvey, David. 2003. “The Right to the City” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 27(4): 939-941. • Benjamin, Walter. 1999. “The Flâneur.” In The Arcades Project. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press: 416-455. Recommended: • Heathcott, Joseph. 2005. “‘The Whole City Is Our Laboratory’: Harland Bartholomew and the Production of Urban Knowledge” Journal of Planning History 4(4): 322-355. 2. What is a city? 9/6 (T): • Mumford, Lewis. 2011 [1937]. “What Is a City?” In The City Reader, edited by Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. London: Routledge. Pp. 91-97. • Wirth, Louis. 2011 [1938]. “Urbanism as a Way of Life.” In The City Reader, edited by Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. London: Routledge. Pp. 96-104. Recommended: • Haraway, Donna. 1991. “Situated Knowledges: the Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective.” In Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge. Pp. 183-201. 9/8 (R): • Simmel, George. 1971 [1903] “The Metropolis and Mental Life.” In On Individuality and Social Forms, edited by Donald N. Levine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pp. 324-339. • Morrison, Toni. 2004 [1992]. Jazz. New York: Vintage Books. Pp. 7-9. • Fiction film: Modern Times [directed by Charlie Chaplin, USA, 1936, 87 min] 9/13 (T): • Whyte, William. 2011 [1988] “The Design of Spaces.” In The City Reader, edited by Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. London: Routledge. Pp. 510-517. • Bendiner-Viani, Gabrielle, Elliott Maltby. 2010. “Hybrid Ways of Doing: A Model for Teaching Public Space” International Journal of Architectural Research 4(2-3): 407-417.
  • 7. 7 • Documentary: The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces [directed by William H. Whyte, USA, 1988, 60 minutes] Recommended: • Lynch, Kevin. 1960. “The City and its Elements.” In The Image of the City. Cambridge: MIT Press. Pp. 46-49 and pp. 62-66. 9/15 (R): • Simone, AbdouMaliq. 2004. “People as Infrastructure: Intersecting Fragments in Johannesburg” Public Culture 16(3): 407-429. • Documentary: Man with a Movie Camera [Dziga Vertov, Russia, 1929, 68 min] Recommended: • Hoffman, Lisa. 2014. “The Urban, Politics and Subject Formation.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 38(5): 1576-1588. 3. Everyday Life in the City 9/20 (T): • Kusenbach, Margarethe. 2003. “Street Phenomenology: The Go-Along as Ethnographic Research Tool” Ethnography 4: 445-485. 9/22 (R): • Bendiner-Viani, Gabrielle. 2005. “Walking, Emotion, and Dwelling. Guided Tours in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn” Space and Culture 8(4): 459-471. • Aoki, Julia, Ayaka Yoshimizu. 2015. “Walking Histories, Un/making Places: Walking Tours as Ethnography of Place” Space and Culture 18(3): 273-284. Recommended: • Glaeser, Andreas. 1998. “Placed Selves: The Spatial Hermeneutics of Self and Other in the Postunification Berlin Police” Social Identities 4(1): 7-38. • Wynn, Jonathan R. 2005. “Guiding Practices: Storytelling Tricks for Reproducing the Urban Landscape” Qualitative Sociology 28(4): 399-417. 9/27 (T): • Duneier, Mitchell. 1999. Part Two: “New Uses of Sidewalks.” In Sidewalk. New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux. Pp.115-155. Recommended: • Jacobs, Jane. 2003. “The Uses of Sidewalks: Safety.” In The City Reader, edited by Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. London: Routledge. Pp. 105-109. 9/29 (R): • Wacquant, Loic. 2002. “Scrutinizing the Street: Poverty, Morality, and the Pitfall of Urban Ethnography” American Journal of Sociology 107(6): 1468-1486. • Documentary: And This Is Free: Life and Times of Chicago's Legendary Maxwell St. [USA, 1965, 56 min] Outline of walking tour ethnography due in class
