CU Courses

Current CU Courses

  

Fall Semester 2008

  • NINT 5191 - Urban Foundation Course                                                                                                              Section A/CRN 5899
    Margarita Gutman
    Thursday 6.00pm - 7.50pm
    This course introduces the multiple dimensions and theoretical perspectives involved in understanding cities and the process of urbanization.  It will demonstrate how the intersection and integration of multiple perspectives is needed to understand how urban processes operate.  The course will introduce urban demography, economy and institutions, infrastructure, architecture and visual representation, physical space, social relations, and culture.  Students will undertake individual and group assignments in a dynamic seminar format in which these perspectives will be illustrated through a sample of cities from different regions of the world.

  • NINT 5284 - City and Environment                                                                                                                   SectionA/CRN5917                                                                                                                                                               Adriana Abdenur
    Tuesday 6.00pm - 7.50pm                                                                                                                                      What are the sources and consequences of urban environmental degradation?  What is the role of cities in broader patterns of environmental degradation?  How do different social groups interpret this process and tackle (or ignore) its challenges?  This course takes a political economy approach to environmental dynamics as they relate to the city, paying special attention to the role of globalization.  Topics include the culture of consumption, movements for environmental justice, and the growing role of cities as political actors within transnational environmental politics.  We will draw on (and build upon) case studies taken from New York - including an oil spill in Brooklyn and a sewage treatment plant in Harlem - as well as from urban Brazil, India and China.  Assignments will include the use of mapping techniques to explore the spatial dimensions of urban environmental politics and to better understand the challenges of "designing the livable city."

  • NINT 5285 - Cities and Employment                                                                                                                          Section A/CRN 5918                                                                                                                                                   Steven Miller
    Wednesday 8.00pm - 9.50pm
    This course will review the recent history of development thinking on urban development and on employment creation and explore the policy options available to cities, local governments and international development assistance organizations to support urban job creation. The course will draw heavily on case studies from the International Labour Office, the World Bank, the Cities Alliance and other international development agencies to help prepare students to work at both the policy and operational level in this field in public service, non-governmental organizations or the private sector.

    The course will explore different forms of employment in the formal and informal sectors, self-employment and livelihoods.     In order to ground the subsequent analysis, different national and international mandates on job creation will be discussed, including the "right to work" in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), "full, productive and freely chosen employment" stated in the ILO's Employment Policy Convention, youth employment in the Millennium Declaration and Decent Work in the 2005 World Summit. These employment centered mandates will be discussed in the light of the different international mandates on cities and urban development, including the Habitat Agenda (outcome of the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, Istanbul, 1996), the Millennium Development Goal of Cities without Slums (2000) and the work of the Cities Alliance, UN-Habitat and other development assistance organizations.

    The course will link the conventional wisdom on urban development - based largely on analyzing urbanization in terms of either physical and spatial development or of demographic trends - with recent literature and practical examples of how job creation strategies support sustainable urban growth. Drawing on case studies of City Development Strategies, Slum Upgrading Strategies and Programmes, Local Economic Development Programmes, Municipal Investment Programmes and financing options, the course will prepare students to critically assess the work of international development organizations in the fields of job creation, urban development and municipal capacity building.

    The course will be structured according to the following thematic areas:
  • International mandates and trends in urbanization, employment and decent work
  • Regulations, growth and the informal economy
  • Infrastructure, investment policies and financing options
  • Direct job creation programmes, workfare and employment guarantee policies
  • Participation, urban governance and job creation

    • Specific case studies will also investigate grassroots initiatives in the areas of community contracting, community-based waste recycling and collection, labour-intensive infrastructure development, municipal training and capacity building initiatives and projects to support workers and employers in the informal economy.

 

Fall Semester 2005 Courses

Spring Semester 2005 Courses

Spring Semester 2006 Courses

Fall Semester 2006 Courses