Urban Politics and Planning (at KSG)

 Course focuses on how public governance and planning shape cities and urban regions in the United States and Europe. Topics include U.S. and European urban politics viewed in the large, and more specifically the politics of land-use and social planning, suburbanization and gentrification, race and immigration, squatting, and mass transit. Cross-cutting themes include the role of business in local governance; citizen participation and urban social movements; equity issues in urban place-making, the costs and benefits of local-government fragmentation; and contending theories about the balance of public and private forces in U.S. and European urban politics. Course combines lectures, discussion, in-class exercises, and group work. Readings focus squarely on compare-and-contrast examination of concrete case studies from the U.S. and Europe. Course aims are twofold: to enhance your sophistication in thinking about how and why public decisions are made at the urban level and what their consequences are; and to hone your skills in thinking strategically about how to exercise influence in such decision processes.