Course Summary:

This course is designed as a survey of ideas and issues in urban geography. Because urban geographers focus on a place (a city) rather than on a particular topic (such as politics or economics or culture) the course covers a range of topics relevant to cities. Examples from the course outline below include: housing, urban form, politics, gentrification, and so on. Because all these issues exist together and interact in one place—the city—one of our main goals will be to understand the linkages among the many topics we study. In other words, we want to understand they city as a whole rather than understand specific parts of the city in isolation (its economy, its politics, its culture, etc.).

Above all, urban geography takes a spatial approach to understanding cities. Urban geographers want to know where something is, why it is there, and why that location is important. Moreover, they are interested in spatial patterns in the city—they attempt to describe and explain the city’s spatial layout. This spatial approach will be most clear when we examine urban form in the early part of the course, but the approach will continue as we discuss residential geography (where people live and why), politics (where power rests and why), and economics (where economic activity is located and why). More than anything, it is this spatial approach to cities—an approach that strives to understand how people and culture and power and relationships are embedded in a real geography of the city—that is the central defining feature of urban geography. The most important goal of this course is to teach you this spatial approach and to teach you how to see cities—and the world—geographically.

Required Text:

Course packet, available at Rams Copy Center, 4144 University Way, 632-6630.

They are open M-F from 8am-11pm and Sat./Sun. from 10am-8pm.

Grading:
 

Item	Percent of grade	Date
Five essay/discussions	25%	In section, throughout the quarter
Midterm Exam	25%	October 29
Final Exam	25%	December 8
Research paper	25%	Due December 10 (one paragraph paper topic due November 5)

More specifics on each item will be provided during the quarter.

Academic honesty:

It is essential that you be graded only on your own work. The University takes the offenses of cheating and plagiarism very seriously, and so do I. Cheating is taking advantage of the work of others. Plagiarism is representing the work of others as your own, without giving appropriate credit. If you are not sure if it is appropriate to work with others on a given assignment, come see me and make sure—don’t assume.

A note on Tuesdays:

Lectures for the course are scheduled for MTWF from 1:30-2:20. However, during the quarter we will not meet for regular lectures on Tuesdays. However, you do not have these days off. They are explicitly set aside for you to focus on your research paper. Because the paper will involve empirical research in the Puget Sound area, it is important to get started early so you can work out any kinks in your topic and your research plan. You should use this time to prepare your topic, formulate a research plan, and conduct your research. I will hold an office hour during this time, and I encourage you to talk with me early and often about your project. In assigning this paper in the past I have found that those who consulted with me often generally produced the best papers.

The other class periods (MWF) and Thursday’s sections will meet as scheduled.

Course Outline:
 

OUTLINE	READINGS FOR THAT TOPIC (numbers refer to the numbered readings on the reading list—next pages)
I. Introduction	#1, #2
II. Urban form
A. Commercial city	#3
B. Industrial city	#3
C. Suburbanization and the suburban ideal	#4, #5, #6
D. Post-suburbs/Edge cities	#7, #8
III. Time geography
IV. Residential geography
A. Segregation	#9
1. Causes	#10, #11, #12, #13
2. Consequences	#14, #15, #16
B. Low-income housing	#17, #18, #19, #20
1. Debates	#21, #22, #23, #24, #25, #26, #27
2. The geography of public housing	#28, #29, #30, #31, #32, #33
V. Politics
A. Growth politics	#34
B. Neighborhood politics	#35
C. Political fragmentation	#36, #37, #38, #39, #40, #41
VI. Economics
A. Gentrification and redevelopment	#42, #43, #44, #45, #46, #47, #48, #49
B. World cities and globalization	#50, #51, #52, #53, #54, #55

 

Reading list and schedule:

The following schedule is to help you pace yourself throughout the quarter. You should complete the readings for each week by the end of that week. Each week contains roughly 70 pages of reading. You will need to keep up with this schedule because the five essay/discussions will be based on the reading.
 

