This is a seminar on urban theory, with an emphasis on urban intellectual history and critical social theory. It is intended for both doctoral students and advanced master’s students interested in deepening their theoretical understanding of cities, urbanization and spatial development. Readings cover classic texts in urban theory (including the German and Chicago Schools), important late 20th Century writers (e.g., David Harvey, Henri Lefebvre, and Manuel Castells), and emergent themes in 21st century urban theory (such as global cities, urban political ecology, urbanism in the Anthropocene, postcolonialism, cyber/digital/virtual urbanism, planetary urbanism, etc.).

This course is required for doctoral urban planning students. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the readings and topics, students from other degree programs outside urban planning are also encouraged to attend. (In past years, we have had students from sociology, architecture, history, information, English, anthropology, SEAS and political science.)

We explore such topics as:
• What are the origins of modern thought about the city?
• Where does the city end and society begin?
• How do disciplines (urban planners, sociologists, economists, geographers, etc.) approach the city differently?
• What are alternative perspectives on place and space (physical, mental, social)?
• What is the interaction between industrialization, urbanization, modernism, and capitalism? And are we entering a new era beyond this quartet?
• How does our shifting conception of nature (in this era of sustainability and climate crisis) in turn transform our stance towards cities?
• What are the origins of pro- and anti-urbanism in American history? Is this an example of American exceptionalism or a more universal tendency?
• Cities were once tangible symbols of modernist human progress. Have we rejected this ideology, or instead simply updated it with a fascination about smart cities and urban innovation ecosystems?