  • 8. 8 4. Private and Public Consumption in the City 10/4 (T): • Crawford, Margaret. 1992. “The World in a Shopping Mall.” In Variations on a Theme Park: the New American City and the End of Public Space, edited by Michael Sorkin. NY: Hill and Wang. Pp. 3-31. 10/6 (R): • Knafo, Saki. 2015. “Is Gentrification a Human-Rights Violation?” The Atlantic, September 2. • Zukin, Sharon. 2010. “How Brooklyn Became Cool.” In Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places. New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 35-61. • Fiction film: Do the Right Thing [directed by Spike Lee, 1989, USA, 120 min] Recommended: • Smith, Neil. 1979. “Toward a Theory of Gentrification: A Back to the City Movement of Capital, Not People.” Journal of the American Planning Association 45(4): 538-548. Midterm exam posted on Canvas after seminar meeting 10/11 (T): • Clarke, David B., Michael G. Bradford. 1998. “Public and Private Consumption in the City.” Urban Studies 35 (5-6): 865-888. • Lees, Loretta. 2012. “The geography of gentrification: Thinking through comparative urbanism” Progress in Human Geography 36(2): 164-171 [only two sections of this article are assigned, as follows: section V, “A Postcolonial Perspective,” and section VI, “Conclusion”] 10/13 (R): • Didion, Joan. 2008 [1968]. “Goodbye to All That.” In Slouching Towards Bethlehem. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Pp. 225-238. • Glaeser, Edward, Jed Kolko, Albert Saiz. 2004. “Consumers and Cities.” In The City as an Entertainment Machine, edited by Terry Nichols Clark. NY: Elsevier. Pp.177- 183. Midterm exam due in class 5. Changing Urban Form: Suburbanization and Sprawl 10/18 (T): • Burgess, Ernest. 2011 [1925]. “The Growth of the City.” In The City Reader, edited by Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. London: Routledge. Pp. 161-169. • Jackson, Kenneth T. 2011 [1985]. “Drive-In Culture.” In The City Reader, edited by Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. London: Routledge. Pp. 65-74. 10/20 (R): • Duany, Andres, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Jeff Speck. 2010. “What is Sprawl, and Why?” In Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. Pp. 3-21. • GM promo [1940, 23 min]: To New Horizons; archive.org/details/ToNewHor1940
  • 9. 9 Recommended: • Gans, Herbert. 1962. “Urbanism and Suburbanism as Ways of Life: A Re-evaluation of Definitions.” In Human Behavior and Social Processes, edited by Arnold Rose. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Pp. 625-649. 6. Spatial and Social Inequality 10/25 (T): • Lefebvre, Henri. 1974. The Production of Space. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Pp. 26-46 and 53-59. 10/27 (R): • Riis, Jacob. 1890. How the Other Half Lives. Studies among the Tenements of New York. NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Pp. 1-20. • Madanipour, Ali. 2011 [1998]. “Social Exclusion and Space.” In The City Reader, edited by Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. London: Routledge. Pp. 186-194. 11/1 (T): • Venkatesh, Sudhir. 2000. “Introduction.” In American Project: the Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Pp. 1-13. • Wilson, William. 2011 [1996]. “From Institutional to Jobless Ghettos.” In The City Reader, edited by Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout. London: Routledge. Pp. 117-126. • TV series: selection from The Wire [directed by David Simon, 2002, USA, 60 min] 11/3 (R): • Forment, Carlos. 2016. “Everyday Civility and Ordinary Politics among Buenos Aires’ Scavengers: Emergent Forms of Plebeian Citizenship Across the Global South.” Forthcoming. Recommended: • Holston, James. 2011 [2009]. “Dangerous Spaces of Citizenship in Brazil. Gang Talk, Right Talk and Rule of Law in Brazil.” Readings in Urban Theory. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Pp. 460-479. Ethnographic portfolio due in class 7. Urbanization in Eastern Europe 11/8 (T): • Szelenyi, Ivan. 1996. “Cities Under Socialism: and After.” In Cities after Socialism, edited by Gregory Andrusz, Michael Harloe and Ivan Szelenyi. Oxford: Blackwell. Pp. 286-317. • Fiction film: The Death of Mr. Lazarescu [directed by Cristi Puiu, 2005, Romania, 153 min] Recommended: • French, R. A., F. E. Ian Hamilton. 1979. “Is There a Socialist City?” The Socialist City: Spatial Structure and Urban Policy. New York: Wiley. Pp. 1-21.
  • 10. 10 11/10 (R): • Liviu Chelcea and Georg Pulay. 2015. “Networked Infrastructures and the ‘Local’: Flows and Connectivity in a Postsocialist City.” City 19(2-3): 344-355. Recommended: • Bodnar, Judit. 1996, “‘He that Hath to Him Shall Be Given’: Housing Privatization in Budapest after State Socialism.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 20(4): 616-636. 8. Urbanization in the “Global South” 11/15 (T): • Kasarda, John and Edward Crenshaw, 1991. “Third World Urbanization: Dimensions, Theories, and Determinants.” Annual Review of Sociology 17: 467-501. • Fiction film: The White Elephant [directed by Gianfranco Albano, 1998, Italy | Germany | France, 180 min] 11/17 (R): • Davis, Mike. 2003. “The Prevalence of Slums.” Readings in Urban Theory. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Pp. 441-459. • Rao, Vyjayanthi. 2006. “Slum as Theory: The South Asian City and Globalization.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 30(1): 225-232. Recommended: • Simone, AbdouMaliq. 2004. For the City Yet to Come: Changing African Life in Four Cities. Durham: Duke University Press. Pp. 1-21. 11/22 (T): NO CLASS: Wednesday classes meet instead 11/23-11/27: Thanksgiving break 9. Global Cities? 11/29 (T): • Davis, Diane E., Kian Tajbakhsh. 2005. “Globalization and Cities in Comparative Perspective” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 29(1): 89-91. • Eade, John. 2000. “Representing the Global City: Contemporary Tourist Guides,” and “Conclusion.” In Placing London: from Imperial Capital to Global City. NY: Berghahn Books. Pp. 33-48 and 177-186. Recommended: • Saskia Sassen. 1991. “A New Urban Regime?” In The Global City. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Pp. 323-339. 12/1 (R): • Samers, Michael. 2002. “Immigration and the Global City Hypothesis: Towards an Alternative Research Agenda” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 26(2): 389–402. • Fiction film: Babel [directed by Alejandro Iñárritu, France | USA | Mexico, 2006, 143 min]
  • 11. 11 10. Neoliberalization of Cities 12/6 (T): • Greenberg, Miriam. 2009. “New York City as a Symbol of Neoliberalism” In Branding New York: How a City in Crisis Was Sold to the World. NY: Routledge. Pp. 227-251. Recommended: • Brenner, Neil and Nik Theodore. 2002. “Cities and the Geographies of the Actually Existing Neoliberalism” Antipode 34(3): 349–379. 12/8 (R): • McLean, Heather. 2014. “Digging into the Creative City: A Feminist Critique” Antipode 46(3): 669-690. • Fiction film: Two Days, One Night [directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, Belgium | France | Italy, 2014, 95 min] Final essay prompt posted on Canvas after seminar meeting 11. Post-cities 12/13 (T): • Harvey, David. 1992. “Social Justice, Postmodernism, and the City” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 16: 588-601. Recommended: • Fainstein, Susan. 2011. “Cities and Diversity: Should we want it? Can we plan for it?” Readings in Urban Theory. Pp. 115-128. 12/15 (R): • Neuwirth, Robert. 2007. “Squatters and the Cities of Tomorrow” City 11(1): 71-80. • TV mini series: Berlin Alexanderplatz, final part [directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Germany | Italy, 1983] Recommended: • Soja, Edward. 1989. “History: Geography: Modernity.” In Postmodern Geographies. The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory. London: Verso. Pp. 11-42. • Vasudevan, Alexander. 2015. “The Makeshift City: Towards a Global Geography of Squatting” Progress in Human Geography 39(3) 338-359. • Milicevic, Aleksandra Sasha. 2001 “Radical Intellectuals: What Happened to the New Urban Sociology?” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 25(4): 759- 783. Final essay due in class.