The Global City Summer 2011 Northwestern U MPPA

MPPA 452 The Global City

MPPA-DL 452

The Global City Summer 2011

Contact Information: NU email: [email protected]; personal email: [email protected]; cell: 312-919-2919. Available weekdays 8am to 7pm (central). Course Description: Why do cities persist? The last decade has seen a resurgence in the economies of some major cities—especially the global cities of this course's title—while other post-industrial cities continue a long decline. Cities are being transformed by the information revolution today much as cities were transformed by the industrial revolution two centuries ago. In this course, students will develop an understanding of urbanization, including how city form differs depending on when a city experiences its greatest growth, and how globalization can produce increasing disparity. The course will cover concepts in economic geography, transportation, sustainability, governance, economic development, poverty and inequality, architecture and urban planning. Readings will include recent studies on urbanization and globalization. Textbooks: Brugmann, J. (latest edition). Welcome to the urban revolution. London: Bloomsbury Press.

Sassen, S. (2006). Cities in a world economy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press

Brenner, N. & Keil, R. (Eds.). (2006). The global cities reader. Abingdon, OX: Routledge. Learning Goals: The goals of this course are to:

-Understand the nature and history of the global city. -Formulate and theorize about the major research questions in the global cities literature. -Explain the effects of public policy actions on global cities.

Evaluation:

-Individual Case Study: 20% (200 points) -Midterm Exam: 15% (150 points) -Group Case Study: 20% (200 points) -Final Exam: 15% (150 points) -Participation: 30% (300 points)

Participation on Discussion Boards: The participation score for the course is based on the quality and quantity of engagement by the student in the weekly discussion board topics. Students must post at least once to each topic thread by EOD Thursday of each week, and again by EOD Sunday to receive full credit. However, cluttering a discussion board with inappropriate, irrelevant, or insignificant material will not earn additional points and may result in receiving less than full credit. Content of the message is paramount. Also, it is important that we always remain respectful of one another’s viewpoints and positions and, when necessary, agree to disagree, respectfully. Please remember to cite all sources – when relevant – in order to avoid plagiarism. Proctored Assessment: There is a proctored assessment requirement in this course. For additional information,

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


please go to the Assignments section in Blackboard and scroll to the Proctored Exam Approval Application item. Grading Scale: The following is the grading scale for the course: 900-1000 points = A; 800-899 points = B; 650-799 points = C; 0-649 points = F. Attendance: While this course is asynchronous, meaning that we will not meet at a particular time each week, one to two sync sessions will be offered during the quarter at times to be announced. These are optional for students to attend. Even though we will not be meeting face-to-face in a physical classroom, participation on Discussion Boards is required and is paramount to your success in this class. Late Work: There will be a 10 point deduction for every day an assignment is late. Learning Groups: Students will work in groups for one case study assignment. The instructor will post an announcement listing groups and topics, and students will then be expected to work together collaboratively to create a presentation. Students may use any of the following tools for collaboration: e-mail, group Discussion Boards, Skype, Google (docs, chat), Adobe Connect. The group case study will be graded as a whole and all members of the group will receive the same grade. Academic Integrity at Northwestern: Students are required to comply with University regulations regarding academic integrity. If you are in doubt about what constitutes academic dishonesty, speak with your instructor or graduate coordinator before the assignment is due and/or examine the University web site. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating on an exam, obtaining an unfair advantage, and plagiarism (e.g., taking material from readings without citation or copying another student's paper). Failure to maintain academic integrity will result in a grade sanction, possibly as severe as failing and being required to retake the course, and could lead to a suspension or expulsion from the program. Further penalties may apply. For more information, visit: http://www.scs.northwestern.edu/student/issues/academic_integrity.cfm Plagiarism is one form of academic dishonesty. Students can familiarize themselves with the definition and examples of plagiarism, by visiting the site http://www.northwestern.edu/uacc/plagiar.html. Myriad other sources can be found online, as well. Assignments in this course may be required to be submitted through SafeAssign, a plagiarism detection and education tool. You can find an explanation of the tool at http://wiki.safeassign.com/display/SAFE/Interpret+Reports. In brief, SafeAssign compares the submitted assignment to millions of documents in very large databases. It then generates a report showing the extent to which text within a paper is very similar or identical to pre-existing sources. The user can then see how or whether the flagged text is cited appropriately, if at all. SafeAssign also returns a percentage score, indicating the percentage of the submitted paper that is similar or identical to pre-existing sources. High scores are not necessarily bad, nor do they necessarily indicate plagiarism, since the score doesn't take into account how or whether material is cited. Low scores are not necessarily good, nor do they necessarily indicate a lack of plagiarism. (If a 50-page paper had all original material, except for one short quote that was not cited, the score might be around 1%. But, not citing a quotation would still be plagiarism.) SafeAssign includes an option in which the student can submit a paper and see the resultant report before submitting it to the instructor as a final copy. This ideally will help students better understand and avoid plagiarism. Other Processes and Policies: Please refer to your SCS student handbook at http://www.scs.northwestern.edu/grad/information/handbook.cfm for additional course and program processes and policies.

