Linfield College Spring 2015 SOAN 365 Urban Society & Culture 4 credits

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1 Linfield College Spring 2015 SOAN 365 Urban Society & Culture 4 credits Stadtluft macht frei. (City air makes you free.) - German proverb Instructor: Scott Vandehey, PhD svandeh@linfield.edu Office Hours: for on-line chat appointment Course Information: This course is 4 credit hours and fulfills Linfield Curriculum requirements in Individuals, Systems, and Societies. For students entering Linfield Fall 2010 or later, in order to earn Linfield Curriculum credits for this course, you must complete the electronic submission of exemplar work and supporting descriptions by the last day of finals week, as discussed in the Linfield College Course Catalog, pages 6-8. Prerequisite: SOCL 101 or ANTH 111. Course Description: This course will investigate the history, society and culture of cities and the urban environment in a cross-cultural and global perspective. In particular we will investigate the historical emergence of the pre-industrial city; pre-modern experiments in city systems; modernization, industrialization and urbanization; the structure of the modern city; urban politics; urban social problems; semiotics and interpretation of urban space. Some of the principal questions and issues we will investigate include: How and why urban areas come into being; Why urban areas tend to become organized in particular ways; How cities are structured internally; How people living in urban environments and cities interact with one another; How metro areas affect regions and individual nations; How social problems emerge in the context of metropolitan areas; The influence of culture on spatial organization; How has the city been understood by social theorists; and How to investigate the urban setting as a site of social scientific investigation. 1

2 Course Objectives & Learning Outcomes: As per the IS designation, this course promotes the ability of students to understand individual, systemic, and social processes; analyze individuals, systems, and/or societies through multiple frames of reference; think critically about the ways that society affects individual behavior and/or individual behavior affects society; and articulate how key theoretical principles can be used to explain individual and social processes, inform public policy and develop practical approaches to human problems across local, regional, and/or global contexts. A primary course objective is to further your understanding of the relevance and applicability of the sociological perspective to analyzing and addressing urban problems. This will be achieved through assigned readings, classroom discussions, and the writing assignments. The overall goal of this course, then, is not merely to accumulate facts and abstract ideas, but to allow you to follow and participate in contemporary debates concerning metropolitan issues. Learning outcomes include strengthening your ability to: Analyze the social and cultural causes of urban problems, including the role of power and social structure; Identify and discuss the dynamics of a globalized political economy and its impact on metropolitan areas; Understand how and why cities and metro areas come into being, and why they become organized in particular ways; Investigate urban cultural forms and their importance to social life and identity. Critically evaluate the changing nature of metropolitan regions in both developed and developing nations; See how individual lives are connected with wider social and cultural processes and forces; Access, organize, critically analyze, and produce knowledge about humans as social and cultural beings; Work both independently and cooperatively in application of sociological and anthropological ideas. Required Texts: Calvino, Italo Invisible Cities. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanavich. Gmelch. George, Robert V. Kemper, and Walter P. Zenner (editors) Urban Life: Readings in the Anthropology of the City, (Fifth Edition). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press. Low, Setha M. (editor) Theorizing the City: The New Urban Anthropology Reader. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. Macionis, John J. and Vincint N. Parrillo Cities and Urban Life. 6th Edition. New York: Prentice Hall. 2

3 Requirements: In addition to reading assigned course material and actively participating in class discussions, you will be able to demonstrate mastery of course materials through the following assignments: city investigation papers, class participation, and urban poetic assignment. Your grade in this course will be based on the following measures of your performance: 1) Class Participation 250 points 2) Urban Poetic 150 points 3) City Investigation: Urban Area 150 points 4) City Investigation: Urban Issue 200 points 5) City Investigation: Critical Analysis 250 points 1000 points 1) Class Participation The majority of our interaction will occur in the discussion board, or forum. Each week (Sunday evening) a discussion question will be posted on the class discussion board. The question will address the topics for the week and ask you to draw from your experiences to apply aspects of the readings in a critical and analytical way. You will be expected to post a response to the question posted, which includes and discussion and application of the assigned readings for that week. You will also be expected to respond to at least two other student's postings. Your main post should be made by the end of Thursday, and responses by the end of the week (Sunday). This is designed to be an interactive forum. Follow-up questions may be asked and conversations between students are encouraged. There are no right or wrong answers; rather there are issues to be discussed, investigated, and debated and social science concepts to be thought through, debated, and applied. Your postings should be substantial at least a minimum of a longer paragraph or two in length is a good rule of thumb. They should demonstrate that you have read the assignments and taken the time to think about them seriously. Please feel free to incorporate personal views and experiences, but be sure to connect them to specific readings, and support your arguments with reasoning and evidence. To ensure quality posts, you can ask yourself the following questions: Does this post help further or deepen the class conversation about these readings? Does my post sound like something I could have written without ever reading these particular assignments, or just by skimming them? If so, revise and go deeper. Your postings should demonstrate that you ve read the assignment and are familiar with -- and thought about -- the main insights, arguments, and themes. If you need help coming up with things to write about, use the following questions to prompt your responses: How do the insights and analyses from the readings challenge or deepen my own perspective? What am I learning? In what ways are my ideas 3