Reading		Number of pages
	Week 1
1.	Barnekov, T. and Rich, D. (1995) Introduction to cities and urbanism. In R. Caves, ed. Exploring urban America. Thousand Oaks: Sage, pp. 3-12.	9
2.	Herbert, D. and Thomas, C. (1982) Urban geography: a first approach. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1-25.	24
3.	Gordon, D. (1984) Capitalist development and the history of American cities. In W. Tabb and L. Sawers, eds. Marxism and the metropolis. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 21-53.	22
	Week 2
4.	Palen, J. (1981) The urban world. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 155-181.	26
5.	Jackson, K. (1985) Crabgrass frontier: the suburbanization of the United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 45-72.	27
6.	Fishman, R. (1987) Bourgeois utopias: the rise and fall of suburbia. New York: Basic Books, 3-17.	14
7.	Garreau, J. (1991) Edge city: life on the new frontier. New York: Anchor Books, 3-15.	12
	Week 3
8.	Fishman, R. (1987) Bourgeois utopias: the rise and fall of suburbia. New York: Basic Books, 182-207.	25
9.	van Kempen, R. and Ozuekren, A. (1998) Ethnic segregation in cities: new forms and explanations in a dynamic world. Urban Studies 35: 1631-1656.	23
10.	Wood, P. and Lee, B. (1991) Is neighborhood racial succession inevitable? Urban Affairs Quarterly 26: 610-620.	10
11.	Jackson, K. (1985) Crabgrass frontier: the suburbanization of the United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 190-218.	28
	Week 4
12.	Fischler, R. (1998) Health, safety, and the general welfare: markets, politics, and social science in early land-use regulation and community design. Journal of Urban History 24: 675-719.	44
	Week 5
13.	McKenzie, E. (1994) Privatopia: homeowner associations and the rise of residential private government. New Haven: Yale University Press, 29-78.	49
14.	Patterson, O. (1995) The paradox of integration: why whites and blacks seem so divided. The New Republic 213: 24-27.	4
15.	Wilson, W. (1988) American social policy and the ghetto underclass. Dissent 35: 57-64.	7
16.	Massey, D., Gross, A. and Eggers, M. (1991) Segregation, the concentration of poverty, and the life chances of individuals. Social Science Research 20: 397-420.	24
	Midterm exam, Friday, October 29
	Week 6
17.	Loeb, P. (1996) The unsheltered life: the factors behind the nation's acute shortage of affordable housing. U.S. News & World Report 121: 28-33.	5
18.	Kellam, S. (1993) Public housing: can the largest assisted-housing program be improved? CQ Researcher 3: 795-815.	17
19.	Kamin, B. (1997) The latest chapter in the Cabrini-Green saga: can public housing be reinvented? Architectural Record 185: 84-90.	6
20.	Taylor, E. (1986) In Chicago: raising children in a battle zone. Time 128: 14-16.	2
21.	Nenno, M., Sidor, J., O'Connor, M., et al. (1989) Is public housing the answer? How can all Americans be assured access to safe, permanent housing? Public Welfare 47: 29-41.	12
22.	Dreier, P. (1996) Bob Dole on socialism: it's all right for the rich. Commonweal 123: 14-15.	2
23.	Congressional Digest (1997) Federal rental assistance: overview of the section 8 program. Congressional Digest 76: 229-233, 256.	4
24.	Ravitch, R. (1997) The unhoused: a looming crisis and how to fix it. The New Republic 216: 10-12.	3
25.	von Hoffman, A. (1997) Good News! From Boston to San Francisco the community-based housing movement is transforming bad neighborhoods. The Atlantic Monthly 279: 31-35.	4
26.	Brownstein, R. (1998) An idea grows in Brooklyn. U.S. News & World Report 125: 30-31.	1
	Paper topic is due, Friday, November 5
	Week 7
27.	Stoecker, R. (1997) The CDC model of urban redevelopment: a critique and an alternative. Journal of Urban Affairs 19: 1-24.	23
28.	Massey, D. and Kanaiaupuni, S. (1993) Public housing and the concentration of poverty. Social Science Quarterly 74: 109-122.	13
29.	Kirp, D. (1997) Welcome to Mt. Laurel. The Nation 264: 5-7.	2
30.	Burleigh, N. (1996) The suburbs won't vouch for this. Time 147: 43.	1
31.	Sandford, G. (1988) They don't like black people. U.S. News & World Report 104: 28.	1
32.	Jet (1996) Dallas housing authority wins battle against white residents to build in community. Jet 89: 40.	1
33.	Fulton, W. (1996) Lawsuits push public housing options into suburbs. Planning 62: 22-24.	3
	Week 8
34.	Logan, J. and Molotch, H. (1996) The city as a growth machine. In S. Fainstein and S. Campbell, eds. Readings in urban theory. Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 291-337.	46
35.	Fisher, R. (1984) Let the people decide: neighborhood organizing in America. Boston: Twayne Publishers, pp. xiii-xxiv.	11
36.	Teaford, J. (1979) City and suburb: the political fragmentation of metropolitan America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 76-104.	28
37.	Martin, J. (1995) Way to secede may get easier for West Seattle: Senate passes bill to change rules. Seattle Times, March 16: p. B1.	3
38.	Higgins, M. (1995) West Seattle appears ready to burn bridge. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 28: p. A1.	1
39.	Kelley, T. (1995) W. Seattle protests city's urban village plan. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 3: p. B1.	1
40.	Martin, H. (1996) Seattle suburb's discontent echoes valley's. Los Angeles Times, June 3: p. A3.	2
41.	Purcell, M. (1996) Divorce, California-style. In These Times 21: 18-20, 36.	4
	Week 9
42.	Smith, N. (1996) The new urban frontier: gentrification and the revanchist city. New York: Routledge, 30-47.	17
43.	Kotkin, J. (1999) Grass-roots business: for retailers in some city centers, gentrification is a four-letter word. New York Times, June 27: p. Sec. 3, p. 7.	2
44.	Flores, M. (1990) Looking up: area south of Kingdome is being transformed by 'gentle gentrification'. Seattle Times, November 20: p. C1.	3
45.	Stephenson, M. (1991) Whither the public-private partnership: a critical overview. Urban Affairs Quarterly 27: 109-127.	18
46.	Krumholz, N. (1999) Equitable approaches to local economic development. Policy Studies Journal 27: 83-95.	9
47.	Palma, D. and Hyett, D. (1997) Born again: downtown revivals offer salvation for cities. American City & County 112: 26-29.	3
48.	Jacoby, T. and Siegel, F. (1999) Growing the inner city? The New Republic 221: 22-27.	5
49.	The White House (1999) Background on Clinton-Gore administration's community development agenda. US Newswire, May 13.	1
	Week 10
50.	Friedman, J. (1986) The world city hypothesis. Development and change 17: 69-83.	14
51.	Wilson, D. (1997) Preface. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 551: 8-16.	8
52.	Muller, P. (1997) The suburban transformation of the globalizing American city. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 551: 44-58.	14
53.	Knox, P. (1997) Globalization and urban economic change. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 551: 17-27.	10
54.	Bashi, V. and Hughes, M. (1997) Globalization and residential segregation by race. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 551: 105-120.	15
55.	Laws, G. (1997) Globalization, immigration, and changing social relations in U.S. cities. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 551: 89-104.	15
	Final exam, 11th week, Wednesday, December 8 Research paper is due, Friday, December 10
	Total pages:	678

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