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26:834:xxxUrban Systems I: Evolution of the American Metropolis (3) Encompasses the growth and development of American communities from the early stages of European settlement to the present. Emphasis on the late 19th and 20th centuries. Examines the historical evolution of cities, including the social, demographic, political, and economic forces which shaped them. The primary unifying theme is the expanding role of government over the late 19th and 20th centuries, including public sanitation, health, education, and city planning. The course strives to develop a historically based conceptual foundation on which to ground studies of contemporary issues and concerns in urban health, urban environment, and urban education. Considers factual and descriptive elements of urban and metropolitan history, as well as examination of a number of theoretical and explanatory theses. For example, the transition from Jeffersonian and Jacksonian notions of laissez-faire capitalism to the Keynesian concepts of the social welfare state are investigated. A fundamental pedagogical purpose of the course is to instill in doctoral students an effective grasp of the ways in which historical scholarship informs our knowledge of the contemporary dynamics of urban and metropolitan growth and change. |
26:834:xxxUrban Systems II: The Development of U.S. Urban Population and Trends (3) Provides urban systems doctoral students with a social science- based understanding of the origins of today`s ethnically and culturally diverse urban communities in U.S. cities. Builds on prior content provided in Urban Systems I: Evolution of the American Metropolis. At the core of the course are the issues of migration, culture, politics, and economics. The focus is on the microlevel phenomena, including crime, the code of the street, neighborhood politics, and community building, and how these relate to macrolevel factors such as economic, political, and ideological. Examines how ethnicity, migration, civil rights and welfare policies, and economics have influenced the ethnic composition of American cities and the capacity of city residents to create and maintain vital and productive places to live. |
26:834:xxxUrban Systems III: Globalization, International Migration, and Contemporary Cities (3) Examines the process of globalization and how it affects both the form and function of cities worldwide. Since the 1970s, globalization has affected major changes in the world in forms of technology, communications, and function of cities. While similar physical, cultural, and social patterns have been developed in cities around the world, there have also been new and distinct cultural and economic spaces that have been created in various global cities. Based on historical, economic, and sociological analyses, this course compares the globalization process in cities from countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. It investigates what characteristics of globalization affect cities, how they operate in historical context, and what benefits and harms they produce in contemporary cities. Using theories developed in fields such as history, sociology, political science, urban studies, health, and architecture, we analyze where, why, and how such new globalization patterns emerge. Moreover, the course explores and critiques the impact of globalization on cities as well as investigates policy implications for improving the housing, health, and education systems in global cities. |
26:834:xxxThe Good City: Environmental Design and the Quality of Metropolitan Life (3) As we move into the 21st century, the good city is as illusive as ever. Yet now, planners, architects, urban designers, and many citizens recognize that what was once deemed good, and was widely built, has generated serious problems. For example, neither low- density, single-use, residential suburbs dependent on the automobile nor high-density residential towers in urban open space have proved to be the ideals envisioned. Why is that? Why were they considered good? What are the alternatives? And what are other aspects of the good city that are being proposed and implemented today? In addressing these questions, it is essential to examine the goals and values that shape both our visions of the good city and our critiques of the visions of others. The purpose of this course is to introduce urban systems doctoral students to the various ways in which architects, urban designers, and planners have sought and continue to seek to improve the quality of everyday life in urban and suburban environments through the design of the built environment, both at the scale of neighborhoods and communities and at the scale of buildings. The emphasis is on the manipulation of built form, transportation, and public space as responses to perceived problems. Key topic areas are housing and neighborhoods, public space, transportation, schools, and hospitals. Students come to understand the problems recognized, the design solutions proposed and/or implemented, and the critiques and consequences that ensued. |
26:834:xxxDeterminants of Health Status in Urban Health (3) This interdisciplinary course examines the determinants and consequences of health status in urban populations. Health is an outcome of micro-macro-level factors, including those that operate at the level of the individual, family, neighborhood, community, state, and nation. Analysis includes the effect on health status of government policies, economics, and demography and community characteristics. Ethics of access, funding, and inequality explored. The examination of the effect of poor mental and physical health on the development of human capital, poverty, community organization, and local government is particularly relevant to understanding urban health. Child health and family health problems examined in the context of urban environment`s contribution to issues such as infant mortality, asthma, lead poisoning, nutritional deficiencies, and violence. Current health issues such as HIV/ AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, and substance abuse explored with a focus on the evaluation of current research in urban environments. The course considers innovative policies and practices that can lead to improvements in health status and human capital formation. |
26:834:xxxUrban Education Systems (3) Provides an examination of urban educational systems both in the United States and internationally. Focusing on the organizational structure and processes of urban schools and districts, the course examines the ways in which educational systems affect students living in cities. Using sociological, historical, political, and economic analyses, students explore the interrelationship among educational, political, economic, and cultural systems. This course will analyze how urban education is related to larger structural processes such as deindustrialization, globalization, immigration, and demographic changes. Finally, students will explore how federal and state policies and legislation affect urban education. |
26:834:xxxUrban Educational Policy and School Improvement (3) Provides an overview of major issues and controversies in urban educational policy. Through a historical, sociological, and political analysis of educational problems, the course explores a variety of policy initiatives and reforms, including curriculum and learning standards, school choice, tuition vouchers, charter schools, privatization, and whole school reform. Through an analysis of case studies of urban Abbott districts in New Jersey, including the three state takeover districts, Jersey City, Paterson, and Newark, this course provides prospective administrators with an understanding of the complexities of urban school reform and improvement. |
26:834:xxxHistory of Urban Education (3) Provides an examination of the history of urban education in the United States. Through an exploration of the development of urban school systems in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, through the rise and decline of urban schools by the 1960s, to the development of urban educational policies designed to improve urban schools from the 1990s into the 21st century, the course provides a historical foundation for understanding urban educational policy. Among the topics discussed are: the urbanization of city education; the rise of bureaucracy and scientific management; the Progressive Era and urban education; suburbanization and its effects on urban schools; desegregation and urban schooling; deindustrialization and its effects on urban schools; issues of equity versus excellence; urban educational reform from the 1990s to the present; issues of race, class, gender, and ethnicity in historical perspective. |
26:834:xxxSociology of Urban Education (3) Provides an examination of the contributions of the sociology of education to understanding urban educational problems and urban school improvement. Beginning with the classical theoretical traditions of the field, functionalism, conflict theory, and interactionist theory, and empirical research in the field, students explore how sociological theory and research has contributed to the analysis of urban schooling, with specific reference to issues of race, class, gender and ethnicity. Topics include school organization and processes, education and inequality, tracking and ability grouping, the determinants of academic achievement, curriculum and pedagogy, and the relationship between school, family, and society. |
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