JPF 2430H

Instructors: 
Richard Sommer (Daniels)
Patricia McCarney (Political Science/ Daniels)

Tuesdays, 10-12 PM
 

With over half of the world's population living in urban settings, the significance of improving our understanding of cities in a global context has never been greater. This course is designed to enhance awareness of cities as approached by various disciplines and in diverse international contexts.  The course will explore cities and global change; cities and urban design; cities and social justice; cities and climate change; cities and poverty; state reform and city politics; cities and citizenship; cities and immigration; cities and economic development; cities and governance; and cities and the political-economy of urban space. By bringing together leading faculty members on campus and global experts in the field who focus on cities in their work, be it within Architecture, Political Science, Planning, Urban Design, Real Estate Development, Environment and Health, Management, Geography or Social Work, the course will explore how the study of cities is evolving for a renewed understanding of the subject, for both research and practice. The course design is also undertaken in recognition of the importance of bringing together area studies, where the study of cities in Latin America, Asia, and Africa is brought together in a comparative context with the study of cities in Europe and North America.

The course will be structured as a mixed—format offering, combining lectures, visual presentations, data tables, and web links to international agencies and related reports and will be organized into subject units, each with core and optional reading lists, discussion questions for consideration, and periodic assignments. The intent is to bridge traditional disciplinary divides, which have tended to obscure significant discourse on cities. Panel discussions, and guest instructors leading seminar discussions will help us identify and address inter-disciplinary links, divides and areas of resonance in the urban field, ultimately bridging students and faculty to a broader academic and global city community. 

Image: (Diagram) On Distributed Communications, Paul Baran, Rand Corp., 1956