4 changing? Weekly posting should always be grounded in the specific ideas and insights of that week s readings. A higher quality weekly reflection requires serious engagement with the social scientific insights and analyses you encounter, rather than falling back on previously held notions and familiar perspectives learning, after all, is about the broadening and deepening of understanding. I will closely attend to both the number and the quality of your posts. Your responses to each other s posts should go beyond I agree or I disagree or "I like your post." The thoughtfulness and quality of your responses to each other will to a large degree determine what kind of learning community you help create on-line, and how this learning community can further your understanding and over-all experience this term. Dialogue is the soul of learning, and certainly any sense of belonging to a real learning community, where the ideas matter and relate to your own life, is partly dependent on your willingness to initiate or enter into on-line conversations with your classmates. 2) Urban Poetic (Due Sunday of Week 4) Take part of a day to experience an urban environment. This can be Portland, Salem, McMinnville, or anywhere in between. Go, sit, observe, experience, and revel in the urban setting of your choice. Spend some quality time in at least 3 distinct locations within your urban setting. Once you have something to draw from, it is time to connect what you have seen and done with larger issues and themes. Pick 2 of the locations you observed or experiences you had during your observation. For each, write a description in the style of Calvino s Invisible Cities, including one of the themes he develops. Your description should contain a narrative element, a descriptive element, and connect your observations to some larger theme we have discussed throughout the semester, all in a more-or-less poetic way. I don't expect you to be professional poets here, but at least give it a shot. Here is an example based on my own fieldwork observations in Rancho Peñasquitos: Cities and Eyes (Rancho Peñasquitos street) The city of Aibrubus sees all from its invisible and ubiquitous place of hiding. Thousands of eyes observe without being observed and see without being seen. Engrossed in their observations, the city is dedicated solely to the housing of its population. All industry has been excluded, all commerce happens elsewhere relegated to other cities and other places. Aibrubus is a city of houses. Inside the houses residents hide, secluded away from outsiders and the exteriority of their own family. In their isolation the people of Aibrubus look out and observe what is outside to protect themselves from the threats they know are eminent. Through the windows and cracked doors the citizens look, all the while observing their own lives reflected back to them. Individual eyes gaze 4

5 incessantly on the collectivity that their gaze enforces. The power of the eye turns these persons into one and the same the conformity of Aibrubus. 3) City Investigation: Urban Area (Due Sunday of Week 6) Over the course of the semester you will develop an on-going analysis of a specific urban region of your choosing. Each of the city investigation assignments is designed to build upon the previous assignments. In this first assignment you will choose an urban area upon which to base your investigation. This can be any urban area in any part of the world. You will submit a 3 page overview of the urban area of your choice. Your paper will largely be descriptive of the urban area, its history, culture, populace, and relevant context. This paper is designed to be largely descriptive and to familiarize yourself with your chosen city. A minimum of 3 sources are required. 4) City Investigation: Urban Issue (Due Sunday of Week 9) Expanding upon your previous city investigation, this paper will focus specifically upon an issue or phenomenon of particular relevance to the urban area of your choice. Drawing from your previous work and developing it further, you will submit a 4-5 page paper in which you connect the urban area of your choice to a particular problem or issue that is relevant to the site. This paper will summarize the issue in detail and discuss how the issue is being specifically dealt with in the urban area. This paper is designed to be largely descriptive, and requires a minimum of 5 sources. 5) City Investigation: Critical Analysis (Due Sunday of Week 14) Your final paper in your city investigation will be a culmination of your previous assignments in addition to an expansion of your research problem and development of a strong academic argument. In a 5-7 page final paper, you will present your urban area, an issue relevant to the area, an argument regarding the area and issue, and supporting data and analysis to sustain your argument. You will draw from course material and your own independent research to formulate your question, argument, and supporting material. A minimum of 5 outside sources are required, in addition to a minimum of 3 sources assigned for the course. Academic Honesty: Please see the college policy on academic honesty, as published in the Linfield College Course Catalog. This course adheres to all policies as explained in the Catalog. Disability Statement: Students with disabilities are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. If you are a student with a disability and feel you may require academic accommodations contact Cheri White, Assistant Director of Learning Support Services (LSS), within the first two weeks of the semester to request accommodations. LSS is located in Walker 126 ( ). We also recommend 5

