Dr Ayona Datta, STC. S209

Optional for MSc City Design and Social Science, MSc Regional and Urban Planning Studies, LSE-Sciences Po Double Degree in Urban Policy, MSc Gender, MSc Gender, Development and Globalisation, MSc Environmental Policy and Regulation, and MSc Gender, Policy and Inequalities. Available to other graduate students only with the permission of the teacher responsible.

To develop a critical understanding of the conditions and the politics of sustainability that shape the urban environment.

This is an interdisciplinary course that introduces students to a critical understanding of the conditions that shape urban environments. It makes connections between the social, physical, and environmental aspects of cities through a broad range of topics. The course is structured around four key themes: Conceptualisations of urban environments, Environmental and spatial justice, Politics of infrastructure, and approaches to sustainable urban environments. The aim of the course is to introduce the students to the range of scales and social actors who imagine different kinds of urban environments, and the issues at stake for 'sustainability' in these imaginings.

Teaching consists of ten one-hour lectures and ten one hour seminars in LT.

Attendance at all seminars and submission of all set coursework is required.

Key texts include: Harvey, D (1996) Justice, Nature, and the Geography of Difference, Oxford: Blackwell; Heynen, N., Kaika, M., and Swyngedouw, E. (2006) In the Nature of Cities: Urban Political Ecology and the Politics of Urban Metabolism, London: Routledge; R Rogers, (1998) Cities for a Small Planet, London: Faber press.; Barry J, Environment and Social Theory 1999, London: Routledge.

A compulsory formative essay of no more than 2,000 words to be submitted in Week 8 of LT.

A course essay of not more than 5,000 words (100%) on an approved topic to be submitted by 4pm on the first Tuesday of the Summer Term. Two hard copies of the essay should be submitted to the Cities Administration Office, a third copy to be posted to Moodle.