The North American City
Academic Responsibility: Dan Donoghue
Course Aims
TIn the 21st century cities are once again at the centre of intellectual and political debate; for the first time in history the majority of the world's population lives in cities. Urban geography aims to examine the historical and contemporary processes producing the differentiation of urban space at a range of geographical scales from the global to the neighbourhood. The module aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to urban geography with a North American focus that also provides a global context and comparative international perspective. It aims to examine the changing and developing geographies of cities in North America, the interdependent processes that bring about urbanisation and the spatial processes that affect contemporary society.
Course Content
Following an introduction which examines the nature of urbanity and the early history of urbanisation the module moves on to examine inter-urban relationships, namely cities as nodes within urban systems at spatial scales from the regional to the global. The development of the American Urban System through specific historical periods is traced leading up to the contemporary period which is characterised as one of rapid transition and restructuring.
The next section of the module is concerned with the structure of cities as places and investigates the foundations of urban form and land use, introducing students to the classical models aimed at explaining patterns of city structure together with an examination of the major trends in urban planning and design. Attention then turns from physical structures to the social structure of cities, including residential differentiation and neighbourhood structures and change.
The final section of the module is concerned with the problems of urbanization and here the challenges facing urban areas in North America in comparison to those facing cities in developing countries are explored. Students are introduced to issues of urban governance and politics particularly with regard to urban regeneration programmes and the module concludes by examining possible urban futures.
Assessment
Students have a choice of either two assignments of 2500 words each or one assignment of 5000 words. There is no examination.