Sociology 211.01
Urban Sociology
Professor Philip Kasinitz Fall 1997
Office: Hunter West, 1638 Monday & Thursday
Email: pkasinit@shiva.hunter.cuny.edu 9:45-11
Phone: 772-5637 1:10-2:25
Office Hours Monday 3-4 and by appointment.
Required Books:
Philip Kasinitz (ed) Metropolis: Center and Symbol of Our Times. NYU 1995.
Elijah Anderson Street Wise University of Chicago, 1989.
Min Zhou Chinatown: Portrait of an Ethnic Enclave. Temple, 1992.
William Julius Wilson When Work Disappears. Knopf, 1996.
In addition there is a packet of readings on reserve, which may also be available in xeroxed form.
Course Requirements: Students will all be required to undertake an independent research project on a census tract somewhere in the five boroughs of New York City. The choice of tract is up to you, but it should be a place you will be able to visit several times and that you feel comfortable spending time in. It should not, however, be the tract you live in. The census tract project will consist of three assignments: 1. Students will write a short description of the tract and a brief review of what they already know about it and what they would like to know about it (Due 10/13). 2. A statistical profile of the area (Due 11/17). 3. A research paper on a social "problem" or "issue" effecting the area. This paper will make use of observations and interviews as well as your own statistical research (Due December 22). Each of these assignments will be described in more detail as the course progresses.
In addition all students will complete two short essays on topics to be announced, due on September 25 and December 11th. There will also be a final exam. All papers must be typed or word processed. Handwritten papers will not be accepted.
Finally, all students are expected to attend class regularly, to come prepared and to participate in discussion. Participation will count towards the final grade.
Course Outline:
September 4: What is urban sociology? What is the city? Why should we care? Introduction to the course.
September 8: A (very) short history of Urban Spaces and Urban thought.
Readings: Kasinitz, Introduction. Dickens, Baudelaire and Marx Handouts
September 11: Is Urbanism the same as "Modernism?" Why do Americans not like cities? Cosmopolitanism and it's discontents.
Readings: Kazin in packet.
September 12: It the city a social form? "Gemeinschaft" vrs. "Gesellschaft".
Readings: Kasinitz, Introduction to part one.
September 15: Is there an "Urban" Way of Life?
Readings: Simmel, "The Metropolis and Mental Life" in Metropolis.
September 18:Living in History: Cities as a Cultural Creation.
Readings: Mumford in Metropolis. Rybczynski in packet.
September 22 Urban Life, Marginality and Deviance.
Readings: Wirth "Urbanism as a Way of Life" in Metropolis.
September 25: Still an Urban way of Life?
Readings: Gans "Urbanism and Suburbanism as Way of Life" in Metropolis.
First Essay Assigned
September 29: How did American cities come to look that ways that they do? Political Economy and the urban form.
Readings: Gordon, on reserve and in packet.
October 6: The growth and restructuring of American Cities.
Readings: Kotkin in Packet.
FIRST ESSAY DUE
October 9: Researching New York using the U.S. census. Guest lecture/workshop with Patricia Woodward of the Library instruction program. Meeting place to be announced.
PLEASE COME TO CLASS WITH YOUR CENSUS TRACT SELECTED
October 13th-- NO CLASS.
October 16: Neighborhoods-- What are they? Villages in the city or just a place to hang one's hat? Social Groups in the city. How do neighborhoods come about? Political economy and social organization. Two case histories.
Readings: Anderson, chapters 1-2.
Research Project Prospectus Due.
October 13: No Class
October 20: How do neighborhoods "work"?
Readings: Jacobs, in Metropolis.
October 23: New York and the World Conference at the CUNY Graduate Center. Specifics to be announced.
Readings: Wilson, Introduction, and Chapters 1-3.
October 27: What happens when neighborhoods don't work: response to crises.
Readings: Anderson, chapters 3-5.
October 30: The rise of the "hyper-ghetto" and the depletion of "social capital."
Readings: Wacquant in Metropolis. Wilson chapters 4-5. Kasinitz and Rosenberg in Packet.
November 3: Community and its discontents: social solidarity in the modern city.
Readings: Putnam, in Packet.
November 6: Building for "Community." Planning and the neighborhoods in 20th century New York: The world that Moses built (video presentation).
November 10: Urban planning and the making of American Cities. The paradoxes of "progress".
Readings: Kasinitz, Intro part II (6), Le Corbusier and Berman in Metropolis. .
November 13: Global travelers, local neighborhoods: Immigration and the formation of urban communities.
Readings: Zhou, Intro and Chapters 1-4.
November 17: The emergence of "ethnic enclaves": residential and economic. The "enclave model of upward mobility and its limits.
Readings: Zhou, rest of the book.
**Research Project part two: Statistical Report due**
November 20: The effects of immigration on the city. Should immigrants "assimilate?"
Readings: Portes and Zhou in Packet.
November 24: The uses (and abuses) of public space, part one.
Readings: Walzer, Hunter in Metropolis
November 25: (Thursday Schedule) The uses and abuses of public space, part two. Planning diverse public spaces. William Whyte video presentation.
December 1: Making Successful Spaces in the Contemporary City: Examples from New York and Los Angeles.
Readings: Davis and Siegel in Metropolis,
Second Essay Assigned.
December 4: Race, Gender and Class in public space.
Readings: Anderson, Chapters 6-7-8 and conclusion. Kasinitz and Haynes, Lee in Commonquest--access via the Hunter Sociology Home Page.
December 8: Women in Metropolitan Life.
Readings: Wright and Fava in packet.
December 11: Suburbs, Ex-Urbs and "Edge Cities": The cities of the future?
Readings: Fishman in Metropolis.
SECOND ESSAY DUE.
December 15: Social Policy, Poverty and the City.
Readings: Wilson chapters 6-8. Truab in packet.
December 22 **Research Project part three due**