UD 715

This seminar surveys contemporary theories of urbanism as a lens for understanding urban design discourse and practice. Cities are simultaneously participants in, and resultants of, systems of economy, culture, and power. Accordingly, they can be examined to reveal embedded relationships between urban form and space, the urban publics, and prevailing cultural, economic and political regimes.  This course presents an interdisciplinary cross-section of theories of urbanization, drawing from architecture, landscape, planning, urban design, cultural theory, geography, sociology, political science, and ecology, in order to critically examine cities and the methods that have been used in urban design practice globally.