GEOG 303 - Advanced Debates in Urban Studies

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

This seminar focuses on selected issues of importance in Urban Studies. Topics vary according to the instructor. The course is required of all majors and may be taken during the junior or senior years; it can be repeated for credit if the topic has changed.

Topic for 2019/20b: Gentrification and its Discontents. (Same as URBS 303) When Ruth Glass, a British planner, coined the term “gentrification” in 1964, the upgrading of working-class neighborhoods by affluent households was a novelty. From its beginnings in the transformation of working-class housing in South London, gentrification has now become commonplace, fueled by government policy, economic restructuring, real-estate dynamics, and cultural shifts in residential preferences for city living. While not universal, the phenomenon is increasingly widespread internationally. This seminar examines the growing literature on gentrification in terms of underlying theoretical perspectives, diversity of local experiences, and policy approaches to remedy resulting problems of social displacement. We examine cases in which whole cities seem engulfed in gentrification (London, New York City, San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle) and those in which the phenomenon is evident but more selective (Detroit, New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, and Beijing). Taking the perspective of comparative urbanism, we also consider the degree to which concepts of gentrification may displace other more complicated and diverse explanations of urban change. Brian Godfrey.

One 3-hour period.

Course Format: CLS