Leerdoelen
The course will provide intimate knowledge of the dynamics of world cities by providing students an overview of theories and concepts used in the field.
Students will learn to identify the unique set of processes found world cities that result in new patterns of inequality. Students will also learn how governments in Europe and North America have devised new strategies and techniques to regulate these inequalities. In addition to this, the class will demonstrate how large scale changes in economic and governmental structures directly affect the political power of low income urban residents to express their voice in the political sphere of their cities. Students will, moreover, learn to summarize, review, and discuss the theories explaining for these different processes. Students will be asked to employ the theories of the class to interpret empirical realities through reflections on case studies and their own experiences.
Inhoud
This course examines how the globalization of cities affects the life chances and political power of their residents. The first part of the course starts with the hypothesis that the integration of some cities in global economic networks has triggered new patterns of economic inequalities and poverty. As these cities have grown more unequal, they have also grown more ethnically diverse. In this sense, the course maintains that inequalities in these cities have intersected with ethnic diversity to create a highly dynamic yet a socially fragmented social structure. The second part maintains that new governmental techniques to regulate inequalities in European and North American cities have exacerbated the problems of social fragmentation. It examines what welfare states have done in these different societies, new discourses concerning the (im)morality of poverty, and the growing tendency to penalize poverty in European and American contexts. The last part of the course examines how changes to economic and state structures have challenged the capacities of low skilled and low income residents (i.e. the ‘working class’) to express their voice in the political sphere of their cities. The operating hypothesis is that large scale structural changes have intersected with the declining importance of working class parties and unions to marginalize the urban working class as a political force. We will explore this hypothesis through political developments in two world cities: Los Angeles and Amsterdam. The course is in English.
Aanmelden
Through Selfservice SIS.
Onderwijsvorm
Weekly three hour meeting (16 x 3 hours): a short lecture plus critical discussion of reading materials. Students carry out a series of assignments and prepare a class presentation. Class attendance is mandatory, and students are required to participate actively in discussions.
Onderwijstijden
See " rooster" on the web:
http://www.student.uva.nl/soc/roosters.cfm.
Studiemateriaal
An electronic reader
Kosten
Approximately € 45,-
Toetsvorm
Assessment is based on class discussions and oral presentations (10%), one take-home exam (30% each), one research paper on a topic covered in the course (4,000 words) (30%), and a final take-home exam (30%) on topics related to course discussions and readings. The mid-term exam must be completed by a date to be determined later. One re-examination is allowed within two weeks after the grading of the first version. Anti-plagiarism rules apply.
Bijzonderheden
- Language: English
- Specialization in Sociology: 1) Cultural Sociology and 2) Urban Sociology
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