Course Code and Course Title
[CHES3007/CCSS3700] Urban China
Time and Venue
Mon 2:30pm - 4:15pm (ARC_211)
Wed 1:30pm - 2:15pm (ARC_212)
Instructor
Dr. Anna Iskra
Course Description
This upper-level seminar taught in English will examine the socioeconomic, political, and cultural facets of urbanization processes in China. Its goal is to introduce students to key themes and concepts in urban studies and help them develop analytical skills that are critical for examining urbanization and its lived experiences in the People’s Republic. The seminar will also engage with studies conducted in other regions of the world to encourage a comparative approach to urbanization processes.
Students will be invited to examine critical urban issues, ranging from land politics, urban planning and governance to citizen rights, urban space, and urban culture. Two sets of readings will be introduced: classic writings in the field of urban anthropology, geography, and sociology, as well as empirical studies focused on China. After an overview of China’s quest for modernity and its urban transformation since the Republican period, the seminar examines China’s unprecedented urban development in the post-reform era through interdisciplinary lens. Readings and in-class discussions will be supplemented by a fieldtrip in Hong Kong, which will be an opportunity for students to apply the concepts and theoretical framework the have been studying to their lived urban surroundings.
Course Outline
Urbanization and the Chinese experience
Understanding the urban
Modernity and urban transformation
Urban development and infrastructure
Urban governance
Urbanization under global capitalism
Citizenship and the right to the city
Urban space and sociality
Fieldtrip and individual consultations
Cultivating urban selfhood
Sex, gender, and the city
Viral cities. The urban and the COVID-19 pandemic
Case Study Presentation & Course Wrap-Up