Professor Sylvia Chant, STC. S515

For students taking MSc Urbanisation and Development, LSE-Sciences Po Double Degree in Urban Policy; MSc Human Geography and Urban Studies (Research); also MSc Environment and Development, MSc Health, Community and Development, MSc Regional and Urban Planning Studies. MSc Development Studies, MSc Development Studies (Research), MSc Development Management, MSc City Design and Social Science, MSc Local Economic Development, MSc Population and Development, MSc Gender, Policy and Inequalities, MSc Gender, Development and Globalisation. Other suitably qualified and interested graduate students may take or audit the course with the permission of the teacher responsible. Experience and/or knowledge of development and urbanisation in the South would be a distinct advantage.

The course examines the patterns, processes and implications of urbanisation in developing societies, with particular reference to the survival and well-being of low-income groups, and the variability of urban life and poverty in different geographical contexts. The conceptual and empirical focus of the course revolves around strategies adopted at individual household and community levels to ensure sustainable livelihoods, and the interrelations of grassroots processes with policy interventions on the part of governments, international development agencies and NGOs. Specific themes include: trends in urban development in the 20th and 21st centuries; population and rural-urban migration; shelter and housing; land and tenure; urban services; the conceptualisation and measurement of poverty; the 'urbanisation' of poverty; the 'feminisation of poverty'; poverty reduction strategies; employment and urban labour markets; urban livelihood strategies and economic restructuring; households and gender; women-headed households; health and healthcare; participatory urban governance, civil society, and UN-Habitat agendas past, present and future.

Five x 2 hour lectures (first 5 weeks) followed by five x 1.5 hour seminar sessions (second 5 weeks) in LT.

Students will be expected to produce one essay during the course, as well as to prepare seminar presentations and to be actively involved in seminar discussions.

J. Beall and S. Fox, Urban Poverty and Development in the 21st Century, 2009; S. Chant, Gender, Generation and Poverty, 2007; S. Chant, Gender, Cities, and the Millennium Development Goals in the Global South, 2007; S.Chant and C.McIlwaine Geographies of Development in the 21st Century, 2009; Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (CLEP) Making the Law Work for Everyone, 2008; M. Davis Planet of Slums, 2006; V. Desai & R. Potter (Eds), The Companion to Development Studies, 2nd ed, 2008; Environment and Urbanisation, Vol 11, No 2, 2000: 'Poverty Reduction and Urban Governance'; Environment and Urbanisation, Vol 14, No 1, 2002: 'Globalisation and Cities'; Environment and Urbanisation, Vol 17, No 1, 2005: 'Meeting the Millennium Development Goals in Urban Areas'; Environment and Urbanisation, Vol 21, No 2 (2009) 'Securing Land for Housing and Urban Development'; J. Gugler (Ed), Cities in the Developing World, 1997; J.M.Guzm´n et al Population Dynamics and Climate Change, 2009; P.Lloyd-Sherlock, Population Ageing and International Development, 2010; D. Mitlin and D. Satterthwaite (Eds) Empowering Squatter Citizen: Local Government, Civil Society and Urban Poverty Reduction, 2004; M. Montgomery, R. Stren, B. Cohen & H. Reed (Eds), Cities Transformed: Demographic Change and its Implications in the Developing World, 2004; D. Satterthwaite, The Transition to a Predominantly Urban World and its Underpinnings, 2007; B. Roberts, The Making of Citizens: Cities of Peasants Revisited, 1995; C. Tacoli (Ed.) Earthscan Reader in Rural-Urban Linkages, 2006; G. Tannerfeldt & P. Ljung More Urban, Less Poor, 2006; UNFPA, State of the World's Population 2007: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth, 2007; UN-Habitat, State of the World's Cities, 2006-7: The Millennium Development Goals and Urban Sustainability - 30 Years of Shaping the Habitat Agenda, 2006; UN-Habitat, State of the World's Cities, 2008-9: Harmonious Cities, 2008; UN-Habitat, Global Report on Human Settlements, 2009: Planning Sustainable Cities, 2009; World Bank, World Development Report 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty, 2000; World Bank, World Development Report 2009, Reshaping Economic Geography, 2009.

One extended essay (2,500 words) (25%) to be submitted at the beginning of the ST. One two-hour unseen examination in ST (75%): two questions out of five.