Course info

This module explores the Forces which act to shape and to change cities and surveys Models of urban design which have been invented in response to forces acting on cities. For the first time in history, more people live today in cities than rural settings. The challenges— like earning money, getting transport, dealing with waste & sanitation, finding housing—with which the urban environment confronts its residents, and by extension planners, development practitioners, public decision-makers and academics, are often different in nature and scale from those encountered in the rural milieu. The evolution, practice and future of urban planning and development, with emphasis on institutional arrangements, housing, transportation, urban design and development control are central to contemporary debates in a world with fast developing cities and towns. Urban areas vary in their form, structure, morphology, land use patterns, and historical processes of evolution. Nonetheless, they are also driven by a series of interrelated processes of change – including economic, political, cultural, demographic, technological, environmental, social, and locally – contingent forces. These forces operate at a variety of geographical scales ranging from the global to the local. The goal of this module is to help students understand the processes and the character of urban areas. From an analytical study of urban phenomena and lived developmental challenges throughout the world, students will be able to: 1) contextually define what urban means, and how it has different meanings in different urban contexts; 2) explore the history of urbanization and the factors that gave rise to early cities; 3)explore the history of urban growth, and the key models and theories that exist to explain this growth; 4) analyse the various distinct structures and forms of urban areas; 5) critique urban development processes and the social and political-economic forces driving these processes; 6) explore the key government, public, and private stakeholders of urban development; 7) evaluate government policies and urban management strategies; and 8) understand contemporary issues present in our cities today. The course will be delivered in various formats: formal lectures, in-class and tutorial discussions, guest speakers, and videos. By the end of the semester, students should be able to apply various constructs to real world urban developmental issues. Topics for the module include background on the formation, role, growth, and evolution of cities and political, social, and economic approaches to understanding metropolitan politics and the planning. This part of the sequence begins with a review of the physical, economic, and legal forces that affect urban development. It then examines local government institutions, urban coalitions, distributions of power, and suburbanization and the politics of growth. Urban Political Economy and Urban Development will be examined to show how education, culture wars, housing, and poverty, among other forces, influence the planning environment. The module further looks at steps that can be taken to harness or direct these forces for the greatest common good while understanding and minimizing adverse impacts on urban populations and institutions.