Cities

Module code: 7SSG5061
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 1 (autumn) 

This module explores the development of ideas around the form and function of cities, from modern to post-modern, through perspectives ranging from the social-scientific to the marxist and cultural, and opens up a number of emerging strands of theorisation around what it means to experience the contemporary urban environment, and to exercise the right to the city.

Module code: 7SSG5002
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 1 (autumn) 

This module enables students to derive a greater understanding of the relationship between methodology and method and the related notions of epistemology and ontology. The module is a mix of lectures and tutorials and enables students to develop skills in the appropriate use and application of quantitative and qualitative methods, which will have been worked through in tutorial sessions. The module lays the conceptual groundwork for the design of the dissertation and enables students to appreciate the connections between epistemology and the students particular programme of study.

Module code: 7SSG5051
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 1 (autumn) 

This module explores the nature, forms and processes of social change in global cities. It examines the socio-economic changes which are reshaping global cities, linking these to a series of other changes including migration, occupational structure, income, ethnicity, the structure of the housing market and social segregation.

Module code: 7SSG5150
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 2 (spring) 

This module is designed to cultivate in students an appreciation of, and degree of comfort with, key statistical methods used in human geography research. Moving from basic summary statistics, the course will examine standard aspatial measures and, ultimately, weighted spatial statistics. The course does not require recent mathematical study, but it is expected that enrolled students will have a passing familiarity with mathematical notation and will have some basic level of comfort working with tabular data and numbers. The module is structured as a combination of lectures and practicals in a computer lab; the aim is to introduce a set of related statistical concepts and then apply them to the study of small area data taken from the Census and/or Business Registry & Employment Survey. Ultimately, it is expected that students will be working in Excel, SPSS, and ArcGIS to develop an analysis of fine-scale demographic change between 2001 and 2011 across the Greater London Authority area.

Module code: 7AAQS535
Credit level: 7

This module will examine the relationship between cinema, the most important cultural form, and the city, the most important form of social organization, in the twentieth century and beyond. The course will be inter-disciplinary in its approach, giving attention to the cinema-city relationship not only from the point of view of film studies but through architecture, urban studies, geography, and critical theory.

Module code: 7SSG5115
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 1 (autumn) 

The module reviews the experience of urban regeneration in the context of post second world war urban policy and developments. This is done mainly from a British perspective but North American and European examples are drawn up and it is hoped that Professor Bob Beauregard who is a leading North American urban scholar and a visiting professor will lead one session. The first part of the module discusses the experience of urban decline and resurgence over the last half century. In the second half we look at a number of specific issues including the conflict between the concepts regeneration and gentrification, the role of culture and in particular focus on the regeneration of East London and the role of the Olympic Games. In the final week, there is an East London fieldtrip which includes a visit to the Olympic site (subject to continuing access being granted).

Module code: 7SSG5180
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 2 (spring) 

Aims:

• To acquire understanding of conceptual debates relating to the terms 'governance' and 'sustainable urbanism'
• To develop understanding of concepts and ideas relating to the politics of sustainable city building
• To critically assess the implications of policy-making processes for the development of urban environments and the quality of life of urban residents.

Learning outcomes:

• Demonstrate knowledge of conceptual debates relating to the terms 'governance' and 'sustainable urbanism'
• Demonstrate systematic understanding and knowledge of theories and debates relating to urban politics and governance
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the implications of policy-making processes for the development of urban environments and the quality of life of urban residents
• Undertake analysis of complex, incomplete or contradictory areas of knowledge in relation to sustainable cities and urban politics.

Module code: 7SSG5152
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 1 (autumn) 

This modules examines the theoretical debates concerning the study of health within geography and the inter-relationships between health and the built form of cities. It critically assesses current public health policies and the practices involved in governing unhealthy lifestyles. It evaluates how spatial and social differences between and within cities condition the problematisation of lifestyles. This module enables students to acquire an understanding of the incorporation of health within the remit of an increasing array of governmental and non-governmental actors.

Module code: 7SSG5179
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 1 (autumn) 

Specific aims of the module

• To acquire understanding of conceptual debates relating to the terms 'sustainability' and 'sustainable development', and to evaluate their applicability to urban environments.
• To develop understanding of concepts and ideas relating to sustainable city building, and the development of urban land, property, and infrastructure.
• To critically assess the different meanings of urban sustainability through the context of changing approaches to urban planning and management.

Learning outcomes

• Demonstrate knowledge of conceptual debates relating to the terms 'sustainability' and 'sustainable development'.
• Demonstrate systematic understanding and knowledge of theories and debates relating to sustainable cities.
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the different meanings of urban sustainability through the context of changing approaches to urban planning and management.
• Conduct independent and detailed research into cities and sustainable development, drawing on specialist data sources and field observation.
• Undertake analysis of complex, incomplete or contradictory areas of knowledge in relation to sustainable cities.
• Synthesize information about concepts and theories of sustainable cities, in a manner that may be innovative, utilizing knowledge or processes from the forefront of the discipline.

Module code: 7SSG5064
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 1 (autumn);  Semester 2 (spring); 

This practical module will provide masters students with hands on experience working with selected urban research organisations (e.g. national and local government departments, museums, urban think tanks) involved in urban-based research, policy formulation and implementation in a major city (normally expected to be London). The module will enable students to ground theoretical and conceptual issues relating to urban research in a practical setting.

Module code: 7SSG5100
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 1 (autumn) 

This module enables students to evaluate the way in which globalization (in the form mainly of structural adjustment programmes) has influenced African cities and contemporary livelihoods and economic strategies (employment, incomes, food and shelter) for the majority of Africa's urban population, the urban poor. Assessing urban growth patterns in this region and its periodization and the changing nature of rural-urban migration and linkages over time. The constraints on planning and servicing imposed by extreme resource constraints and the privatization encouraged by structural adjustment are evaluated. The module also explores the specificities of the urban experience in southern African countries with their legacies of institutionalised and racially-based influx control.