In this seminar, we will read papers on topics related to human diversity such as race, culture, class, gender, sexuality, etc. Topics include theoretical foundations of urban geography, from the Chicago School to the postmodern city, restructuring of the city
under capitalism: suburbanization, gentrification, social polarization, urban renewal, segregation, social ramifications of this restructuring, urban villages, poverty and uneven development. geographies of difference pertaining to racial, ethnic, and sexual
identity in cities, the meaning of public space, and the implications of how it is defined, and some new research emerging in the field of sustainable urban development and the nexus of between economic development & residential/commercial communities.
The major topics on which readings will be assigned are given below:
1. Conceptual frameworks and urban models of population growth and assimilation
2. Residential segregation and neighborhood change
3. Housing foreclosure crises - Hedonic pricing modeling and recent research from last 5 years
4. Economic and occupational segregation: Culture and class focus
5. Urban World Systems and Growth Hierarchy/Central Place Theory
6. Some critical theorists and their understanding of postmodernism, capitalism and economic inequality [e.g., David Harvey, Paul Knox, Marx, Neil Smith, etc.]
7. Gentrification and urban revitalization
8. Social Polarization - will read scholars such as Saskia Sassen, Chris Hamnett, Nijman, etc.
9. Sustainable urban development - new topic and we will read papers or urban design, nexus of urban and economic development, etc.
10. Urban poverty and role of informalization in a globalized world: examples from India and the developed world.
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