Urban Theory - bmc.CITY.B361.001.SP26
Section outline
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26.8 KB · Uploaded 04/14/26, 15:22
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HOW TO READ FOR THIS WEEK
Please read:
- Hackworth chapter
- Peck
I am going to ask you to block 2 hours in your schedule -- twice between now and Monday night (4 hours total). Your goal is not completion of a certain amount of reading - YOU MIGHT NOT FINISH THE READINGS, THAT'S OK. instead, it is about reaching a time-based goal.
In each of these TWO reading sessions, you must first create a space/ find a setting that allow you to read...
- Materially (on paper). In a screen-free environment
- Actively - take notes on that paper in a non-black ink. short sentences or even single words. It might be a reaction statement ('but if this is true, then what about x?) or just a indexing word or a key concept or definition (crisis = feature not bug)
- Deeply - that means blocking 'on' and 'off' time in a way that works for you. 20 minutes on, 10 minutes off? when and how long are your optimal breaks?
- IN YOUR OFF/BREAK TIME, DO ANYTHING BUT USE A SCREEN - ideally integrate a physical aspect, like stretching or walking
- Musical white noise or total silence? What is your ideal sound environment?
How to structure your time
For the first 90 minutes...
- Cycle through 2-4 blocks (90 minutes = 3 blocks of 20+10, for example, or 2 blocks of 30+15
Then, summarize for 30 minutes
- 15 minutes: write a brain-dump, 'madman' reaction - gut reactions, no mistakes. Set a timer for 15 minutes here - that's enough.
- 15 minutes: react more systemically (using the guide in the reader). Use that work, and do go back to the readings themselves. Make tables or bullet lists, use illustrations, whatever works. Can be paragraphs, but doesn't have to be. The goal is to communicate a response that covers 1) key ideas 2) connections with other readings 3) connections with the 'real world' or your own experience 4) questions you might have
Then, enjoy a nice cartoon about end-stage capitalism (see Youtube link below)
Finally, bring to class...
- Let's see what this looks like as a final product when we meet on Monday - in class, I'm hoping to see your in-text annotations and writing product for as much as you read in the time limits given!
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- Habermas, Jürgen, Sara Lennox, and Frank Lennox. 1974. “The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article (1964).”New German Critique, no. 3: 49–55. https://doi.org/10.2307/487737.
- Fraser, Nancy. 1990. “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy.”Social Text, no. 25/26: 56–80. https://doi.org/10.2307/466240.
Both of the following readings are scholars and 'public intellectuals' (I hate that term) who were hugely influential in political science and planning circles, respectively - both at the turn of the twenty-first century. The idea here is to have you read these and really think through what rings true, what is outdated, etc.
- Putnam, Robert. 2015 [2000]. “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital.”In The City Reader, edited by Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout, 134–42. Routledge.
- Friedmann, John. 1998. “The New Political Economy of Planning: The Rise of Civil Society.”In Cities for Citizens: Planning and the Rise of Civil Society in a Global Age, edited by Mike Douglass and John Friedmann, 1st edition, 19–35. Chichester, England ; New York: Academy Press.
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Certeau, Michael de. “Walking in the City.” In The Practice of Everyday Life, translated by Steven F. Rendall, 2nd ed., 91–110. University of California Press, 2002.
- Lefebvre, Henri. “The Plan of the Book (Excerpt).”In The Production of Space, 1st ed., 1–16. Wiley-Blackwell, 1992.
- hooks, bell. “Choosing the Margin as a Radical Space of Openness.”In Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics, 2nd edition. New York: Routledge, 2014.
- Soja, Edward, and Barbara Hooper. “The Space That Difference Makes.”In Place and the Politics of Identity. London ; Routledge, 1993.
Of the Following, read as you like (but do read at least one. These are very accessible and beautifully written. Two of them are fairly short
- Kern, Leslie. “City of Moms.” In Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World, 22–54.Verso Books, 2020.
- Mutongi, Kenda. “Through a Car Window in a Nairobi Traffic Jam, a View of Global Economics.”Washington Post, October 11, 2023, sec. Opinions.
- Riha, John. “How I Battle Wildfire Anxiety.” Slate, September 18, 2023.
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- Rawls, John. 1985. “Justice as Fairness: Political Not Metaphysical.”Philosophy & Public Affairs 14 (3): 223–51.
- Sen, Amartya. “The Idea of Justice.”Journal of Human Development 9, no. 3 (November 1, 2008): 331–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649880802236540.
- Fraser, Nancy. 1995. “From Redistribution to Recognition? Dilemmas of Justice in a ‘Post-Socialist’ Age.”New Left Review 212: 68–93.
- Young, Iris Marion. 2011. “‘The Politics of Difference’ and ‘City Life and Difference.’”In Justice and the Politics of Difference, Revised ed. edition, 156–91, 226–41. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.
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- Soja, Edward W. 2010. Ch 3: “Building a Theory of Spatial Justice”.In Seeking Spatial Justice, 111–155. Univ Of Minnesota Press (Note: first parts should feel like a summary of many theorists and points already discussed in class, with new material around p34.)
- Fainstein, Susan S. “Justice and Urban Transformation: Planning in Context.”In The Just City, 1 edition., 57–86. Ithaca London: Cornell University Press, 2010.
- Purcell, Mark. 2009. “Resisting Neoliberalization: Communicative Planning or Counter-Hegemonic Movements?” Planning Theory 8 (2): 140–65.
. - Steil, Justin P., and Laura Humm Delgado. “Limits of Diversity: Jane Jacobs, the Just City, and Anti-Subordination.”Cities 91 (August 1, 2019): 39–48.
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Start with: biographical sketch of Lefebvre in the book Metromarxism
Lefebvre, Henri. 1996 [1968]. “The Right to the City” and “Thesis on the City, the Urban, and Planning.” In Writings on Cities, 1st ed., 147–59, 177–81. Wiley-Blackwell.
Purcell, Mark. 2002. “Excavating Lefebvre: The Right to the City and Its Urban Politics of the Inhabitant.” GeoJournal 58 (2): 99–108. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:GEJO.0000010829.62237.8f.
Attoh, Kafui A. “What Kind of Right Is the Right to the City?” Progress in Human Geography 35, no. 5 (October 1, 2011): 669–85. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132510394706.
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Holston, James, and Atjun Appadurai. 1999. “Insurgent Citizenship.”In Cities and Citizenship, 155–173. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Miraftab, Faranak. 2009. “Insurgent Planning: Situating Radical Planning in the Global South.”Planning Theory 8 (1): 32–50.
Yiftachel, Oren. “Theoretical Notes On `Gray Cities’: The Coming of Urban Apartheid?”Planning Theory 8, no. 1 (February 1, 2009): 88–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473095208099300.
Friendly, Abigail. 2020. “Insurgent Planning in Pandemic Times: The Case of Rio de Janeiro.”International Journal of Urban and Regional Research n/a (n/a). https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13000.