This course
examines the 20th century development of
theories about human behavior in cities and the
production of urban space. These theories reflect the
historical problems of modern cities -- urban poverty,
immigrant assimilation, public safety, and urban
redevelopment -- and address four central debates in
urban studies:
- Does the built
environment influence community and other forms of
social organization?
- How do public
interactions, human agency, community life, and
other local phenomena affect the macro-phenomena of
cities and urban hierarchies?
- Do the city, its
forms, and its processes comprise entities that are
sui generis (i.e., in a class by
themselves), or can they be attributed to other
social properties. If the latter is true, then why
focus on the urban at all?
- How can theory, an
explanatory account conventionally based on large
numbers of observations, be used to understand
cities that are arguably too diverse and few to
make scientific generalizations from?
To grasp these issues,
students will read classic works in urban studies,
conduct qualitative and quantitative research on
cities, and make their own theoretical propositions
and syntheses in discussions, group assignments, and
exams.
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