URBAN THEORY (3 credits)
Spring 1996

Objectives
This course provides an introduction to theories and concepts of economic, social and cultural factors that shape the spatial structure of our cities and regions. What we call urban theory in the planning practice today encompasses interdisciplinary explanations offered by urban geographers, urban sociologists, urban economists, and urban historians. While maintaining strong methodological links to their respective disciplines, these interdisciplinary formulations focus on the built environment as their main subject of investigation and their analyses inform planners' professional practice.

The course will start by looking at cities in a historical and comparative perspective. Part I: City in History will provide a comparative survey of cities in different cultures, places and time periods, and in the imagination of utopians. The relatively recent history of the city planning profession will be discussed.

Part II of the course will review theories of the spatial structure of cities and metropolitan regions. The early representation of cities as marketing centers for a range of goods of urban geographers, as the outcome of economic competition for space by urban sociologists, and in terms of spaces where agglomeration economies for firms can be achieved by urban economists will be reviewed. The limitation of these theories in explaining the changes observed in large metropolitan areas over time such as the emergence of suburbs and the decentralization of employment will be discussed. Alternative perspectives in understanding the spatial structure of metropolitan areas will be explored.

Part III of the course will introduce the role of political dynamics in shaping the built environment. The role of different stakeholders in shaping urban development and redevelopment will be examined. Using these case studies, special emphasis will be given to the politics of urban renewal in the 1960s in the U.S., urban redevelopment projects in the early 1980s in creating segregated and economically polarized communities.

Part IV will discuss the underlying reasons for the emergence of new forms of cities such as edge cities and new towns, and new types of residential development such as gated communities.

Required Readings

Phillips, Barbara and LeGates Richard. City Lights: An Introduction to Urban Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
Hall, Peter. Cities of Tomorrow: An Intellectual History of Urban Planning and Design in the Twentieth Century. New York: Basil Blackwell, 1988
Jacobs, Jane. Cities and Wealth of Nations. New York: Random House, 1984
Zukin, Sharon. The Cultures of Cities, Oxford: Blackwell, 1995.
Garreau, Joel. Edge City: Life on the New Frontier. New York: Doubleday, 1991.

Grading

10 % completing weekly readings and participation in class
15 % City Tour assignment (due: Feb 13)
30 % midterm exam (March 7)
15 % Project 2 (due: Apr. 2)
30 % final exam

Weekly Readings

Part I. INTRODUCTION

WEEK 1: Looking at cities and the field of urban studies
Jan. 18 Overview of the course

Readings:

Phillips & LeGates (1981): Chapter 1: "The knowing eye and ear"; Chapter 2: "Thinking about cities"; Chapter 3: "Posing the Questions" Chapter 14: "A Sense of place" op.cit.

Project #1: City Tour Assignment handed-out (due Feb 13)

WEEK 2: Cities in history
Jan. 23 & 25

William Whyte's film: "The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces

Readings:
Phillips & LeGates (1981): Chapter 4: "Small beginnings"; op.cit.
Abu-Lughod, Janet L. "Chapter 2: The Origin and Development of Cities" in her Changing Cities: Urban Sociology. Chapter 3: "The Urbanization of the World, 1800-2000" in her Changing Cities. Harper Collins (1991).
Hall (1989): Chapter 2: "The city of dreadful night"; Chapter 3: "The city of by-pass variegated"; Chapter 4: "The city in the garden"; Chapter 6: "The city of monuments" op.cit.

Part II: SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF U.S. CITIES AND METROPOLITAN REGIONS

WEEK 3: City form and space
Jan 30 & Feb 1

Readings:
Phillips & LeGates (1981): Chapters 13: "City form and space" op.cit.
Abu-Lughod, Janet L. "Chapter 7:The Form of the City and How to Discover it" Chapter 8: How Urban Spatial Structures Arise and Change" op.cit.

WEEK 4: Cities in economic theory
Feb 6 & 8

Readings:
Sullivan (1993) Chapter 2: "Why do cities exist?"; Chapter 3: "Where do cities develop?; Chapter 5: "How many cities." op.cit.
Hall (1989): Chapter 9: "The city on the highway" op.cit.

