EES 79903 – Urban Space & Social Power: New struggles and possibilities  
SPRING 2016 Friday 14:00-16:00 GC Room TBA

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EES 79903 – Urban Space & Social Power: New struggles and possibilities

SPRING 2016

Friday 14:00-16:00 GC Room TBA

COURSE SYLLABUS

 

Instructor:

Dr. Marianna Pavlovskaya

Office location:

HN 1003F and GC TBA

Office hours:

F 16-17 (at GC) and by appointment

Email:

mpavlovAThunter.cuny.edu (See Email rules)

BlackBoard login page:

http://bb.hunter.cuny.edu

Syllabus page:

http://www.geo.hunter.cuny.edu/~mpavlov/ and click on course link EES79903 Urban Space and Social Power

YOU MUST HAVE WORKING BB ACCOUNT IN ORDER TO ACCESS THE COURSE.


COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES

This course examines the processes that rapidly reshape cities around the world. In particular, we will focus on the most pertinent struggles over urban space and urban futures in the neoliberal era. We will examine how relations of class, race, and gender affect production of urban space, the role of urban space in the political economy of capitalism, causes and consequences of the many forms of gentrification, expansion of surveillance regimes, displacement of low income and slum residents, and digital urban landscapes and politics. Equally importantly, we will examine how cities are being reclaimed as shared spaces through the “right to the city” and other urban movements as well as through theorizing the urban as a site for post-capitalism that already contains urban commons, solidarity economy, and other non-capitalist economic, cultural and political practices. Several class sessions will be combined with the course in the Anthropology program taught by Dr. Ida Susser in order to host lectures from the ARC speaker series “Inequality and the commons.”

 

Students will learn to differentiate between theoretical frameworks and theoretically locate urban research. They will lead discussions, write weekly response papers, a midterm paper and a final paper, and present their final paper in class at the end of the semester.

BlackBoard: http://bb.hunter.cuny.edu (syllabus, course schedule, grades, discussion board, digital readings)

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

The class meets once a week. Each session will begin with my short lecture to introduce a topic and/or presentation of the readings by the students assigned to lead the discussion. The rest of the class will be devoted to the discussion. Last week will include final paper presentations to the class.

 

If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to read the assigned literature and post the reaction paper.

Evaluation:

Reaction papers

20%

Class participation

20%

Midterm paper

25%

Final paper

35%

Reaction papers

Short reaction papers (300-500 words) to weekly readings. Please do not summarize but discuss what you found to be most important, engaging, or troubling. All papers must be proofread and clearly written. They should be posted to the discussion board on BB no later than 5pm Thursday evening. They will be read not only by me but by all the students. The papers will be 2 point each (0 if you do not post it). Late submissions will earn lesser points. Please print these papers as well and hand them in, in addition to posting to BB.

Class participation

Class discussions are essential. You must read ALL the assigned readings and be ready to talk about them. Discussion leaders will briefly introduce the readings (5 min for all readings) and formulate two questions for discussion.

Midterm paper

A midterm paper is due in the middle of the semester. It is a short 5 page research paper that analyzes class readings to date. Midterm paper questions and requirements are posted on BB.

Final paper

This paper will provide you with a chance to examine an urban topic of your choice in greater depth. The topic should be related to the class content. It will include the analysis of the class readings as well as literature from your research area. Requirements for the final paper are posted on BB.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

CUNY and Hunter College regards acts of academic dishonesty (e.g., plagiarism, cheating on examinations, obtaining unfair advantage, and falsification of records and official documents) as serious offenses against the values of intellectual honesty. The College is committed to enforcing CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity and will pursue cases of academic dishonesty according to the Hunter College Academic Integrity Procedures. Plagiarism, dishonesty, or cheating in any portion of the work required for this course will be punished to the full extent allowed according to Hunter College regulations.

PLAGIARISM will not be tolerated and all university rules regarding its occurrences will be strictly followed.

Email rules

Please email questions regarding the course. I usually respond by the next day (excluding weekends). Please specify EES709 in the subject line and sign your full name.

