ANTH 230 - Anthropology of Cities

Institution:

Wesleyan University

Subject:

Anthropology

Description:

This course is an introduction to the theory and practice of urban anthropology. The first part of the course is a theoretical examination of "the modern city" and of contemporary global urban trends, such as the explosion of cities into megalopolises. Attention is placed on new intellectual challenges these trends present to us in our attempts to think and write about urban space and metropolitan life today. Readings on urbanism and urbanization, the production of space and place, and transnationalism include perspectives from Marxism, the avant garde, feminism, poststructuralism, and globalization theory. The second part of the course focuses on the study of cities as they are experienced, imagined, and made every day by those who live in them. We consider how cities become foremost spaces for the exercise and contestation of power, for social cohabitation and conflict, for cultural creation and repression. Themes include class and racialization; public and "sacred" spaces; "informality" and its cultures; carnivals and parades; crime and policing; and storytelling in the city.

Credits:

1.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.wesleyan.edu

Phone Number:

(860) 685-2000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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