SOCI255-16S1 (C) Semester One 2016

Sociology of the City

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 22 February 2016
End Date: Sunday, 26 June 2016
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 6 March 2016
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 22 May 2016

Description

This course is concerned with the city as it is experienced today: as shifting mixes of public and private spaces in which disruptions provoke different points of view, multiple memories and complex associations.

This course is concerned with the city as it is experienced today: as shifting mixes of public and private spaces in which disruptions provoke different points of view, multiple memories and complex associations. Discussions include the mobile city; mapping the ‘authentic’ city; the sentient city; the invisible city; the global city; cities as entertainment machines; nature and the city; deterritorialization and the futures of urban public space. Christchurch, as both colonial site of a neo-gothic garden city and re-imagined postcolonial site of disaster, risk and vitality, circulates throughout the course.  Therefore two case studies- on what was and what may be Christchurch cap each term of the course.

This course is an interdisciplinary option combining historical, literary and social science approaches to the city.

The first section (A) of the course (weeks 1-6) will deal with the city as it was by looking at topics covering the creation and evolution of the modern city and the modern urban subject. These include: the flaneur and street life; architecture and urban modernity; suburbia, and urban planning. This section derives from a historical-literary approach and also includes insights and critiques from the history of sociology and urban studies.

The second section (B) of the course (weeks 7-12), is concerned with the city as it is experienced today: as shifting mixes of public and private spaces in which disruptions provoke different points of view, multiple memories and complex associations. It focuses on cities as constantly changing networks, experiences and configurations of technospaces; of visible and invisible technologies meshing with always provisional, embodied lives.

Prerequisites

15 points of 100 level SOCI with B grade or better; or 30 points of 100 level SOCI; or students without 100 level SOCI but with a B average or better in 60 points in related subjects may enter the course with the approval of the Head of Department.

Restrictions

SOCI292, SOCI392, SOCI355, CULT210, CULT310

Equivalent Courses

CULT210

Course Coordinator

Michael Grimshaw

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage  Description
Essay 1 30% Word limit 2000
Reading Responses 20% Section A (weeks 1-6) 2 responses 500 words each Section B (weeks 7-12) 2 responses 500 words each
Critical Engagement exercises 50% Exercise 1 (25%) 1500 words Exercise 2 (25%) 1500 words

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $717.00

International fee $2,913.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Language, Social and Political Sciences .

All SOCI255 Occurrences

  • SOCI255-16S1 (C) Semester One 2016