http://www.scs.northwestern.edu/student/issues/academic_integrity.cfm

http://www.northwestern.edu/uacc/plagiar.html

http://wiki.safeassign.com/display/SAFE/Interpret+Reports

http://www.scs.northwestern.edu/grad/information/handbook.cfm


Course Schedule

(Note: Changes may occur to the syllabus at the instructor's discretion. When changes are made, students will be notified via an announcement in Blackboard.)

Session 1 Themes/Paris: June 20 - 26

Learning Objectives:

After this session, the student will be able to:

-Identify the characteristics of a global city. -Recognize the effect of globalization on cities, the spatial patterns within and among cities, and the effect of globalization on firms and households. -Discuss the reasons for specialization and hegemony of different cities in modern history, including Amsterdam, London and New York. -Discuss Brugmann’s four city-building approaches

Course Content:

Reading -- For this session read the following:

Brugmann, Chapters 1 and 6

Sassen, Chapter 1

Brenner, Chapters 1, 2, 3

Multimedia

Themes/Paris slides

Discussion Board Each Session you are required to participate in all Discussion Board forums. Your participation in both posting and responding to other students' comments is graded. For this week’s discussion topic(s), visit the Discussion Board in Blackboard. Assignment Proctored Exam Approval Application is due Sunday, June 26, 2011, 11:59pm (central time). For more information, click Assignments on the left navigation bar in Blackboard, and scroll to this assignment’s item.

Session 2 Dynamics/London: June 27 – July 3

Learning Objectives: After this session, the student will be able to:

-Identify the major characteristics of global cities and key eras/stages in their history. -Differentiate between the ancient and modern drivers behind global city formation.


-Discuss London’s policy responses to traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions. -Explain reasons for the different economic development patterns, economic geographies, urban/suburban forms and cultural histories of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Course Content:


Brugmann, Chapters 3

Sassen, Chapter 2

Brenner, Chapters 4 and 5

Multimedia

Dynamics/London slides

Discussion Board Each Session you are required to participate in all Discussion Board forums. Your participation in both posting and responding to other students' comments is graded. For this week’s discussion topic(s), visit the Discussion Board in Blackboard. Assignment Individual Case Study, Part 1: City/Theme Selection is due by Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 11:59pm (central time). For more information, click Assignments on the left navigation bar in Blackboard, and scroll to this assignment’s item.

Session 3 Circuits/Toronto: July 4 - 10


-Explain the economic, social and physical restructuring of global cities over the past 50 years. -Explain the role of transnationals and interpret Sassen’s statement that “global cities are strategic sites for the management of the global economy.” -Describe the major international flows of capital and people. -Explain the concept of “global circuits” of transnationals and diasporas. -Explain John Friedman’s “world city hypothesis”.

Course Content:



Sassen, Chapter 3


Multimedia


Circuits/Toronto slides

Discussion Board Each Session you are required to participate in all Discussion Board forums. Your participation in both posting and responding to other students' comments is graded. For this week’s discussion topic(s), visit the Discussion Board in Blackboard. Assignment None

Session 4 Centers/Tokyo: July 11 - 17


-Explain the concepts of agglomeration, spillovers and economies of scale. -Contrast and compare Miami, Sydney and Toronto in terms of globalization, concentration, and specialization. -Explain the changing global role and urban restructuring of Tokyo during the 1980s, especially the effect of technology on spatial organization. -Explain the bid-rent model of determining land valuation based on transportation costs.

Course Content:


Brugmann, Chapter 7

Sassen, Chapter 4

Chapters 17, 20, and 33 of Brenner

Multimedia

Introduction to Agglomeration Centers/Tokyo slides Bid/Rent Model slides

Discussion Board Each Session you are required to participate in all Discussion Board forums. Your participation in both posting and responding to other students' comments is graded. For this week’s discussion topic(s), visit the Discussion Board in Blackboard. Assignment Individual Case Study, Part 2: Final Case Study is due by Sunday, July 17, 2011 at 11:59pm (central time). For more information, click Assignments on the left navigation bar in Blackboard, and scroll to this assignment’s item.