6 students communicate with their faculty about their accommodations and any special needs an instructor should be aware of. READING SCHEDULE WEEK 1 Introduction to the City Review Syllabus and Course Objectives and Requirements Cities & Urban Life, Chapter 1, Exploring the City Cities & Urban Life, Chapter 2, The Origin & Development World s Cities Max Weber, The Nature of the City (Available on Blackboard) "Timeline of Cities" "Cities and the Neolithic" "Catalhoyuk" WEEK 2 Thinking About the City Invisible Cities - all WEEK 3 North American Cities Cities & Urban Life, Chapter 3, Development of North American Cities Urban Life, Chapter 7, Louis Wirth, Urbanism as a Way of Life Cities & Urban Life, Chapter 4, Today s Cities & Suburbs Kenneth Jackson, Federal Subsidy & the (Available on Blackboard) WEEK 4 Sociology and the City Cities & Urban Life, Chapter 5, Urban Sociology: Classic & Modern Georg Simmel, The Metropolis and Mental Life (Available on Blackboard) Emile Durkheim, Division of Labor in Society. (Excerpts on Blackboard) DUE -- Urban Poetic WEEK 5 Conceptualizing Urban Space Cities & Urban Life, Chapter 6, Spatial Perspectives: Making Sense of Space Theorizing the City, Chapter 8, James Holston, The Modernist City Theorizing the City, Chapter 9, Deborah Pellow, The Power of Space Urban Life, Chapter 9, Setha Low, The Edge and the Center Scott Vandehey, Developing Suburban History (Available on Blackboard) 6

7 WEEK 6 Urban Space & Capitalism Cities & Urban Life, Chapter 7, Critical Urban Sociology Theorizing the City, Chapter 3, Teresa Caldeira, Fortified Enclaves Theorizing the City, Chapter 6, Smart & Smart, Personal Relations Theorizing the City, Chapter 7, Theodore Bestor, Wholesale Sushi DUE -- City Investigation: Urban Area WEEK 7 The Experience of the City Cities & Urban Life, Chapter 8, Social Psychology: The Urban Experience Edgar Allen Poe, Man of the Crowd (Available on Blackboard) Theorizing the City, Chapter 4, Setha Low, Spatializing Culture Urban Life, Chapter 8, Sally Engle Merry, Urban Danger Urban Life, Chapter 10, Nell Gabiam, Rethinking Camps Urban Life, Chapter 11, Derek Pardue, In Motion WEEK 8 Urban Settings Cross-culturally Cities & Urban Life, Chapter 9, Comparative Urbanism: The City & Culture James Holston, Autoconstruction (Available on Blackboard) Urban Life, Chapter 1, Foster & Kemper, Anthropological Fieldwork in Cities" Urban Life, Chapter 3, Sharon Bohn Gmelch, Nomads in the City Urban Life, Chapter 4, Melissa L. Caldwell, Moscow Encounters Urban Life, Chapter 5, William Leggett, Fieldwork in the Corporate Offices... Urban Life, Chapter 6, Gmelch & Gmelch, Student Fieldworkers... WEEK 9 Stratification in the Urban Landscape Cities & Urban Life, Chapter 10, Stratification & Social Class Theorizing the City, Chapter 5, Robert Rotenburg, Landscape & Power Week 9 readings continue on next page Urban Life, Chapter 12, Oscar Lewis, The Culture of Poverty Urban Life, Chapter 13, Judith Goode, How Urban Ethnography Counters... DUE -- City Investigation: Urban Issue WEEK 10 - Inequality, Crime & Urbanity Urban Life, Chapter 14, Philippe Bourgois, Office Work and the Crack... Urban Life, Chapter 15, Julie Adkins, The View From the Front Desk Urban Life, Chapter 16, James Diego Vigil, Gangs, Poverty, and the Future Urban Life, Chapter 17, Jay Sokolovsky, Civic Ecology, Urban Elders... Urban Life, Chapter 18, William Jankowiak, Neighbors and Kin in Chinese... Urban Life, Chapter 19, Jeffrey Witsoe, Caste, Politics, and Criminality... 7

8 WEEK 11 Urban Diversity & Problems Cities & Urban Life, Chapter 11, Race, Ethnicity & Gender: Urban Diversity Theorizing the City, Chapter 1, Steven Gregory, The Changing Significance Cities & Urban Life, Chapter 12, Housing, Education, Crime Theorizing the City, Chapter 2, Ida Susser, Creating Family Forms WEEK 12 Urban Planning Cities & Urban Life, Chapter 14, Planning the Urban Environment Theorizing the City, Chapter 10, Charles Rutheiser, Making Place Theorizing the City, Chapter 11, Gary McDonogh, Discourses of the City Theorizing the City, Chapter 12, Mathew Cooper, Spatial Discourses Urban Life, Chapter 29, Walter P. Zenner, Beyond Urban and Rural... WEEK 13 Migration, Globalization & the City Urban Life, Chapter 21, George Gmelch, A West Indian Life in Britain Urban Life, Chapter 22, Cooke & Belanger, First Nations Migration Urban Life, Chapter 23, Takeyuki Tsuda, Japanese Brazilian Ethnic Return... Urban Life, Chapter 24, Brettell & Kemper, Cityward Migration... Urban Life, Chapter 25, Nancy Foner, Transnationalism, Old and New Urban Life, Chapter 26, Ann Miles, From Cuenca, Ecuador, to New York... Urban Life, Chapter 27, Dianna J. Shandy, Global Translocations WEEK 14 Urban Poetics Charles Baudelaire, Paris Spleen (excerpts on Blackboard) DUE -- City Investigation: Critical Analysis 8