Urban Studies Issues

Objectives

This course aims to achieve:
- Systematization of the range of issues that have been analyzed by urban studies, focusing on the historical evolution of cities, their contemporary social and urban problems and challenges as well as the field of policies to tackle these problems and challenges.
- Advanced and in depth training concerning the issues that seem more relevant in the current context of intense social and urban transformation in close collaboration with research centers involved.
In pursuing these objectives we seek to help students acquire the following competencies:
- Ability to carry out an integrated and multidisciplinary reflection, and develop independent research on the main problems of urban studies.
- Master the advanced knowledge about the diversity of issues and debates on key perspectives and approaches to the city.

General characterization

Code

73217145

Credits

10.0

Responsible teacher

Joana Esteves da Cunha Leal

Hours

Weekly - 2

Total - 280

Teaching language

Portuguese

Prerequisites

Available soon

Bibliography

- Graham, Stephen e Simon Marvin; (2001), Splintering urbanism, Londres: Routledge.
- Jaine, Mark; (2005), Cities and Consumption, Londres: Routledge.
- Rodrigues, Walter (2010), Cidade em Transição, Lisboa: Celta Editora.
- Short, John (2006), Urban Theory: a critical assessment, Nova Iorque: Palgrave.
- Thorns, David C. (2002), The Transformation of Cities, Nova Iorque: Palgrave.

Teaching method

The teaching methodology is based in the combination of lecture sessions and discussion of the syllabus, with sessions presenting research and theoretical debates about the diversity of urban studies issues. Given the advanced level of training, part of those sessions are streamlined by students through coordination and moderation of teachers.

Evaluation method

Student participation in those presentations(50%), Writing of a paper, on the state of the art of one of the urban studies issues presented(50%)

Subject matter

The vast body of research and theoretical and conceptual analysis of the field of urban studies can besystematized in three axes of issues: the axis of the processes of urbanization and transformation of cities, the axis of the various nodes of the urban issues and the axis of public urban policies in order to tackle those problems.
The program is structured in the following modules:
1.Urban change dynamics: historical perspective of the city and urbanization processes; diversity of current models of city.
2.Consumption and urban culture: consumption as a structural axis of the current urban economies, implications for urban life; expression of urban cultures and city policies
3.Housing and ways of living: analysing the centrality of the housing function to produce the city, diversity and social and urban inequalities; ways of living, urban mobility and lifestyles
4.Urban policies: sectoral policies; globalization and integrated and systemic city policies

Programs

Programs where the course is taught: