| Fall 2009 Lower- and Upper-Division Courses |
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CY PLAN
110 (4) Three hours of lecture/discussion per week, plus additional fieldwork. Open to majors in all fields. Survey of city planning as it has evolved in the United States since 1800 in response to physical, social, and economic problems; major concepts and procedures used by city planners and local governments to improve the urban environment. Extended Course Description This course provides a survey of the field of city planning. It is required of City Planning minors and Urban Studies majors, but each semester, most of the students come from across the campus. The course provides survey lectures across a wide array of topics- the history of cities and city planning, city planning institutions and politics shaping the development of cities, land use regulation, urban design, metropolitan planning, housing, transportation, environmental planning, economic development, various issues of social policy and urban services, and community participation. Students also are required to attend a section meeting each week which fosters discussion in a smaller group setting, engages students in simulations and field trips, and guides students through the “planning paper.” Although there is a midterm and final exam covering the readings and lectures, the principal requirement of students- because it is seen as the principal source of learning- is a “planning paper” on a specific problem of the student’s choice in some local government setting. Students submit a series of memoranda over the semester as they complete the paper, with each memoranda being a part of the final paper. Students receive extensive feedback on their research and writing for the paper throughout the course. The final paper students submit is reported later by students to be one that they often show future employers in job interviews to submit with their applications to professional schools (whether planning, law, business, architecture, the social sciences, or whatever) if writing samples are required. The course meets in the Fall semester on Monday and Wednesday, 2-3 pm in the Wurster Auditorium. The section meets on Friday 2-3, and is not alterable in time. Attendance is taken. Students not attending who do not provide satisfactory advance notice will be dropped from the course so that students from the Wait List can enter the course. The instructor has a 10-minute pre-class “chat” on Mondays and Wednesdays of question-and-answer for which attendance is not required. CY PLAN
112A (3) Three hours of lecture/discussion per week. Open to all majors in all fields. Planning is often called for in response to societal crises; thus, nature and criticisms of the planning idea, appropriateness of planning, sources of legitimacy for and justification of planning, and future directions of the planning idea are examined. Extended Course Description This course is open to all students. There are no prerequisites for the class. However, exposure to the development literature particularly international experiences in economic development is helpful. This course focuses on a portion of planning that is concerned with state-led economic development. It is especially centered on how the state influences economic outcomes through policy. Central to the theme of this class is the notion that politics and economics are not separate spheres. In other words, policy choices alone are not enough to understand and determine economic outcomes. Context, history, political and institutional conditions, and state-society relationships are fundamental to the understanding of how certain economies are the way they are. The course relies on case studies, mostly in comparative form, to illuminate the themes underpinning economic planning and development. CY PLAN 113A (3) Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week. Introduction to economic concepts and thinking as used in planning. Micro-economic theory is reviewed and critiqued. Extended Course Description This is an introductory course in the application of basic principles of economic analysis to problems of urban planning and policy. The course aims to ground students in the fundamentals of microeconomic theory while providing the opportunity to apply them to contemporary issues of urban land use, transportation, housing, design, and economic development planning. The class is not intended as a comprehensive introduction to the field of microeconomics; rather, it is designed to acquaint students with the essential elements of qualitative economics that are most relevant to the practice of city planning. Questions the course will explore include: (1) how economic forces and policies shape the city’s formation, location, size, form, and function; (2) how the basic tools of microeconomic analysis can expand and strengthen the planner’s capacity to address city planning problems and issues; and (3) how to analyze critically the strengths and weaknesses of various economic approaches to, and justifications of, urban policy-making. The study of theory will be augmented by case studies and practical exercises in applying economic analysis to current planning problems in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. Lectures will be held once weekly. Students must:
Grading: Mandatory Texts: Arthur O’Sullivan, Urban Economics, 7th Edition (2009) CY PLAN 114 (3) Three hours of lecture per week. This course is designed to introduce students to the characteristics of urban transportation systems, the methods through which they are planned and analyzed, and the dimensions of key policy issues confronting decision makers. Extended Course Description Transportation systems connect people, goods, places, and ideas. Transportation networks shape cities and regions and constitute a very large proportion of our built environments. A good transportation system aids our ability to get to work, school, recreation and health care. Efficient, safe, and sustainable transportation systems are essential to the social, economic, and environmental well-being of cities and regions. This course introduces concepts, policy issues, and study findings on a range of themes related to urban and regional transportation planning. Its focus is on multi-modal ground transportation (autos/highways, mass transit, paratransit, and non-motorized transport) at multiple geographical scales (neighborhoods, corridors, cities, and regions). The course concentrates on contemporary policy issues and problems (e.g., traffic congestion, air pollution, sustainability), and methods and tools for addressing current problems. The course includes attention to the institutional and political environment that governs transportation planning and practice. We will also discuss the ways in which transportation systems shape and change metropolitan areas and their physical form. We will examine the evolution of transportation in the United States, look at attributes of travel demand in regions, review the formal transportation planning process, and address core policy issues: congestion, the environment, energy consumption, social equity, and transportation finance. Each student will participate in two team exercises that are intended to familiarize you with the transportation system in the environment in which it functions. These exercises will require you to work with other students in the class and to go into the field. Course Format and Requirements: There are five course requirements. First, you are to attend and participate in class sessions and to do the assigned readings (see Attachment A). Second, you shall join with another class member (or another person) and keep and reflect on a diary of two days’ travel behavior (see Attachment B). Third, you shall also form a team to work on a policy project (see Attachment C). The fourth requirement is a mid-term exam and the fifth is a final exam. The midterm and the final examination will be based upon both readings and materials presented in class. The final examination will be comprehensive. Grades will be weighed as follows: * Regular class attendance and participation are required. From time to time, the class will be divided into small groups to debate course topics and report back to the larger class on group findings. In addition, a voluntary field trip may be scheduled to a local Bay Area site pending student interest and availability. Details will be provided later. Readings: Reader: On sale at Krishna Copy Center at 2595 Telegraph Avenue (at Parker Avenue, six blocks south of campus); phone: 510-549-0506. Textbook: Susan Hanson and Genevieve Giuliano, Eds. The Geography of Urban Transportation, New York: Guilford Publications, 3rd Edition, 2004. You are expected to complete required readings before the class session for which they are assigned. Some readings will require you to access the course website or other websites. Websites and locations are noted in Attachment A. For additional resources, visit the Institute of Transportation Studies Library at McLaughlin Hall(fourth floor) or the College of Environmental Design library at Wurster Hall(second floor). CY PLAN
115 (4) Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week. The course covers issues of development and urbanization from the era of colonialism to the era of contemporary globalization. Themes include modernization, urban informality and poverty, transnational economies, and the role of international institutions and agencies. Extended Course Description This course is one of the two core courses for the new Global Poverty & Practice Minor launched under the auspices of the Blum Center for Developing Economies. The course is open to all undergraduate and graduate students at UC Berkeley. Students do not have to be enrolled in the minor in order to participate in this class. There are no prerequisites for the class although students should be prepared to tackle advanced social science readings and analysis. The Global Poverty class has the following pedagogical goals. It seeks to train students to become participants in the global debates about poverty, development, and inequality. In doing so, it teaches students about different models and paradigms of poverty-alleviation and different methodologies for evaluating these. It also highlights the most current and important cases in different sectors of poverty-alleviation. The key element of the Global Poverty class is that all such issues are situated in the broader context of development theories and practices. In other words, the class links the millennial imagination for ending poverty with the long and contentious history of 20th century development. While the emphasis is on the project of development with its distinctive apparatus of knowledge and policy, the class is also concerned with the role of civil society actors, social movements, corporations, private foundations, and global campaigns in seeking to tackle poverty. Finally, the class adopts a global approach to the analysis of poverty and inequality. While the emphasis of the class is on the experiences of the global South, it is also concerned with structures of deprivation in the global North. This year the course will feature guest lectures by distinguished UC Berkeley faculty including Robert Reich, Richard Norgaard, Isha Ray, Loic Wacquant, Ashok Gadgil, and John Danner. CY PLAN
118AC (4) Three hours of lecture/seminar and one hour of discussion per week. This course looks at the idea and practice of community in cities and suburbs and at the dynamics of neighborhood and community formation. Topics include urban social geography, ethnicity, and identity, residential choice behavior, the political economy of neighborhoods, planning for neighborhoods and civic engagement. Extended Course Description WHAT THE COURSE IS ABOUT Topics will include: exploration of the idea of community as an ideal and value and an examination of how actual urban communities work; economic and social justice; neighborhood development; the role of symbols and myths in giving meaning to environments; the ways that economic policy is linked to political power; racism, ethnic identity and neighborhood formation; racial and ethnic conflict in urban communities. AMERICAN CULTURES REQUIREMENT COURSE FORMAT WHO IT IS FOR FORMAT PREREQUISITES COURSE REQUIREMENTS OFFICE HOURS CY PLAN 119 (3) Three hours of lecture/discussion per week. Prerequisites: Open to majors in all fields. This course examines how the concept of sustainable development applies to cities and urban regions and gives students insight into a variety of contemporary urban planning issues through the sustainability lens. The course combines lectures, discussions, student projects, and guest appearances by leading practitioners in Bay Area sustainability efforts. Ways to coordinate goals of environment, economy, and equity at different scales of planning are addressed, including the region, the city, the neighborhood, and the site. Extended Course Description Overview This course focuses upon sustainable development beginning with an overview of the history and theories of sustainability. The powers of local government to affect sustainable and zero emission outcomes are evaluated and examples of local sustainability and climate change plans are reviewed. The course then addresses individual aspects of the elements of the built environment that local governments have some control over: energy use, transportation, land use and urban design decisions, water infrastructure and reuse on-site, municipal solid waste (one of the easiest ways a locality can reduce its carbon footprint), and green buildings, public health and neighborhoods. Green economy, equity and environmental justice issues are also treated. Course Requirements There are two required textbooks for both CP119/254 and an additional text for the graduate section, which are available at ASUC bookstore. Roseland, Mark, 2005. Toward Sustainable Communities, (both CP119/CP254) Also available at ASUC are eight “classic” sustainability books. Undergrads to pick one, and graduate students to pick two for 500 word book reports due early in the semester. Additional readings will be posted on the b-space website for the class. CY PLAN
140 (3) Three hours of lecture/discussion per week. The course is concerned with the multidisciplinary field and practice of urban design. It includes a review of historical approaches to urban design and current movements in the field, as well as discussion of the elements of urban form, theories of good city form, scales of urban design, implementation approaches, and challenges and opportunities for the discipline. Learning from cities via fieldwork is an integral part of the course. Extended Course Description This course will introduce students to the field and practice of urban design. The objective is to provide a foundation for understanding the various dimensions of urban design, how urban design is practiced, the role of urban design within the development process, and key issues and challenges facing urban designers today. Learning about cities via fieldwork is an integral part of the course. The concerns of urban design are diverse and multidisciplinary, encompassing perspectives, skills, and theories from the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, and city planning. Urban designers work at a range of scales—region, city, neighborhood, and lot—and are concerned with the interrelationships between scales. They deal with large-scale citywide design issues, such as city pattern and street and block layouts, but also with smaller scale local issues such as designs for streets and public open spaces. Urban designers may work to shape the form of specific places within cities, such as downtowns, shopping areas, cultural precincts, or they may design citywide systems such as streets, greenways, and public open space systems. The may design small infill projects for existing cities and neighborhoods, or they may design large-scale master plans or framework plans to control development at the metropolitan edge or on large parcels within existing cities being redeveloped for different uses. The discipline of urban design is concerned with notions of the “good city.” It is concerned with how urban environments work for people and support human needs, how physical designs may facilitate or hinder human behavior, how cities look, and what cities mean. It is concerned foremost with environmental quality, measured in many ways but particularly in terms of access, connectivity, comfort, legibility, and sense of place. CY PLAN
190 (1-4) One hour of lecture/discussion per week per unit. Prerequisites: Upper division standing. Course may be repeated for credit. Sections A-L to be graded on a letter-graded basis. Sections M-Z to be graded on a pass/no pass basis. Analysis of selected topics in urban studies. Topics vary by semester. The U.S.-Mexico Borderlands: Planning for Diversity or Division This course is a research-oriented examination of the future of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. It emphasizes experiential learning, that is, 'research-by-doing,' including consideration of research design and proposal writing, alternative theoretical and methodological approaches, and the production of a high-quality research report. Students will first investigate the broad history of the border and develop a thorough understanding of the demographic, social, political and economic bases of an emerging ‘post-border’ condition. The second half of the class will be dedicated to student projects designed to uncover possible futures for the borderlands. Project topics will broadly explore the choice between diversity and division, i.e. between social incorporation and exclusion, and might focus on the following: cross-border hybrid cultures; growth of the border ‘twin cities;’ the current border ‘wars;’ border fortifications and policing; the impacts of NAFTA; crime and corruption; cross-border media and public attitudes; and cooperative environment/infrastructure planning. As well as analyzing more conventional data sources (e.g. demographic statistics, economic trends), students will be encouraged to incorporate less conventional sources (including film, language, music, art, cultural practices, and news media). Some knowledge of Spanish is helpful but is not requirement of this course. |