Session 5 Margins/Berlin: July 18 - 24



-Explain the concepts of the informal economy, earnings curve, polarization and Gini index. -Explain Sassen’s arguments on global labor migration, informal employment, and polarization, and contrast these arguments with other leading experts’ opinions. -Discuss how the geography of industrial and commercial development leads to urban conflict and a struggle over urban space.

Course Content:


Brugmann, Chapter 5

Sassen, Chapter 5


Multimedia

Margins/Berlin slides

Bid/Rent Model slides

Discussion Board Each Session you are required to participate in all Discussion Board forums. Your participation in both posting and responding to other students' comments is graded. For this week’s discussion topic(s), visit the Discussion Board in Blackboard. Assignment Midterm Exam is due by Sunday, July 24, 2011 at 11:59pm (central time). For more information, click Assignments on the left navigation bar in Blackboard, and scroll to this assignment’s item.

Session 6 Ecologies/Stockholm: July 25 - 31


-Define the elements that collectively determine the sustainability of global cities. -Recognize and explain the local and global environmental impacts of urbanization and globalization. -Explain how sustainability can be assisted through economic incentives and disincentives such as congestion pricing and cap-and-trade programs. -Specify real-world examples of sustainability in action, their costs and potential benefits.

Course Content:


Brugmann, Chapters 10, 11 and 12

Sassen, Chapter 6


Brenner, Chapter 21

Multimedia

Ecologies/Stockholm slides

Discussion Board Each Session you are required to participate in all Discussion Board forums. Your participation in both posting and responding to other students' comments is graded. For this week’s discussion topic(s), visit the Discussion Board in Blackboard. Assignment Group Case Study, Part 1: Resources is due by Sunday, July 31, 2011 at 11:59pm (central time). For more information, click Assignments on the left navigation bar in Blackboard, and scroll to this assignment’s item.

Session 7 Architectures/Los Angeles: August 1 – 7


-Explain how the attempt to “go global” is reflected in urban form. -Recognize how the built environment reflects the larger world system of economy, society and culture. -Explain how global media cities function as centers of creativity and contribute to the “production of lifestyle images.”

Course Content:


Sassen, Chapter 7

Brenner, Chapters 23, 37 and 39

Multimedia

Architectures/Los Angeles slides

Discussion Board Each Session you are required to participate in all Discussion Board forums. Your participation in both posting and responding to other students' comments is graded. For this week’s discussion topic(s), visit the Discussion Board in Blackboard. Assignment None

Session 8 Crises/Detroit: August 8 - 14



-Explain what drives deindustrialization, the effect of deindustrialization on urban agglomerations, and how cities have coped and fared with globalization, deindustrialization and global recession in the 20th and 21st centuries. -Define and contrast the stages of specialization, reorganization and decentralization in two major U.S. cities. -Evaluate the effects of local and global crises on cities, including 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the global financial crisis, and the recent twin disasters in Japan.

Course Content:



Sassen, Chapter 8

Brenner, Chapter 18

Multimedia

Crises/Detroit slides

Discussion Board Each Session you are required to participate in all Discussion Board forums. Your participation in both posting and responding to other students' comments is graded. For this week’s discussion topic(s), visit the Discussion Board in Blackboard. Assignment Group Case Study, Part 2: Presentations are due by Sunday, August 14, 2011 at 11:59pm (central time). For more information, click Assignments on the left navigation bar in Blackboard, and scroll to this assignment’s item.

Session 9 Frontiers/Shanghai: August 15 - 21


-Distinguish among different paths to globalization, including hyper global cities, emerging global cities, and global city states. -Assess how global circuits and 21st century urban forms have begun to reshape theories of global city development and urban studies. -Consider alternate paths to future city formation and sustainability.

Course Content:




Kotkin, “Urban Legends,” Foreign Policy magazine, Sep/Oct 2010 (in Course Content)


Multimedia

Frontiers/Shanghai slides

Discussion Board Each Session you are required to participate in all Discussion Board forums. Your participation in both posting and responding to other students' comments is graded. For this week’s discussion topic(s), visit the Discussion Board in Blackboard. Assignment Final Exam is due by Monday, August 22, 2011 at 11:59pm (central time). For more information, click Assignments on the left navigation bar in Blackboard, and scroll to this assignment’s item.

The Global City Summer 2011 Northwestern U MPPA

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Transcript of The Global City Summer 2011 Northwestern U MPPA