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Growing up urban: Childhood, youth and the city

Key information

  • Module code:

    6SSG3085

  • Level:

    6

  • Semester:

      Autumn

  • Credit value:

    15

Module description

The aim of this module is to explore the diverse experiences of growing up in an increasingly urban world. You will be encouraged to reflect critically on the different ways that young people engage in making – and making sense of – urban space on their own terms, while accounting for the wider urban processes that often cause them to be overlooked, excluded, or controlled.
In Part One (Weeks 1-5) we will examine young people’s urban spatial practices and consider the extent to which these are accounted for (or not) within a range of urban planning, policy and design initiatives.
In Part Two (Weeks 7-11) we will examine the contested power relations that infuse diverse experiences of growing up urban, with reference to imagined, embodied and material geographies, and social difference, inequality, reproduction and futurity. The module centres on London as a core case study, while drawing upon historical and contemporary examples from a range of urban contexts across the Global North and South. 

Assessment details

1 x Coursework (policy report, 50%), 1 x Exam (50%).

Semester 1-only students: Alternative assessment for written exam if in person one.

 

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

  • Demonstrate critical awareness of the diverse experiences of young people's urban lives using a range of case studies and examples
  • Understand the processes through which notions of childhood, youth and the city have been socially and culturally constructed over time and in different urban contexts
  • Critically evaluate the utility and significance of approaching age as an intersectional social category, and the unequal urban geographies and contested power relations that arise through such identity politics
  • Articulate in-depth accounts of young people's urban spatial practices with reference to wider geographical debates concerning agency, participation, citizenship and globalisation
  • Frame their understandings around their own experiences of childhood and youth, and potentially with reference to their current dissertation research and/or future careers

Teaching pattern

20 hours of teaching plus two optional fieldtrips

Provisional Module structure:

Part One: Spatial Practices
Week 1: Childhood, Youth, and the City
Week 2: The Child in the City
Week 3: Reimagining the Urban Playground
Week 4: The Child-Friendly City
Week 5: Youth in the Gentrifying City

Week 6: READING WEEK

Part Two: Power Relations
Week 7: Identity and Difference
Week 8: Poverty and Inequality
Week 9: Politics and Resistance
Week 10: Hopes and Dreams
Week 11: Module review and revision workshop

Module description disclaimer

King’s College London reviews the modules offered on a regular basis to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant programmes of study. Therefore, modules offered may change. We suggest you keep an eye on the course finder on our website for updates.

Please note that modules with a practical component will be capped due to educational requirements, which may mean that we cannot guarantee a place to all students who elect to study this module.

Please note that the module descriptions above are related to the current academic year and are subject to change.