WEEK 5: Cities in economic theory continued
Feb 13 & 15

Jacobs (1984) Cities and the Wealth of Nations, op.cit
Zukin (1995) Chapter 5: "Artists and Immigrants in New York City Restaurants" Chapter 6: While the City Shops" op.cit

WEEK 6: Changing structure of metropolitan areas
Feb 20 & 22

Readings:
Sullivan (1993) Chapter 10: "Suburbanization and modern cities"
Ford, Larry (1994) "The American Single Family House" in his Cities and Buildings: Skyscrapers, Skid Rows, and Suburbs. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Jackson, Kenneth T. Chapter 11: "Federal Subsidy and the Suburban Dream: How Washington Changed the American Housing Market" in his Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States.

WEEK 7:
Feb 27 & 29

Readings:
Teitz, Michael. "Neighborhood Economics: Local Communities and Regional Markets" Economic Development Quarterly. 3(2):May 1989:111-122.
Goldsmith & Blakely (1992): Chapter 4:"Shaping Places: The changing shape of the American Metropolis" In Separate Societies: Poverty and inequality in U.S. cities. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

WEEK 8:
March 5 Midterm review

March 7 Midterm exam

WEEK 9: SPRING BREAK

WEEK 10
March 19 & 21

Tuesday (19th): Exams returned
Video: "The World that Moses Built", 1988

Thursday (21st): Open Group Work on Asignment #2 (brief student presentations)
11:00-12:15 Peter Calthorpe visit to A-School (attendance highly recommended)

No Readings

Part III: Urban politics, urban poverty and urban social movements

WEEK 11: Power struggle in the city, urban politics, and uneven development
March 26 & 28

Readings (March 26):
Harvey (1985) Chapter 7: On planning the ideology of planning. In The Urbanization of Capital: Studies in the history and theory of capitalist urbanization. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press. (*)
Castells (1983): Part 6: "A Cross-cultural theory of urban social change" In City and the Grassroots. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Readings (March 28):
Molotch, Harvey. "The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place" American Journal of Sociology. (*)
Long, Norton. "The Local Community as an Ecology of Games" in his The Polity. New York: Rand McNally, 1962. (*)

Assignment # 2 due (no exceptions!)

WEEK 12: Urban redevelopment, gentrification, and public/private partnerships
April 2 & 4

Readings (April 2):
Hartman (1984): Chapter 1: "The larger forces"; Chapter 9: South of Market conquered"; Chapter 13: Moscone Center and the Future"; Chapter 14: The lessons of San Francisco" In The Transformation of San Francisco. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Allanheld
Zukin (1995): Chapter 7: "The mystique of public culture" op.cit. (*)
Hall (1989): Chapter 11: "The city of enterprise" op.cit. (*)

April 3rd (Wednesday) Dr.Akhtar Badshah, Director of Programs, Mega Cities Project, New York 2:00-3:00pm lecture (attendance highly recommended)

WEEK 13 The work of Jane Jacobs and its implications for urban theory
April 9 & 11

Tuesday (9th): Preparation for Discussion on Thursday
Thursday (11th): Discussion with Jane Jacobs

WEEK 14 Spatial concentration of urban poverty in inner cities, and gender in the city
April 16 & 18

Readings:
Goldsmith & Blakely: Chapter 1: "Separate status: The top-down economics and bottom-up politics"; Chapter 2: "Separate assets: Race, gender, and other dimensions of poverty" op.cit. (*)
Hayden (1986) "What would a Non-Sexist City be Like?" in Critical Perspectives on Housing edited by R. Bratt, C. Hartman, and Ann Meyerson. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. (*)

Part IV: NEW FORMS OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

WEEK 15 Edge cities, New towns and gated communities
April 23 & 25

Readings:
Garreau (1991): Chapter 10: "Washington." op.cit. (*)
McKenzie (1994): Chapter 1: "From Garden city to Privatopia"; Chapter 3: "From exclusivity to exclusion: Homeowner associations in the suburban housing boom"; Chapter 6: "Homeowner associations as private governments. In Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the rise of residential private government. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Week 16:
April 30

Wrap-up & Review

Final exam, Tuesday, May 7, 2-5pm