URBDP 498C: World-making in a Broken World
Time: T,TH 1:30-3:20pm
Location: MGH 389
URBDP 498D: Envisioning Utopia: From Religious Fundamentalism to Burning Man
Description: What is utopia? Is utopianism a worthwhile form of planning and design thinking or is it a frivolous and even dangerous waste of time? In this class we use the concepts of utopias and intentional communities as tools to examine the present and consider alternative futures. This class looks at the appeal and the danger of perfect communities, how they might be evaluated, and what they can teach us about envisioning and planning our common future.
Time: M,W 3:30-4:50 with Friday quiz sections
Location: Community Design Building
URBDP 498E: The Right to the City and Urban Democracy
Description: More than half of the human population now lives in cities. People depend on cities for vital needs like employment, housing, transportation, public services, and public space. But who controls the city? Who makes the decisions that shape it? And who should make those decisions? The right to the city is a radical idea that argues that it is a city's inhabitants that should control the city. Not the market. Not the government. But the people who inhabit and depend on the city. As such, the right to the city can be seen as a proposal for a radical urban democracy. This course critically examines the right to the city. We will study both the theory behind it and the many concrete initiatives people have pursued to make it a reality. Examples of such initiatives include neighborhood councils, shack dwellers' movements, the occupy movement, tenants' unions, guerrilla/tactical urbanism, attempts to "common" urban land, anti-eviction campaigns, autonomous zones (such as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone), and more.
Time: T,Th 3:30-5:20
Location: JHN 111
