SOC 3008/5008  WORLD CITIES Prof. Slater Office: Dammann 3 Telephone: (914) 798-2732 E-mail: slatere@mville.edu

 

 

Course description:

Over half of the world’s population is now living in cities.  A select group stands apart as world-cities because of their size, social dynamic, and centrality in the modern era.  We emphasize the north/south division of world-cities; survey the dominant European cities of the past through the writings of Fernand Braudel; and focus our attention on Sao Paulo, Istanbul, and Mumbai/Bombay.  We aim to understand how the “wealth and splendor” of great cities is produced and the social forces that account for their rise and demise.  Further themes include the problem of global slums and the political consequences of marginality and neglect.  The course concludes by considering developments in Shanghai and Baghdad as possible preludes to the future of the city.

 

Requirements: 

Attendance and participation in seminar meetings; five writing assignments of 2 pages; presentations of required readings, individual research findings, and final projects; term paper of approximately 10 pages due at the last meeting.

 

Required Books: 

Teresa Caldeira, City of Walls: Crime, Segregation and Citizenship in Sao Paulo

Robert Neuwirth, Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World

Suketu Mehta, Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

 

All other readings indicated in the weekly schedule are available at the library website in the course file at ERES/docutek.

 

Weekly schedule:

 

I.         Course overview

 

II.        No Class

 

III.            World cities, past and present

           rdg.:  Davis, “Planet of Slums

                                    Clark, “Global Patterns and Perspectives”

Neuwirth, 1-22

Braudel, pgs. 21-45

 

IV.        Cities of the North

                  rdg.:  Clark, “World Cities”

                  Latinization: Davis, etc. 

 

V.         Cities of the South

                  rdg: Neuwirth, 25-173; UN-habitat

 

VI.         Cities of the South

rdg.:  Seabrook, “Myths of the Megacities,” “Slums and Settlements,”

“Labour in the Cities: Jakarta”

Caldeira, City of Walls, pgs. 1-11

                   

VII.        No Class

 

VIII.       Sao Paulo              

rdg.:  Caldeira, chs. 1-7

                 

IX.         Los Angeles and Mexico City: militarization

                  rdg.:  Davis, “Fortress L.A.”

                  [Grozny and Baghdad: Great Powers and Urban Combat]

 

X.          Proposals Due

1) Venice: a world city prototype

                  rdg.:  Braudel, pgs. 89-174

2) Amsterdam and St. Petersburg: dominance and modernization

                  rdg.:  Braudel, pgs. 175-226

Berman, “Petersburg: the Modernism of Underdevelopment”

3) World cities in the 19^th century: London, Paris, New York, Chicago

                  rdg.: Braudel, pgs. 365-369

Schivelbusch, tba

Cronon, tba

 

XI.        Discussion of proposals

Istanbul

                  rdg.:  Keyder, “The Setting”

“The housing market: from informal to global”

Oncu, “Istanbulites and Others”

                  Braudel, pgs. 467-484

 

XII.       Bombay/Mumbai

                  rdg. Mehta, Maximum City

XIII.       Bombay/Mumbai

                  rdg. Mehta, Maximum City

 

XIV.       Viable cities of the future

                  rdg.:  Caldeira, ch. 8

 

XV.        Presentations and discussion. 

Term papers due.