URB235H1F 2022

URB235H1F: A Multidisciplinary Introduction to Urban Studies I: Theoretical Foundations of City Building – Updated August 10, 2022 1 URB235H1F: A Multidisciplinary Introduction to Urban Studies I: Theoretical Foundations of City Building Course Syllabus Fall 2022 Wednesday, 10-12 pm Location: Innis Town Hall (This course will also be livestreamed and recorded) Instructor: Dr. David J. Roberts d.roberts@utoronto.ca Office Hours – by appointment TA Office Hours: TBD – see Quercus announcement approximately 2 weeks before each assignment About the Course: The introductory courses in the Urban Studies Program are designed to be complementary. In URB235, we will be focusing on the theoretical foundations of the Urban Studies as a field of study. In particular, we will be reading, analyzing, and discussing the various ways in which academics and others have engaged in conceiving the city and urban life . Cities are complex, multifaced, evolving things and are at the nexus of a multitude of various forces that work to shape their form and the experiences of those of us who work, play, live, or otherwise spend time within them. As such, course readings draw from many different disciplines. Part of our work, in this class and in the Urban Studies program, is to bring these different disciplinary perspectives into conversation – understanding what each contributes to the understanding of the city and urban life and where each might have a blind spot or two. The assignments for this course will explore various different ways of both conceiving the city and producing knowledge about the city and urban life. This begins with you visiting an urban public space, making observations, taking and selfie and then connecting your experiences in this public space to course readings and discussions. You will also use data from StatsCan to compare two Canadian cities – in doing so, you will explore both the potential and limits of this type of data to understand urban life in your chosen cities. Finally, you will engage with the Toronto Vital Signs Report – a report assembled by the Toronto Foundation on the current vitality of the City of Toronto. You will put the findings of this report into conversation with the broader academic literature on a specific element of the report that you choose. Together, these assignments will help you explore the practices and politics of urban knowledge production through three distinct types of media. Some of the pressing questions we will delve into this term include: what makes a place a city? How does this relate to urbanism? What are key characteristics of Canadian cities and urban life? How have conventional definitions of a city and urbanism been contested or reimagined by individuals or groups that have historically been pushed to the margins of power in urban areas? What might all of this tell us

URB235H1F: A Multidisciplinary Introduction to Urban Studies I: Theoretical Foundations of City Building – Updated August 10, 2022 2 about the current and future potential for cities to be more just, liveable and sustainable places to live, work and play? Course Goals URB 235H is focused on 5 main goals as follows: 1. Learn the foundational theories that have shaped and continue to shape Urban Studies 2. Understand that ideas about what cities and urban life are and ought to be are contested 3. Develop and practice ability to link theory to everyday/vernacular experience 4. Learn to assess an idea and communicate information and analysis both in a variety of formats 5. Build personal vision of more liveable, just, sustainable urban futures Learning Outcomes By the end of the course, students will be able to: 1. Describe, define and evaluate the development of urban theory 2. Analyze and assess a variety of forms of urban knowledge production 3. Engage in critical thinking and discussions about the urban issues they see around them 4. Construct their own informed yet critical perspective on urban issues Learning Format In this class, you will be asked to participate in all of the following activities and exercises: • Listen to lectures • Respond to data questions and problems • Participate in class-wide discussion and debates • Ask questions • Write minute papers Evaluation City Selfie 20% Due: September 28 th Comparing Cities 35% Due: October 26 th A Toronto Vital Sign 35% Due: November 30 th Participation 10% On-going throughout term Requirements Please see the ‘Assignment Guidelines’ handout for information on all assignments. Accessibility Services The University of Toronto is committed to accessibility. If you require accommodations for a disability, or have any accessibility concerns about the course, the classroom or course materials, please contact Accessibility Services as soon as possible: accessibility.services@utoronto.ca or https://www.studentlife.utoronto.ca/as/new-registration . Course Schedule and Reading List

