THE DISCOVERY OF URBANISM

January 18

First day of class.

January 23

Readings:

Simmel, Georg. 2003 [1903]. "The Metropolis and Mental Life." Pp. 11-19 in The City Cultures Reader, 2d ed., edited by M. Miles, T. Hall and I. Borden. New York: Routledge.

January 25

Readings:

Matlon, Jordanna. Forthcoming. "Gender and the City." In The Oxford Handbook of Urban Sociology, edited by L. Nevarez and R. Centner.

URBAN ECOLOGY: THE CHICAGO SCHOOL

January 30

Readings:

Park, Robert E. 1915. "The City: Suggestions for the Investigation of Human Behavior in the City Environment." American Journal of Sociology 20(5): 577-612.

Burgess, Ernest W. 2019 [1925]. "The Growth of the City: An Introduction to a Research Project." Pp. 47-62 in The City, edited by R.E. Park and E.W. Burgess. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Zorbaugh, Harvey W. 1976 [1929]. "The Gold Coast" and "The Slum." Pp. 46-68 and 127-158 in The Gold Coast and the Slum: A Sociological Study of Chicago's Near North Side. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

February 1

Readings:

Montalva Barba, Miguel Angel. 2022. "To Move Forward, We Must Look Back: White Supremacy at the Base of Urban Studies." Urban Studies, November 2. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980221129150.

THE GHETTO

February 6

Readings:

Du Bois, W.E.B. 2007 [1899]. Chaps. I, II, V and VII in The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study. New York: Oxford University Press.

Drake, St. Clair and Horace R. Cayton. 1945. "Bronzeville." Pp. 379-397 in Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.

February 8

BLACK PLACES, AND ASSETS

February 13

First pair of essays due.

In-class film: The Pruitt-Igoe Myth (2011, dir. Chad Friedrichs).

February 15

Hunter, Marcus Anthony and Zandria F. Robinson. 2018. Chocolate Cities: The Black Map of American Life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

February 20

Finish Hunter & Robinson, Chocolate Cities.

URBAN POLITICAL ECONOMY

February 22

Readings:

Logan, John R. and Harvey L. Molotch. 2007. Chapters 2 and 3 in Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

February 27

Readings:

Read one previously unassigned chapter of your choice from The Oxford Handbook of Urban Sociology.

March 1

OHOUS essay due.

Spring break: March 6-17

HOUSING AND POVERTY

March 20

Desmond, Matthew. 2016. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. New York: Penguin Random House.   

March 22

Readings:

Finish Desmond, Evicted.

URBAN REINSCRIPTIONS

March 27

Readings:

Sassen, Saskia. 2000. "The Global City: Strategic Site/New Frontier." American Studies 41(2/3): 79-95.

GENTRIFICATION

March 29

Readings:

Hwang, Jackelyn and Lei Ding. 2020. "Unequal Displacement: Gentrification, Racial Stratification, and Residential Destinations in Philadelphia." American Journal of Sociology 126(2): 354-406.

Rucks-Ahidiana, Zawadi. 2022. "Theorizing Gentrification as a Process of Racial Capitalism." City & Community 21(3): 173-192.

April 3

Second pair of essays due.

ETHNIC SHIFTS IN INNER-RING SUBURBS

April 5

Cheng, Wendy. 2013. “Diversity on Main Street: Civic Landscapes and Historical Geographies of Race.” Pp. 129-170 in The Changs Next Door to the Díazes: Remapping Race in Suburban California. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

DEINDUSTRIALIZED SMALL CITIES

April 10

Duck, Waverly. 2015. Chapters 1, 3 in No Way Out: Precarious Living in the Shadow of Poverty and Drug Dealing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

April 12

"BEYOND" THE CITY: RURALISM AND NATURE

April 17

Readings:

Nevarez, Leonard and Joshua Simons. 2020. "Small-City Dualism in the Metro Hinterland: The Racialized ‘Brooklynization’ of New York’s Hudson Valley." City & Community 19(1): 16-43.

Lichter, Daniel T. and David L. Brown. 2011. "Rural America in an Urban Society: Changing Spatial and Social Boundaries." Annual Review of Sociology 37: 565-592.

April 19

Readings:

Angelo, Hillary and Colin Jerolmack. 2012. "Nature's Looking Glass." Contexts 11(1): 24-29.

NEW URBAN TEXTURES

April 24

Readings:

Stillwagon, Ryan and Amin Ghaziani. 2019. "Queer Pop-Ups: A Cultural Innovation in Urban Life." City and Community 18(3): 874-895.

Mattson, Gregor. Forthcoming. "The Buzz of Urban Nightlife." Forthcoming in The Oxford Handbook of Urban Sociology, edited by L. Nevarez and R. Centner.

April 26

Readings:

Douglas, Gordon C.C. 2018. "Individualizing Civic Responsibility" and "The Spatial Reproduction of Inequality." Pp. 45-71 and 97-128 in The Help-Yourself City: Legitimacy and Inequality in DIY Urbanism. New York: Oxford University Press.

May 1

Tuesday, May 9 (last day of study period)

Third pair of essays due.