last modified: Thursday, October 2, 2008

ASSIGNMENTS / PRESENTATIONS

Schedule: Sept • Oct • Nov • Dec
class listserv: f8-up-650-001@umich.edu

Course Description
This is a reading seminar on urban theory, with an emphasis on urban intellectual history and critical social theory.  It is intended for both doctoral students and Masters students interested in deepening their theoretical understanding of cities, urbanization and spatial development.  Readings cover both classic texts in urban theory (including from Germany and the "Chicago School"), important late 20th Century writers (with an emphasis on David Harvey and Manuel Castells), and specific themes in urban theory (such as global cities and the "L.A. School"). The goal of the seminar is to understand not only the substance of the readings, but also the structure and development of their arguments.  This course is required for doctoral urban planning students. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the readings and topics, students from other degree programs outside urban planning are also encouraged to attend. This course will be taught every other year (2008, 2010, etc.), alternating with UP660 (Epistemology and Reasoning for Planning Research, next taught Fall 2009 by Prof. Norton). Another theory course of interest is UP573 (Urban and Regional Theory).

Prerequisites
Doctoral student status or permission of instructor. Masters students in planning, design and architecture should take Urban Planning 540 (Planning Theory) -- or the equivalent -- before taking UP650. (UP540 is taught both Fall and Winter.) Please email me if you have questions or are interested in the course.

Required Readings
These books have already been ordered at Shaman Drum Bookshop (on State Street) and should be available by the start of the semester:
Harvey, David, Spaces of Capital Towards a Critical Geography (Blackwell).
Lin and Mele (eds.), The Urban Sociology Reader (Routledge).
Parker, Simon, Urban Theory and the Urban Experience: Encountering the City (Routledge).

We hope to also use: Castells, Manuel, The Castells Reader on cities and social theory (Blackwell), but the book may not be easily found in print [more on this in an update].

Additional readings will be available either through the university electronic reserves or through external web links.

see this timeline (pdf file) for an overview of selected course reading authors.

Sept 2

Introduction

Sept 9 - 23

Classic Readings in Urban Theory: the German and Chicago Schools, plus other foundational ideas

Sept. 9: German School
Engels, Friedrich. 1845. "The Great Towns", in Condition of the Working Class in England. (online reading)
Tonnies, Ferdinand. Community and Society, in Lin and Mele (eds.), The Urban Sociology Reader (Routledge).
Simmel, Georg. The Metropolis and Mental Life, in The Urban Sociology Reader.
Weber, Max. 1958. The City. Translated by D. M. a. G. Neuwirth. New York: Free Press; 1st Collier Books edition. (chapter: "The Nature of Cities") [eReserves]
Frisby, David. 2001. Cityscapes of modernity : critical explorations. Cambridge ; Malden, MA: Polity Press in association with Blackwell. (Chapter 3: The City Interpreted: Georg Simmel's Metropolis) [eReserves]
Benjamin, Walter. 1969. "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility," in Illuminations. Edited and with an introduction by Hannah Arendt. Translated by Harry Zohn. New York,: Schocken Books. (originally published 1936). [eReserves]
Parker, Simon, Urban Theory and the Urban Experience: Encountering the City (Routledge). pp. 1-19.


Sept. 16: Chicago School
Park, Robert, Human Ecology, in The Urban Sociology Reader.
Burgess, Ernest, The Growth Of The City: An Introduction To A Research Project, in The Urban Sociology Reader.
Wirth, Louis. 1938. Urbanism as a Way of Life, in The Urban Sociology Reader.
Gans, Herbert, Urbanism and Suburbanism as Ways of Life: A Reevaluation of Definitions, in The Urban Sociology Reader.
Fischer, Claude, Theories of Urbanism, in The Urban Sociology Reader.
Mumford, Lewis. 1937. What is a city? Architectural Record LXXXII (November). [eReserves]
Saunders, Peter. "The Urban as an Ecological Community," in Social Theory and the Urban Question. London: Hutchinson & Co. 1981, pp. 48-79. [eReserves]
Parker, Simon, Urban Theory and the Urban Experience: Encountering the City (Routledge). Ch. 3.
Lynch, Kevin. 1974. The Pattern of the Metropolis. In An urban world, edited by C. Tilly. Boston,: Little Brown. [eReserves]

see also:
Park, Robert E. 1925. Suggestions for the Investigation of human Behavior in the Urban Environment. In The City, edited by R. E. Park, E. W. Burgess and R. D. MacKenzie. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [eReserves]

Sept. 23: Economic Foundations of Urban Theory
Chinitz, Benjamin. 1961. Contrasts in Agglomeration: New York and Pittsburgh. Journal of the American Economic Association (May):279-289 [eReserves]
Krugman, Paul. "Localization," in Geography and Trade. Cambridge, Mass. MIT Press, 1991, pp. 35-67. [eReserves]
North, Douglass C. "Location Theory and Regional Economic Growth." Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 63, No. 3, June 1955, pp. 243-258. [eReserves]
Tiebout, Charles M. "Exports and Regional Economic Growth." Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 64, No. 2, April 1956, pp. 160-164. [eReserves]
Tiebout, Charles M. "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures." Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 64, No. 5, October 1956, pp. 416-424. [eReserves]
Glaeser, Edward L. "Why Economists Still Like Cities." City Journal, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1996, pp. 70-77. [eReserves]

Sep 30 - Oct 7

David Harvey and a Geographical View of Capitalism
Harvey, David. 2001. Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography. Routledge.
Sep 30: Chs. 1-11
Oct. 7: Chs. 12-18
Parker, Simon, Urban Theory and the Urban Experience: Encountering the City (Routledge). Ch. 6.

see also:
Reading Marx’s Capital with David Harvey (with both video and audio links)
"A Brief History of Neoliberalism" (Audio of lecture by Harvey)
A 2004 Interview with David Harvey (audio, video, text)
Harvey, David. "Possible Urban Worlds" (Fourth Megacities Lecture, 2000)

background on von Thünen:
Johann-Heinrich von Thünen: Balancing Land-Use Allocation with Transport Cost (by Scott Crosier)
Johann-Heinrich von Thünen (Resources) (Krumme, U. Washington)

Oct 14, Oct 28

Castells: from "the Urban Question" to the Internet
Castells, Manuel. 2002. The Castells Reader on cities and social theory: Blackwell.
Oct. 14: introduction; Chs. 1-5
Oct 28: Chs. 6 - 9
[Note: Castells reader NOT available at Shaman Drum]

see also:
Interview with Manuel Castells, Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley (May 9, 2001)

NOTE: no class Oct 21 (UM study break)

Nov 4

Henri Lefebvre and the Production of Space
Gottdiener, Mark. 1994. "Urban Ecology, Economics and Geography: Spatial Analysis in Transition " in The social production of urban space. 2nd ed. Austin: University of Texas Press. [eReserves]
Mark Gottdiener, A Marx for Our Time: Henri Lefèbvre and The Production of Space, in An Architektur – Produktion und Gebrauch gebauter Umwelt html
Stuart Elden, "There is a Politics of Space because Space is Political" (Henri Lefebvre and the Production of Space), in An Architektur – Produktion und Gebrauch gebauter Umwelt html
Lefebvre, Henri. 1991. The production of space. Oxford, UK ; Cambridge, Mass., USA: Blackwell. "Plan of the Present Work" [eReserves]
Lefebvre, Henri Interviews: Writings on Cities (No Salvation away from the Centre? / The Urban in Question) 1996 [eReserves]
Parker, Simon, Urban Theory and the Urban Experience, pp. 19-24.

Nov 11

Global Cities

read first:
John Friedmann, The World City Hypothesis, in The Urban Sociology Reader.
Saskia Sassen, The Urban Impact of Economic Globalization, in The Urban Sociology Reader.
Michael Peter Smith, Power in Place: Retheorizing the Local and the Global, in The Urban Sociology Reader.
Dicken, Peter. 2004. Geographers and ‘globalization’: (yet) another missed boat? Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 29 (1):5-. [eReserves]
King, Anthony. 1995. Re-presenting world Cities:  cultural theory/social practice, in Paul L., and Peter J. Taylor, eds. 1995. World Cities in a World-System. Cambridge, UK and New York: Cambridge University Press. [eReserves]

then read:
Peter Hall,  "Megacities, world cities and global cities" [new link]
J.V. Beaverstock, R.G. Smith and P.J. Taylor, "A Roster of World Cities"
P. Hall, "Christaller for a Global Age: Redrawing the Urban Hierarchy"
Saskia Sassen. The City: Between topographic representation and spatialized power projects Art Journal. Summer 2001. Vol.60, Iss. 2;  pg. 12. [eReserves]
Scott, Allen, ed. 2001. Global City-Regions: Trends Theory, Prospects. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. [eReserves]

see also:
Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network, Loughborough University, UK and their on-line publications.
Jan Lin, Globalization and the Revalorizing of Ethnic Places in Immigration Gateway Cities , in The Urban Sociology Reader.
Paul Stoller and Jasmin Tahmaseb McConath, City Life: West African Communities in New York, in The Urban Sociology Reader.
Saskia Sassen. 2000. The global city: Strategic site/new frontier American Studies. Summer 2000.Vol.41, Iss. 2/3;  pg. 79. [eReserves]
Saskia Sassen. 2000. New frontiers facing urban sociology at the Millennium. The British Journal of Sociology. Andover: Jan/Mar 2000.Vol.51, Iss. 1;  pg. 143 [eReserves]
Storper, Michael. 1997. The Regional World: Territorial Development in a Global Economy. New York: Guilford Press. (excerpt: Chapter 8, "The Regional World: Territorial Development in a Global Economy", pp. 195-220). [eReserves]

Nov 18

The LA School + Other Emergent Approaches To Urbanism

Miller, D.W. 2000. The New Urban Studies: Los Angeles scholars use their region and their ideas to end the dominance of the 'Chicago School'. Chronicle of Higher Education, August 18. article (html) and responses √

Michael Dear, "Los Angeles and the Chicago School: Invitation to a Debate" html + history + precepts √

Soja, Edward W. 1999. In different spaces: The cultural turn in urban and regional political economy. European Planning Studies. Abingdon: Feb 1999. Vol. 7, Iss. 1; p. 65-75. pdf. √

Waldinger, Roger. 1996. From Ellis Island to LAX: Immigrant prospects in the American city. The International Migration Review. New York: Winter 1996. Vol.30, Iss. 4;  pp. 1078-86. pdf. √

Amin, Ash and Nigel Thrift. "Cities in a Distanciated Economy," in Cities: Reimagining the Urban. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers Inc. 2002, pp. Ch. 3: p.51 - p.77 [eReserves]

Davis, Mike. The L.A. Inferno, Socialist Review. Jan 1992. Vol. 22, Iss. 1; pp. 57-80. pdf √

see also:

Michael J. Dear & Steven Flusty. "Los Angeles and the 'L.A. School'," in Dear, M. J., and J. Dallas Dishman. 2002. From Chicago to L.A. : making sense of urban theory. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications. pdf [FIX link]

Jennifer Wolch, Stephanie Pincet and Laura Pulido, "Urban Nature and Nature of Orbanism," in Dear, M. J., and J. Dallas Dishman. 2002. pdf [new link]

Nov 25

OPTION A: Beyond the City and Suburb

Rybczynski, Witold. "Country Homes for City People," in City Life. New York: Touchstone / Simon & Schuster, 1995, pp. 173-196. [eReserves]
Cohen, Lizabeth. "Residence: Inequality in Mass Suburbia," in A Consumers' Republic. New York: Vintage, 2003, pp. 194-256. [eReserves]
Robert Fishman, "The Death and Life of American Regional Planning," in Bruce Katz (ed), Reflections on Regionalism (Brookings). pdf
Robert Fishman, "Global Suburbs" (URRC working paper)
Lars Lerup, 2004: "Freeway City: from Theatre of Conflict to Public Domain" pdf
Kunstler, James Howard, Home from Nowhere. [eReserves]
Brooks, David. "Out for a Drive," in On Paradise Drive. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004, pp. 15-64 [eReserves]
Geddes, Robert, Metropolis Unbound: The Sprawling American City and the search for Alternatives [eReserves] [alternative link]
Parker, Simon, Urban Theory and the Urban Experience: Encountering the City (Routledge). Chs. 4-5.