URB235H1F: A Multidisciplinary Introduction to Urban Studies I: Theoretical Foundations of City Building – Updated August 10, 2022 4 Small Urban Spaces Wirth, L. 1938. Urbanism as a way of life. The American Journal of Sociology, 44 (1), 1-24. Placemakers Podcast, “The Cheerful Hurly - Burly,” http://www.slate.com/podcasts/placemakers/how_jane_jacobs_beat_robert _moses_to_be_the_ultimate_placemaker.html?utm_source=podcastepisode &utm_medium=subnav&utm_campaign 6 Oct 19 Urban Form and Design Philips, E.B. 2010. Urban form and the changing ‘central city’ in Metropolitan Form & Space, City Lights, 3rd Edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 519- 542. Zukin, S. (2010). “Introduction - The City That Lost Its Soul” (pp. 1 -31) in Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places. 99% Invisible Podcast episode. “Civic Superblocks: Barcelona’s Urban Redesign R eturns Streets to Residents.” https://99percentinvisible.org/article/civicsuperblocks-barcelonas-urban- redesignreturns-streets-residents/ 7 Oct 26 Due: Comparing Cities Urban Inequality and Polarization St. Louis-McBurnie, K., Pagaling, N. M., & Roberts, D. J. (2021). The work of crisis framing: Claims of social justice obscuring a history and, likely future, of uneven investment in Moss Park, Toronto. Journal of Urban Affairs, 1-18. Mitchell, D. (1995). The end of public space? People's Park, definitions of the public, and democracy. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 85(1), 108-133. McCann, E. J. (1999). Race, protest, and public space: Contextualizing Lefebvre in the US city. Antipode, 31(2), 163-184. 8 Nov 2 Globalization Loughran, K. (2014). Parks for profit: The high line, growth machines, and the uneven development of urban public spaces. City & Community , 13 (1), 49-68. DeFilippis, J. (2009). On globalization, competition, and economic justice in cities. In Searching for the Just City (pp. 164-178). Routledge. Fall Reading Week – No Classes or Office Hours 9 Nov 16 World/Ordinary Cities/Cities of the Global South Shatkin, G. (2007). Global cities of the South: Emerging perspectives on growth and inequality. Cities , 24 (1), 1-15. McCann, E., Roy, A., & Ward, K. (2013). Assembling/worlding cities. Urban Geography , 34 (5), 581-589.

URB235H1F: A Multidisciplinary Introduction to Urban Studies I: Theoretical Foundations of City Building – Updated August 10, 2022 5 10 Nov 23 Technology and the City Lynch, Casey R. "Contesting digital futures: Urban politics, alternative economies, and the movement for technological sovereignty in Barcelona." Antipode 52.3 (2020): 660-680. Sadowski, J. (2021). Who owns the future city? Phases of technological urbanism and shifts in sovereignty. Urban studies, 58(8), 1732-1744. 11 Nov 30 Due: A Toronto Vital Sign Radical Urbanism Manahan, M. A., & Alvarez, M. K. (2020). An atlas praxes and political possibilities: radical collective action and urban transformations. In Cities of dignity: urban transformations around the world (pp. 49-78). Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. Martin-Iverson, S. (2021). The value of the underground: punk, politics, and creative urbanism in Bandung, Indonesia. Cultural Studies , 35 (1), 110-135. 12 Dec 7 Contemporary Urban Challenges Coaffee, J., Therrien, M. C., Chelleri, L., Henstra, D., Aldrich, D. P., Mitchell, C. L., ... & participants. (2018). Urban resilience implementation: A policy challenge and research agenda for the 21st century. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management , 26 (3), 403-410. Acuto, M., Larcom, S., Keil, R., Ghojeh, M., Lindsay, T., Camponeschi, C., & Parnell, S. (2020). Seeing COVID-19 through an urban lens. Nature Sustainability , 3 (12), 977-978. Bereitschaft, B., & Scheller, D. (2020). How might the COVID-19 pandemic affect 21st century urban design, planning, and development?. Urban Science , 4 (4), 56.