Teaching Responsibility

LJMU Schools involved in Delivery:

Humanities and Social Science

Learning Methods

Lecture

Workshop

Module Offerings

6116SOC-SEP-MTP

Aims

  1. To provide an understanding of the origins of sociological research into cities.
  2. To provide a sociological understanding of the nature of urban politics and power dynamics.
  3. To provide an understanding of various urban issues and their relation to sociological categories such as gender, class, race and more.

Learning Outcomes

1.
Explain and evaluate the origins of sociological analysis of cities.
2.
Critique and analyse the nature of urban politics in the UK and other societies.
3.
Interrogate the nature, consequences and resistance to a range of urban issues in the UK and other societies.

Module Content

Outline Syllabus:
Topics may include: Chicago School, LA School, Urban Capitalism, Postmodern urbanism, urban entrepreneurialism, urban culture, gentrification, studentification, race and segregation in the city, the green city, gender and the city.
Module Overview:
People in cities face some of the most acute challenges of our times. By now, more than half of the world population live in urban settlements, a growing trend that sees more and more people move to cities. Urban space has become one of the most unequal environments, often seeing extreme poverty in close proximity to wealth and prosperity. Yet, cities are also spaces where social bonds are formed and where people come together to collectively create a better life for themselves and others. Already the earliest sociologist at the University of Chicago were fascinated by the intensity and immersion of urban life and the social phenomena that could be studied there. Essentially, the city itself becomes a laboratory where all kinds of actions and interactions can be observed. Many contemporary scholars work within this tradition to uncover patterns of the urban society in a present-day context. This will be the main focus of the module.

 

This module studies cities from an integrative perspective, discussing the work of sociologists, geographers, anthropologists and more, exploring how they help us understand and experience the city around us. With more and more people moving through the natural and built urban environment, cities have become an important backdrop for our professional and personal lives. In fact, cities are like large social experiments where people from diverse backgrounds live together in a small and dense area. This doesn’t just happen peacefully but can bring about many conflicts that affect the way we interact with each and the built environment.

 

In this module we will study the ways in which the natural and built environment influence the actions of people in cities. Week by week we will be exploring a different urban topic that looks at the ways in which our lives are bound up with the urban environments in which we move and live in.
Additional Information:
n/a

Assessments

Portfolio

Essay