see also:
Brooks, David. 2004. Our Sprawling, Supersize Utopia. New York Times Magazine. April 4. html[registration required]

Images:
Air Photos • Levittown • National Geographic on sprawl •  The Connection on sprawl • Sierra Club on Sprawl •

OPTION B: The Geographic Imagination: Geography & Urban Theory

readings would be selected from:
Fyfe, Nicholas R., and Judith T. Kenny. 2005. The urban geography reader, Routledge urban reader series. London ; New York: Routledge.
Hubbard, Phil. 2002. Thinking geographically: space, theory, and contemporary human geography. London ; New York: Continuum.
Thrift, N. J., and Sarah Whatmore. 2004. Cultural geography: critical concepts in the social sciences. 2 vols, Critical concepts in the social sciences. London; New York: Routledge.
Tuan, Yi-fu. 1977. Space and place: the perspective of experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Hubbard, Phil, Rob Kitchin, and Gill Valentine, eds. 2004. Key thinkers on space and place. London ; Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Pickles, John. 2004. A history of spaces : cartographic reason, mapping, and the geo-coded world. London ; New York: Routledge.
Peet, Richard. 1998. Modern geographical thought. Oxford ; Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
Livingstone, David N. 1993. The geographical tradition : episodes in the history of a contested enterprise. Oxford, UK ; Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers.

Dec 2

Cities, Culture, Urban Politics and the Future of Social Spaces
Sharon Zukin, Whose Culture? Whose City?, in The Urban Sociology Reader.
Richard Florida, Cities and the Creative Class, in The Urban Sociology Reader.
Mark Gottdiener, Looking at Themed Environments, in The Urban Sociology Reader.
Mike Davis, Chinatown, Part Two?: The 'Internationalization' of Downtown Los Angeles, in The Urban Sociology Reader.
Teresa P. R. Caldeira, Fortified Enclaves: The New Urban Segregation, in The Urban Sociology Reader.
Pierre Hamel, Henri Lustiger-Thaler and Margit Mayer, Urban Social Movements - Local Thematics, Global Spaces, in The Urban Sociology Reader.
Parker, Simon, Urban Theory and the Urban Experience: Encountering the City (Routledge). Chs. 7-8.

Dec 9

Final Session
Parker, Simon, Urban Theory and the Urban Experience: Encountering the City (Routledge). Ch. 9.

This last session will provide an opportunity to link common themes from the semester and articulate a set of core questions, principles and debates in urban theory. (session will be held at instructor's home: maps to be provided)

TASK:  Each student is to come to the session with a one-page handout (bring copies for everyone, please) 
that articulates the student's understanding/conceptualization of urban theory. Format is flexible: you can combine text, keywords, questions, illustrations, diagrams, timelines, etc. Be ready to discuss and compare each student's Creativity and insightfulness  welcomed. You might provide a conceptual map of urban theory. I would also encourage you to upload your sheet onto the theory wiki on UM Coursetools.

Internet Links
UP540 (Planning Theory) and its background materials on planning and urban theory

* see also the CTools site: "Urban Theory" (I will add class members to this site by the second week.)

