Fall 2005

SOC 389l • Urbanization

Course Description

This course surveys the urbanization process, focusing on less developed countries, but taking into account historical and contemporary processes in the developed world. Themes will include the comparative analysis of historical patterns of urbanization beginning with the Industrial Revolution of the end of the 18th Century, the components of urbanization, particularly rural-urban migration and its causes, ecological perspectives on the spatial hierarchy of cities within national and world economies, the internal spatial organization of cities, including issues of housing and socio-spatial segregation. We will also look at the spatial dimensions of urban labor markets and access to social services, such as health, education and welfare services. While the course adopts a broad comparative perspective, it also has a special focus on four countries, Brazil, China, India and Mexico.

Texts

• National Research Council. 2003. Cities Transformed: Demographic Change and its Implications in the Developing World. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. This book can be viewed on line: (http://books.nap.edu/openbook/0309088623/html/index.html)
• Hauser, Philip and Leo Schnore (eds), 1965. The Study of Urbanization. New York: John Wiley.
• Articles by Eric Lampard and Gideon Sjoberg

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