Urban Geography, GE 300ZA

Fall 2001
Professor Ellen Hansen

More than half the world's population of 6 billion people live in cities, and the proportions are increasing as cities grow ever larger. Most of the largest cities in the world are located in the poorest countries, where resources are scarce and concentrated in growing urban areas. How do people survive and even thrive and enjoy themselves in cities of millions of people? What draws people to continue to move to cities? Why would some people never live anyplace but Los Angeles or New York City? Cities are dynamic sites of movement, migration and settlement, where an astonishing variety of people, cultures and landscapes combine to create a fascinating and ever-changing mosaic of modern life.

This course will explore contemporary urban problems and potential in a global context. We will examine the role and functions of cities in global as well as local frameworks, and in terms of social, economic and political relations, both within the city and in the larger context. We will investigate how different groups of people (women, children, disabled people, minorities) use or are unable to use urban spaces.
Goals for this course: students will be introduced to the study of urban geography, will gain an understanding of the mechanisms that drive development and growth of cities and how these differ around the world, how urban structure is related to various elements within cities and is shaped by history and urban policy.

For more information, contact:
Professor Ellen Hansen
phone: (316) 341-5576

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