This module supports students in actively building conceptual insights relevant to the diversity of urban contexts across the globe. It will involve students in a process of theoretical critique and concept development related to selected themes in urban studies and drawing on (a) African urban experiences and (b) urban contexts they are familiar with. A key initial focus will be on how to define the urban and understand urbanisation processes in response to the diverse, fragmented and dispersed forms of global urban settlements. A key concern will be with the implications of this for urban governance. This course will be presented as a combination of a MOOC for online study (with fully open external access) supported by online collaborations with partner city students and staff (in 2022/23 this will be the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg).

Method of delivery 

The course will include five one-hour lectures in the first half of the term, followed by five four-hour sessions in the second half of the term comprising lectures, workshops, studio-type seminars, and student to student collaborations with partner institutions. These will be convened and supervised by teaching staff from UCL and the University of the Witwatersrand. There will be some electronically based collaboration with students and colleagues in additional institutions using the platform FutureLearn, and other electronic networking tools. The course will involve individual reading and research to prepare for the sessions, and to develop materials for individual and group components of the assessment.

Module Aims

The aim of the module is to introduce students to the challenges of building understandings of the urban which work with the diversity of urban contexts. It will do this by directly involving students in an active process of conceptual development related to a selected theme in urban studies. The module will develop advanced level skills in linking empirical evidence and research to evolving concepts. It will build close understanding of at least one context outside of the global north (in 2022-23 this will be the city-region of Gauteng, South Africa including the municipalities of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni). It will build skills in collaborations of equivalence with colleagues and students in other contexts. It will have a practical outcome in developing and contributing to an open-source online resource for scholars and students interested in global urban studies. The module is embedded in a new MASc Global Urbanism, run by the UCL Urban Laboratory and which is based at UCLE. It will deliver some of the core skills related to the Global Studio pathway of that course – collaborative analytical developments which support and enable the development of concepts in urban studies which respond to the global urban. The course is closely related to the BARC0195 City Co-Labs which will involve teaching and partnership activities in Johannesburg (this is timetabled in Term 3).

 

 