ADA Policy (from Office of AccessABILITY)

In compliance with the American Disability Act of 1990 (ADA) and with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Hunter College is committed to ensuring educational parity and accommodations for all students with documented disabilities and/or medical conditions. It is recommended that all students with documented disabilities (Emotional, Medical, Physical, and/or Learning) consult the Office of AccessABILITY, located in Room E1214B, to secure necessary academic accommodations. For further information and assistance, please call: (212) 772- 4857 or (212) 650-3230.

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INTERNET RESOURCES

All Graduate Center students have personal e-mail accounts, BlackBoard and internet access. The current class schedule with the assigned readings and discussion schedule will be on Black Board.

While libraries provide access to many on-line publications, only articles and books published by academic press should be used as a source for your papers. This means that they went through a review process and their academic quality is guaranteed.

Please contact EES CEO Prof. Cindi Katz (ckatzATgc.cuny.edu) and secretary Ms. Lina McClain (lmcclainATgc.cuny.edu) for help with BB and library access. 

Calendar for Spring 2016

F, Jan 29

T Feb 9

F Feb 12

W Mar 23

F Mar 25

Apr 22, 29

 May 13

First class

Class, Friday schedule

Class, Friday schedule

No class

No classes, Spring recess

Last class

WEEKLY TOPICS

Please see BB for updated Class Schedule. This schedule is subject to change. Readings will be articles and selections from the books below. Some of these readings are recommended.

 

Weeks

Dates

Topics

1

1/29

Introduction and logistics

2

2/5

Post-modernism and neoliberal urbanism

Soja, Edward W. 1996. Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places. 1 edition. Cambridge, Mass: Blackwell Publishers.

Logan, John, and Harvey Molotch. 2007. Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place. 20th Anniversary Edition, With a New Preface edition. University of California Press.

Brenner, Neil, and Nik Theodore, eds. 2003. Spaces of Neoliberalism: Urban Restructuring in North America and Western Europe. 1 edition. Wiley-Blackwell.

Hackworth, Jason. 2006. The Neoliberal City: Governance, Ideology, and Development in American Urbanism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Peck, Jamie. 2013. Constructions of Neoliberal Reason. Reprint edition. Oxford University Press.

Peck, Jamie. 2014. “Entrepreneurial Urbanism: Between Uncommon Sense and Dull Compulsion.” Geografiska Annaler Series B: Human Geography 96 (4): 396–401. doi:10.1111/geob.12061.

Peck, Jamie, and Nik Theodore. 2015. Fast Policy: Experimental Statecraft at the Thresholds of Neoliberalism. Minneapolis: Univ Of Minnesota Press.

Weber

3

2/9

Race, class, and cities

Davis, Mike. 2006. Planet of Slums. London ; New York: Verso.

Wacquant, Loïc. 2007. Urban Outcasts: A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality. Polity.

Dikec, Mustafa. 2007. Badlands of the Republic: Space, Politics and Urban Policy. 1 edition. Malden, MA ; Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

4

2/19

Rebel cities. Speaker - David Harvey. Joint class.

Harvey, David. 2012. Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. Verso Books.

5

2/26

Confronting neoliberal urbanism. Joint class? Speaker TBA. IS away.

Ferguson, James. 2010. “The Uses of Neoliberalism.” Antipode 41 (January): 166–84. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00721.x.

Peck, Jamie, Doreen Massey, Katherine Gibson, and Victoria Lawson. 2014. “Symposium: The Kilburn Manifesto: After Neoliberalism?” Environment and Planning A 46 (9): 2033–49. doi:10.1068/akilburn.

Marcuse, Peter, James Connolly, Johannes Novy, Ingrid Olivo, Cuz Potter, and Justin Steil, eds. 2011. Searching for the Just City: Debates in Urban Theory and Practice. 1 edition. Routledge.

Soja, Edward W. 2010. Seeking Spatial Justice. Minneapolis: Univ Of Minnesota Press. (digital at CUNY)

Ghertner, Asher. 2015. Rule By Aesthetics: World-Class City Making in Delhi. 1 edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

6

3/4

Commons – Joint class. Speaker TBA. MP away.

Readings TBA

7

3/11

Constructing the commons in the global North. Joint class. Speaker TBA. IS away.

