London is truly a global city. An international centre of culture and art, business and finance, education and research and tourism; the city is also home to...

Global London - Contemporary Urban Education, Culture and Space (EDPS0247)

London is truly a global city. An international centre of culture and art, business and finance, education and research and tourism; the city is also home to people from all over the world who help shape and characterise its diversity. Despite its status as a global city, London must also be understood as an ordinary city; one of the hundreds of large cities around the world where people negotiate their daily routines of living, studying, working, travelling and sharing space with others. A key aspect of life in global cities is the internationalised experience of higher education, and students will be encouraged to reflect on their own experiences of London in relation to academic scholarship.

This course will use London as a springboard to explore ways that contemporary cities are being theorized, experienced and understood, particularly in their educational dimensions. Consideration will be given to how cities are conceptualised in and through the context of globalisation and international student mobility. The concept of ‘global cities’ will be contrasted with perspectives that emphasise the ‘ordinary’ quality of cities, to allow students to engage analytically and critically with the complexities and diversities of urban life and experiences.

A mixture of lectures, seminars and fieldwork will introduce you to a range of interdisciplinary themes within urban studies and education studies, and will provide you with the opportunity to encounter and learn from what the city of London has to offer, as well as the contradictions it produces. Whether you are from London, the UK or anywhere else across the globe, this course will give you the opportunity to think critically about London, challenging you to consider your own relations to, and place within, an increasingly urbanised world.