Module POC3109 for 2018/9
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
POC3109: Politics in a Global Urban Age
This module descriptor refers to the 2018/9 academic year.
Please note that this module is only delivered on the Penryn Campus.
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
The Urban and the Political: What’s the Problem?
- Polis, State, Global Urban: Where in the World is ‘Politics’?
- Framing the Challenge: Ontology, Epistemology, Methodology?
Key Approaches to the Global Urban Transition
- Global Cities/The Global City
- Planetary Urbanization
- Urban Networks and Assemblage Urbanism
- Cities and Urbanization in the Global South
- The Politics of Urbanism as a Way of Life
Case Studies: Politics and the Urban in Transition
- Okanagan Valley, Canada
- Cornwall, UK
- Student led case study analysis
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 128 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 22 | 11 x 2 hour Seminars Students will be given guided opportunities to provide opening commentary, questions, or interventions for seminar discussions. Students will be expected to engage with their peers and provide constructive feedback on occasion. |
| Guided Independent Study | 43 | Private study students are expected to read suggested texts and make notes prior to seminar sessions. More specifically, students are expected to devote approximately: 43 hours to weekly readings and seminar preparation |
| Guided Independent Study | 10 | Formative, peer review, and self-assessment activities |
| Guided independent study | 50 | Independent research, reading, and writing |
| Guided independent study | 20 | Practical/creative research project |
| Guided Independent Study | 5 | Presentation preparation |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
City Lab: www.citylab.com
How this Module is Assessed
In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.
Formative Assessment
A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Problem Statement: Debates and Stakes | 500 words | 1-2, 4-6, 7-9 | Written |
| Critical Research Essay Proposal | 300 words + 5 annotated sources | 1-6, 8-10 | Written |
Summative Assessment
A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 80 | 0 | 20 |
...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debate | 20 | 20 minutes (prepared statements + open debate) | 1-10 | Written & verbal |
| Portfolio: Critical Reflections/ Field Journal | 30 | 3 x 650 words + 3 images (one field-based reflection) | 1-6, 8-10 | Written |
| Critical Research Essay | 50 | 3,000 words | 1-6, 8-9 | Written |
| 0 | ||||
| 0 | ||||
| 0 |
Re-assessment
Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debate | Position Paper Argument & Counter-Argument 1000 words | 1-10 | August/September reassessment period |
| Portfolio: Critical Reflections/ Field Journal | 3 x 650 words + 3 images (one field-based reflection)words | 1-6, 8-10 | August/September reassessment period |
| Critical Research Essay | 3,000 words | 1-6, 8-9 | August/September reassessment period |
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Basic reading:
Amin, Ash. 2013. The Urban Condition:?A Challenge to Social Science. Public Culture 25 (2): 201-208.
Amin, A. and N. Thrift. 2002. Cities: Reimagining the urban. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Boudreau, Julie-Anne. 2017. Global Urban Politics: Informalization of the State. Cambridge, UK and Malden, MA: Polity Press.
Brenner, N. 2013. Theses on urbanization. Public Culture 25 (1): 85-114.
Closs Stephens, A. 2010. Citizenship without community: Time, design and the city. Citizenship Studies. 14 (1): 31-46.
Coward, M. 2009. Urbicide: The Politics of Urban Destruction. New York: Routledge.
Curtis, Simon. 2016. Global Cities and Global Order. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Diouf, Mamadou and Rosalind Fredericks, eds. 2015. The Arts of Citizenship in African Cities: Infrastructures and Spaces of Belonging. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Farías, I. and Bender, T., eds. 2010. Urban assemblages: How actor-network theory changes urban research. New York: Routledge.
Jacobs, Jane. 2012. Urban geographies I: Still thinking cities relationally. Progress in Human Geography 36 (3): 412–422
King, AD. 1990. Urbanism, colonialism and the world-economy: cultural and spatial foundations of the world urban system. London: Routledge.
Lefebvre, Henri. 2003 [1970]. The urban revolution, trans. R. Bononno. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Low, N. 1991. Planning, politics and the state. Abingdon: Unwin Hyman Ltd. Part I: Planning practice and political theory pp 11-51.
Magnusson, W. 2011. Politics of urbanism: Seeing like a city. London: Routledge. (selections TBD)
McLean, Heather. 2017. In praise of chaotic research pathways:?A feminist response to planetary urbanization. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 0(0) 1–9 DOI: 10.1177/0263775817713751
Merrifield, A. 2012. The politics of the encounter and the urbanization of the world. City 16 (3): 269-283.
Peake, Linda. 2016. The Twenty-First Century Quest For Feminism And the Global Urban. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 40 (1): 219–227. DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.12276
Pratt, G. 2017. One hand clapping: Notes towards a methodology for debating planetary urbanization. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 0(0) 1–7 DOI: 10.1177/0263775817716555
Robinson J. 2002. Global and world cities: A view from off the map. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 26(3): 531-554
Roy A. 2009. The 21st-century metropolis: New geographies of theory, Regional Studies 43 (6): 819-830. DOI: 10.1080/00343400701809665
Sassen S. 2010. The Global City: Strategic Site, New Frontier. Accumulation by Dispossession: Transformative Cities in the New Global Order ed. Swapna Banerjee-Guha. New Delhi: SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ldt.
Sennett, Richard. 1969. Classic essays on the culture of cities. New York: Appleton Century Crofts.
Wekerle G. 2004. Framing feminist claims for urban citizenship. Mapping Women, Making Politics: Feminist Perspectives on Political Geography ed. LA Staehali, E Kofman, LJ Peake. New York and Oxford: Routledge. 245-259.
