230020 SE Urban Sociology - A Global View (2008W)

The seminar is addressed to students who are interested in discussing the relationship between contemporary processes of globalization and urban change. Based on a review of current research and literature in urban sociology, the seminar aims to open the view both for cross-cultural and non-Eurocentric perspectives on urban developments worldwide. Beyond a general conceptual discussion, and according to students interests, different topics will be tackled in the seminar, e.g. representations of the urban in different regional contexts; new forms of inequalities in the global city (advanced marginality, sociospatial fragmentation, peripherisation); immigration and collective memory; globalisation and the changing meaning of space and time in the cities; cities as landscapes of power - urban policies and actors; environment and sustainability.