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 Aims

This module aims to introduce and analyze political debates within interdisciplinary research on the global urban transition. We will connect key disciplinary concepts, arguments, and authors in Politics and International Relations to the burgeoning interdisciplinary theoretical and empirical research on global cities, global urbanization, planetary urbanization, assemblage urbanism, urbanisms in the Global South, and feminist and decolonial urbanisms, amongst other literatures. This module will enable you to analyze claims about global urbanism in relation to contemporary politics and to engage in place-specific debates about urbanization and urban transitions as debates about political futures. Additionally, this module aims to support connections between practical and theoretical learning by including a local field-trip.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. Describe and critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of major theoretical approaches to the politics of the global urban transition, both as individual approaches and as a systematic whole that presently defines the field.
2. Explain in detail the theoretical and practical challenges of developing political analyses of the global urban transition and coherently evaluate multiple approaches to addressing these challenges, based on independent research.
3. Analyze rigorously a particular case of ‘urban’ transition as a debate over definitions and possibilities of contemporary and future politics.
Discipline-Specific Skills4. Synthesize and critically assess a defined field of political research, systematically and effectively.
5. Demonstrate the capacity independently to extend and revise political concepts to account for new fields of theoretical and empirical research.
6. Engage effectively with interdisciplinary research and question the significance of this work for analyses of contemporary political life from multiple perspectives.
Personal and Key Skills7. Work independently and in groups to engage in spontaneous discussion and defence of arguments in class, to prepare presentations for class discussion, and to show leadership in contributing to a productive classroom.
8. Work independently to research, formulate, write, and present rigorous critical analyses that engage a diverse and complex mix of theoretical and empirical content.
9. Demonstrate an open and reflexive approach to intellectual work and the limits of knowledge through periodic review assessments of module content, including field excursions.
10. Demonstrate a self-reflexive academic practice that is both independent and collaborative, including: assessing strengths and weaknesses, prioritizing goals and work plans, and integrating feedback into plans for future work.