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Fall 2014 Professor Johanna Bockman

Wednesdays 7:20-10:00pm Office: Robinson B326
Hanover Hall L003 703-993-5202
Office Hours: Mon. 11am-12pm, Wed 2-3pm, jbockman@gmu.edu
or by appointment.


SOCI 853: Cities in a Global Society
*Tentative Syllabus*

In this course, we will explore urban sociology, critical urban studies, and globalization studies
to understand cities in a global context. This course includes classics and some of the newest
works in these fields. We will explore cities in the Global North, the Global South, and the
Second World of socialism. We will focus on debates on global cities, modernism and post-
modernism, informality, and global urban inequalities, as well as examine a variety of methods
to study urban trends. [etc.]

Course Objectives
By the end of this course, students should be able to
Understand different forms of urbanization within a global context.
Discuss major terms, themes, and debates in urban sociology, critical urban studies, and
globalization studies.
Understand various research methodologies for studying cities in a global context, as well
as the differences between comparative approaches and global or transnational
approaches.
Write an extended literature review on an urban topic of your choice.


Course schedule and readings

Part I: Introduction
August 27: Global Cities Debate (Paper #1)
Sassen, Saskia. 2001. The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton University
Press.

September 3: Global Cities Debate (Paper #2)
Smith, Michael Peter. 2000. Transnational Urbanism: Locating Globalization. Wiley-
Blackwell.

Part II: Modernism and Post-Modernism
September 10: Modernist Architecture and the City (Paper #3)
Ren, Xufei. 2011. Building Globalization: Transnational Architecture Production in
Urban China. University of Chicago Press.
Jacobs, Jane. [1961] 1992. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Vintage.
Chapter 1.*

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September 17: Modernism and Cities of Rebellion (Paper #4)
Holston, James. 1989. The Modernist City: An Anthropological Critique of Brasilia.
University of Chicago Press.

September 24: Socialist vs. Capitalist Modernity (Paper #5)
Thaler, Wolfgang, Maroje Mrduljas, and Vladimir Kulic. 2012. Modernism In-Between:
The Mediatory Architectures of Socialist Yugoslavia. Jovis.

October 1: Making the Modern, Global City (Paper #6)
Ghannam, Farha. 2002. Remaking the Modern: Space, Relocation, and the Politics of
Identity in a Global Cairo. University of California Press.

October 8: The Informality of Modernism and Postmodernism (Paper #7)
Roy, Ananya and Nezar AlSayyad, eds. 2004. Urban Informality: Transnational
Perspectives from the Middle East, South Asia, and Latin America. Lexington Books.

Part III: Global Inequalities in Cities
October 15: Segregation and Gentrification (Paper #8)
Sugrue, Thomas. 1996. The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar
Detroit. Princeton University Press.

October 22: Segregation and Gentrification (Paper #9)
Murray, Martin. 2010. City of Extremes: The Spatial Politics of Johannesburg. Duke
University Press.

October 29: Segregation and Gentrification (Paper #10)
Logan, John and Harvey Molotch. [1987] 2007. Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy
of Place. University of California Press.
Smith, Neil. 2002. New Globalism, New Urbanism: Gentrification as Global Urban
Strategy, Antipode 34(3): 427-450.*

November 5: Inequalities and Citizenship (Paper #11)
Holston, James. 2009. Insurgent Citizenship: Disjunctions of Democracy and Modernity
in Brazil. Princeton University Press.

Part IV: Exploring the City and Urban Methodologies
November 12: Henri Lefebvre (Paper #12)
Lefebvre, Henri. 1992. The Production of Space. Wiley-Blackwell.

November 19: Walking and Heterotopias (Paper #13)
de Certeau, Michel. Walking in the City and Spatial Stories*
http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/DeCerteau-Practice-Excerpts.pdf
Foucault, Michel. 1967. Of Other Spaces, Heterotopias.*
http://foucault.info/documents/heterotopia/foucault.heterotopia.en.html
Doron, G. M. 2000. The Dead Zone and the Architecture of Transgression, City 4(2).*

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November 26: Thanksgiving Recess *No Class*

December 3: A City Tour (Paper #14)
Davis, Mike. 1990. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. Vintage.

Final Paper Due: TBA

Course Requirements
Class participation 20%
Short weekly papers 20%
Comments on research paper 5%
Final Research Paper 55%
To receive a passing grade, all four components must be completed.

Grading scale
A 95 over 93
A- 92 90-92
B+ 88 87-89
B 85 83-86
B- 82 80-82
C+ 78 77-79
C 75 73-76
C- 72 70-72
D 65 60-69
F 0 0-59

Class participation: Participation includes attendance, being on time, bringing the reading,
asking questions, and, especially, participating in discussion. The weekly readings will be used
extensively during class discussion.

Short weekly papers: This is a 2-page paper on the readings each week. You can write more than
two pages if you wish. Please include:
1) What is/are the main argument(s) of the reading?
2) Choose a passage (or two or more) that illuminates at least one of these arguments.
3) What do you find most interesting or surprising about the reading?
4) How does it relate to previous readings and discussions we have had?
5) Discuss or list one or two questions you have about the reading.
The paper must be turned in by email (jbockman@gmu.edu) 4:00pm on Wednesdays. You can
drop two weekly papers from your grade: 12 out of 14 papers will go towards your grade.

Comments on Final Paper
Each student will give a draft of their final paper to two other members of class. These
commentators will write at least one page of comments about the draft to the author to help the
author improve the final paper. These comments will be submitted with the final paper and
graded.

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Final research paper
Each student will prepare a 20-page extended literature review on either a particular city or on a
particular global urban theme. Your papers should advance your own intellectual project (your
thesis or dissertation). I will meet with each of you individually during the semester to discuss
your work and to generate a topic. I am glad to read drafts of the research paper. With your
research paper, please include the commentators comments and memo explaining how you
incorporated their comments.

Late Policy
For each day that any written work is late that grade will be reduced by a step (e.g., an A paper
will become an A- paper one day after the due date, a B+ paper two days after the due date, etc).

Laptop, E-Book, I-Phone Policy
I do not allow the use of laptops, e-book readers, i-phones, or other devices in class because I
want everyone to be fully present in the classroom. Therefore, hardcopies of all the books and
articles must be used in the classroom.

Required Texts
The books listed without a* in the course schedule above are required for the course and are
available from the bookstore. The syllabus and articles/book chapters listed with a* in the course
schedule above will be available on Blackboard. Hardcopies of the books and articles must be
used, not electronic copies.


Additional Items
If you are a student with a disability and you need academic accommodations, please see
me and contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS) at 993-2474. All academic
accommodations must be arranged through the ODS. http://ods.gmu.edu
I will not tolerate plagiarism. George Mason University has an Honor Code, which
requires all members of this community to maintain the highest standards of academic
honesty and integrity. Cheating, plagiarism, lying, and stealing are all prohibited. All
violations of the Honor Code will be reported to the Honor Committee. For more info:
http://honorcode.gmu.edu. We will talk about what plagiarism is in class.
Other useful campus resources:
Writing Center: A114 Robinson Hall, 703.993.1200,
http://writingcenter.gmu.edu.
University Libraries Ask a Librarian,
http://library.gmu.edu/mudge/IM/IMRef.html
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), 703.993.2380, http://caps.gmu.edu