996009 American Urbanism in Transnational Context (S) (WiSe 2010/2011)

This seminar focuses on the role of the United States in the evolution of urban social science, planning, and policy from the 1800s through the twentieth century. The seminar will revolve around the reading and discussion of standard texts in English on American urbanism, with students preparing in-class presentations and, when appropriate, writing research and analytical essays based on such texts. The seminar will range widely. Topics covered will include, for example, the British romantic and French Beaux Arts background of American urban design; the political environment that gave rise to American ideas of public administration, the interrelations between German sociologists and “Chicago School” scholars in formulating the standard terminology and methodology of urban studies; the role of American practitioners and intellectuals in the diffusion of modernist urban planning; the huge influence of modernization theory and its critics in the analysis of ethnicity and race in urban context; and the background and character of recent lines of analysis, such as environmental studies, New Urbanism, theories of globalization and world cities, and postmodern ideas of cities and urban space.