Other Theory Readings of Interest (* indicates a useful background book to consider reading this summer)
Bridge, Gary, and Sophie Watson. 2000. A companion to the city, Blackwell companions to geography. Oxford ; Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers.
* Bridge, Gary, and Sophie Watson. 2002. The Blackwell city reader, Blackwell readers in geography. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.
* Campbell, Scott, and Susan S. Fainstein. 2003. Readings in Planning Theory. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
Certeau, Michel de, Luce Giard, and Pierre Mayol. 1998. The practice of everyday life. New rev. and augm. ed. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Cronon, William. 1991. Nature's metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. New York: W. W. Norton.
Davis, Mike. 1990. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. New York: Verso.
Davis, Mike. 1998. Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster. New York: Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt.
Dear, M. J., and J. Dallas Dishman. 2002. From Chicago to L.A. : making sense of urban theory. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.
Dear, M. J. 2000. The postmodern urban condition. Oxford, UK ; Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.
Fainstein, Susan S. 2001. The City Builders: Property Development in New York and London, 1980-2000. 2nd edition. University of Kansas Press.
Harvey, David. 1996. Justice, Nature and the Geography of Differences. Oxford: Blackwell.
* Fainstein, Susan S., and Scott Campbell, eds. 2001. Readings in Urban Theory. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Fishman, Robert. 1982. Urban utopias in the twentieth century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier MIT Press.
Frisby, David. 1986. Fragments of modernity : theories of modernity in the work of Simmel, Kracauer, and Benjamin, Studies in contemporary German social thought. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Frisby, David. 2001. Cityscapes of modernity : critical explorations. Cambridge ; Malden, MA: Polity Press in association with Blackwell.
* Hall, Peter. 2001. Cities of Tomorrow : An Intellectual History of Urban Planning and Design in the Twentieth Century. updated ed. Oxford: Blackwell.
Giddens, Anthony. 1990. The consequences of modernity. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
Gottdiener, Mark. 1985. The Social Production of Urban Space. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Harvey, David. 1989. The Condition of Post-Modernity. Oxford: Blackwell.
Hayden, Dolores. 2002. Redesigning the American Dream: Gender, Housing, and Family Life. W.W. Norton & Company
Hubbard, Phil, Rob Kitchin, and Gill Valentine (eds). 2004. Key thinkers on space and place. London; Thousand Oaks: Sage.
* Jacobs, Jane. 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House.
Krugman, Paul. 1997. Development, Geography, and Economic Theory (Ohlin Series). MIT Press.
Lefebvre, Henri. 1991. Critique of everyday life. London ; New York: Verso.
Lefebvre, Henri. 2003. The urban revolution. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
* Mumford, Lewis. 1961. The City in History. New York, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
Lerup, Lars. 2000. After the city. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Sandercock, Leonie. 1998. Towards cosmopolis: planning for multicultural cities. Chichester, New York: John Wiley.
Park, Robert Ezra. 1927. The city. Chicago, Ill.,: The University of Chicago press.
Rae, Douglas W. 2003. City : urbanism and its end, The Yale ISPS series. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Rybczynski, Witold. 1995. City life : urban expectations in a new world. New York: Scribner.
Sassen, Saskia, ed. 2002. Global Networks, Linked Cities. Routledge.
Saunders, Peter. 1986. Social Theory and the Urban Question. revised ed. New York: Holmes and Meier.
Scott, Allen J., and Edward W. Soja, eds. 1996. The City: Los Angeles and Urban Theory at the End of the Twentieth Century. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Scott, James C. 1998. Seeing Like a State : How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Sennett, Richard. 1990. The conscience of the eye : the design and social life of cities. New York: Knopf.
Short, John R. 2006. Urban theory : a critical assessment. Basingstoke [England] ; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Simmel, Georg, and Kurt H. Wolff. 1950. The sociology of Georg Simmel. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press.
Smith, Neil. 2003. American empire : Roosevelt's geographer and the prelude to globalization, California studies in critical human geography ; 9. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Sorkin, Michael. 2002. Variations on a theme park: the new American city and the end of public space. New York: Hill and Wang. 2nd ed.
Tilly, Charles, and Willem Pieter Blockmans. 1994. Cities and the rise of states in Europe, A.D. 1000 to 1800. Boulder: Westview Press.
Tuan, Yi-fu. 1977. Space and place : the perspective of experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Ward, Stephen V. 1998.  Selling Places : The Marketing and Promotion of Towns and Cities, 1850-2000. Routledge.
Wirth, Louis. 1964. Louis Wirth on cities and social life; selected papers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Zukin, Sharon. 1995. The Culture of Cities. Blackwell.