Huron, Amanda. 2015. “Working with Strangers in Saturated Space: Reclaiming and Maintaining the Urban Commons.” Antipode 47 (4): 963–79. doi:10.1111/anti.12141.

Harvey, D. The creation of the urban commons. Ch 3 in Rebel Cities.

“Urban Commons: Rethinking the City (Space, Materiality and the Normative): Christian Borch, Martin Kornberger: 9781138017245

Dellenbaugh, Mary, Martin Schwegmann, Markus Kip, Agnes Katharina Muller, and Majken Bieniok, eds. 2015. Urban Commons: Moving Beyond State and Market. Birkhauser.

St. Martin, Kevin. 2009. “Toward a Cartography of the Commons: Constituting the Political and Economic Possibilities of Place.” Professional Geographer 61 (4): 493–507. doi:10.1080/00330120903143482.

Other readings TBA.

8

3/18

Joint class. Speaker Michael Blim (Anthropology). IS away

Readings TBA

9

3/23

Midterm paper is due

Gentrification and citizenship

Lees, Loretta. 2012. “The Geography of Gentrification: Thinking through Comparative Urbanism.” Progress in Human Geography 36 (2): 155–71. doi:10.1177/0309132511412998.

Lees, Loretta, Tom Slater, and Elvin K. Wyly. 2007. Gentrification. 1 edition. Routledge.

Smith, Neil. 2002. “New Globalism, New Urbanism: Gentrification as Global Urban Strategy.” Antipode 34 (3): 427–50. doi:10.1111/1467-8330.00249.

Freeman, Lance. 2006. There Goes the ’Hood: Views of Gentrification from the Ground Up. Philadelphia, Pa: Temple University Press.

Peck, Jamie. 2005. “Struggling with the Creative Class.” International Journal of Urban & Regional Research 29 (4): 740–70. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2427.2005.00620.x.

Sites, William. 2003. Remaking New York : Primitive Globalization and the Politics of Urban Community. Minneapolis, MN, USA: University of Minnesota Press. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/alltitles/docDetail.action?docID=10194405.

Chatterjee, Ipsita. 2014. Displacement, Revolution, and the New Urban Condition: Theories and Case Studies. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications Pvt. Ltd.

Film “My Brooklyn”

10

4/1

AAG in SF, no class

11

4/8

Architecture/Militarization/Techno

Weizman, Eyal. 2012. Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation. 1 edition. London ; New York: Verso.

Lees, Loretta, and Richard Baxter. 2011. “A ‘building Event’ of Fear: Thinking through the Geography of Architecture.” Social & Cultural Geography 12 (2): 107–22. doi:10.1080/14649365.2011.545138.

Graham, Stephen. 2011. Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism. London ; New York: Verso.

Graham, Stephen, and Simon Marvin. 2001. Splintering Urbanism: Networked Infrastructures, Technological Mobilities and the Urban Condition. First Printing edition. London ; New York: Routledge.

12

4/15

Liberating the city

Peake, Linda, and Martina Rieker, eds. 2013. Rethinking Feminist Interventions into the Urban. 1 edition. London: Routledge.

Easterling, Keller. 2014. Critical Spatial Practice 4 - Subtraction. Edited by Nickolaus Hirsch and Markus Miessen. Sternberg Press.

Roelvink, Gerda, Kevin St Martin, and J. K. Gibson-Graham, eds. 2015. Making Other Worlds Possible: Performing Diverse Economies. Minneapolis: Univ Of Minnesota Press.

Hubbard, Phil. 2011. Cities and Sexualities. London ; New York: Routledge.

Solidarity economy

Other readings TBA

13

5/6

Urban political ecology

Heynen, Nik, Maria Kaika, and Eric Swyngedouw, eds. 2006. In the Nature of Cities: Urban Political Ecology and the Politics of Urban Metabolism. New Ed edition. London ; New York: Routledge.

Kaika, Maria. 2004. City of Flows: Modernity, Nature, and the City. 1st ed. Routledge.

Article on Flint, MI

14

5/13

Topic TBA

15

5/20

Mini-conference. Final paper presentations. Joint class.

 

5/23

Final paper due