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Course Description

Summary

This course applies the perspectives and methods of anthropology to explore and critique patterns of urban design and development around the world, paying attention to the interactions between structural forces (urban planning and design practices, global capitalism, city and state policies) and locally produced cultural meanings and political activities involving the use of urban space. We will begin by examining the history of urban planning initiatives and the relationships between modernism and urbanism, interrogating the motives and results of modernization projects in Paris, Brasilia, and colonial Hanoi. We will then turn to contemporary urban design and development topics studied by anthropologists, including residential segregation, suburbanization, gentrification, and the effects of globalization on patterns of urban growth and transformation, drawing on cases from Beijing, Nairobi, Oakland, and elsewhere. Finally, we will consider cities as the sites of emergent practices of citizen organizing and political activity, examining the claims for equal rights made by “squatters” living along the urban peripheries of Latin American and Asian cities.