Course Calendar
| Topic and Readings | |
| 08/29 | The first day –Intro to this course! |
| 08/31 | Topic 1. Modernity and modern cities
· Introduction to Urban Sociology: why cities matter? o Read § Introduction to Urban Sociology Overview o For further instructions, click this link –Week 2. Introduction: Modernity and modern cities |
| 09/5 |
Table of Contents Topic 1. Modernity and modern cities· Introduction to Urban Sociology o Read § Urbanization and Its Challenges § The era of industrialization § Riis, Jacob. How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and Chapter 3 & Photos For further instructions, click this link- Week 3: Juxtapositions and complexity of modern cities |
| 09/7 |
Topic 2. Modernity and modern cities/ Modern Consumerism· Urban residents in modern society § Read · “World’s Fair” in Britannica o Georg Simmel, The Metropolis and Mental Life |
| 09/12 |
Topic 2. Modernity and modern cities/ Modern Consumerism· Modernity and consumption o Read § Thorstein Veblen. 1899. “Conspicuous Consumption“ § James Surowiecki, 2009, “Inconspicuous Consumption” § Elsa Partan & Heather Goldstone, 2019, “Inconspicuous Consumption Still Has A Cost” For further instructions, click this link-Week 4: Modern Consumerism |
| 09/14 | Documentary – My Brooklyn : Guide will be provided |
| 09/19 |
Topic 2. Modernity and modern cities/ Modern Consumerism· Modernity and consumption Continued |
| 09/21 | Workshop: Downtown Brooklyn Project — Writing Assignments
Assignment 1: 09/24 |
| 09/26 |
Topic 3. Urbanism as a way of American life· American tradition · Read § Louis Wirth, “Urbanism as a Way of Life” in The City Reader, Pages 96-104 § Click The City Reader and go to Page 96. NOTE: Click this link in order to learn about off-campus access |
| 09/28 |
Topic 3. Urbanism as a way of American life· Reading Jane Jacobso Watch § “Jane Jacobs vs Robert Moses: Urban Fight of the Century” o Read § Jane Jacobs. 1961. “The Uses of Sidewalks: safety” in The City Reader, Pages 105-109 · This chapter is available at City Tech’s library. o Click The City Reader and go to Page 105.
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| 10/03 |
Topic 4. Suburbanization· Urbanism VS. Suburbanism
Becky Nicolaides and Andrew Wiese, “Suburbanization in the United States after 1945“ |
| 10/05 | Topic 4. Suburbanization
Shelley Nickles. 2002. “More is Better: Mass Consumption, Gender, and Class Identity in Postwar America.” American Quarterly. 54(4):Pp 581-622 |
| 10/10 | No class: It’s Monday at CUNY |
| 10/12 | Midterm exam review |
| 10/17 |
Midterm exam |
| 10/19 |
Topic 5. New Urban Sociology: May 68 & Lefebvre
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| 10/24 |
Topic 5. New Urban Sociology: Urban Crisis in the U.S.
Daniel Denvir. “1968 and the Invention of the American Police State,” City Lab |
| 10/26 |
Topic 6. Poverty, Urban Ghettoes and the Inner City· Urban Ghettos and the Inner City o Read § “The Cost of Racial and Class Exclusion in the Inner City: by Loic Wacquant and William Julius Wilson in The Urban Sociology Reader, pages 182-191
Assignment 2: 10/26 |
| 10/31 |
Topic 6. Poverty, Urban Ghettoes and the Inner City· Eviction
“Stark Symbol of Pandemic in N.Y.: Homeless People Huddled on the Subway” in The New York Times |
| 11/02 |
Topic 6. Poverty, Urban Ghettoes and the Inner CityEviction — Continued |
| 11/07 |
Catch-up day! |
| 11/09 |
Topic 7. Gentrification· Gentrification- Overview o Read § “Overview: The Gentrification Debates” “PART I: What is gentrification?: Definitions and key concepts” and “PART II: How, where and when does gentrification occur?” in The Gentrification Debates by Japonica Brown-Saracino § “Gentrification: Timeline” in Next City Gentrification in National Geographic |
| 11/14 |
Topic 7. Gentrification· Gentrification- Overview continued |
| 11/16 |
Topic 7. Gentrification· Theories § Continued Assignment 3: 11/19 |
| 11/21 |
Topic 7. Gentrification· Theories o Read § “Super-gentrification: The Case of Brooklyn Heights, New York City,” in The Gentrification Debates: 45-50
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| 11/23 | College Closed – No classes scheduled |
| 11/28 |
Topic 7. Gentrification in New York City· Commercial gentrification in New York City o Read § “Gentrification as Market and Place,” by Sharon Zukin, in The Gentrification Debates:37-44 § Sharon Zukin. 2010. “How Brooklyn Became Cool” and “Why Harlem is Not a Ghetto.” Naked city: The death and life of authentic urban places: Pp35-62 and 64-94 § “When ‘Gentrification’ Isn’t About Housing” in The New York Times · Creative class and new economy o Read § “Building the Creative Community” in The Gentrification Reader: p345-354 § The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited in City Lab § ‘Everything is gentrification now’: but Richard Florida isn’t sorry in The Guardian The Curse of the Creative Class by Steven Malanga in City Journal |
| 11/30 |
Topic 8. Urban Brandingo Read § Miriam Greenberg. 2010. “Branding, Crisis, and Utopia: Representing New York in the Age of Bloomberg” § Sewell Chan. 2008. “When New York Branded Its Way Out of Crisis” New York Times § Design Rush, 2018. “The I Love New York Logo Is An Iconic, Widely-Imitated Tourism Symbol.” Medium § Guardian Culture. 2015. “I Love New York: Meet Milton Glaser, creator of the ‘I Love NY’ logo.” Archie D’Cruz. 2016. “Does ‘I Love New York’ Help Create a Brand for New York City?” Observer December 28, 2016 |
| 12/05 |
Topic 9. Ethnicity and authenticity in ethnic enclaves· Ethnic enclaves: from traditional enclaves to new settlement patterns o Read § Wei Li’s “Ethnoburb versus Chinatown : Two Types of Urban Ethnic Communities in Los AngelesConceptual Framework : Ethnoburb” in The European Journal of Geography. § Timothy Egan’s “Rise of the Ethnoburbs” in The New York Times Opinion · Ethnic food and authenticity in urban America o Read § Elisabeth Becker’s “Little of Italy? Assumed Ethnicity in a New York City Neighbourhood.” in Ethnic and Racial Studies 38(1): pp. 109–124. § “How Little Italy Became Little Albanian-Mexican Italy” in The New York Times |
| 12/07 | Topic 10. The right to the City
Wo can claim right to the city? o Read § David Harvey, “The Right to the City” § Jane Jacobs, “The kind of problem a city is,” in Death and Life of Great American Cities (Blackboard) Group Activity for Assignment 4. Assignment 4: 12/10 |
| 12/12 | Topic 10. The right to the City
Wo can claim right to the city? Final exam review |
| 12/14 | Final exam. |
| 12/19 | Online learning day |
