GY432 Half Unit
Urban Ethnography
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Prof Gareth Jones
Availability
This course is available on the MSc in Development Management (Political Economy), MSc in Development Management (Political Economy) (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Environment and Development, MSc in Environmental Policy, Technology and Health (Environment and Development) (LSE and Peking University), MSc in Human Geography and Urban Studies (Research), MSc in Regional And Urban Planning Studies, MSc in Urban Policy (LSE and Sciences Po) and MSc in Urbanisation and Development. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
How to apply: Priority: N/A. Priority is typically for students enrolled in Geography and Environment programmes, or joint degree programmes, however course specific availability is indicated via the 'Availability section' on the LSE course guide webpages. Guidance on how to apply to individual controlled access courses can also be found on LSE for You in the Graduate Course Selection system.
Please note: The number of students that can be accommodated is limited. If a course is over-subscribed, places will be allocated at the Department's discretion and a waiting list may be created. It is advised to have an alternative course in mind as a back-up in case you are unable to secure your first-choice course selection.
Deadline for application: Further guidance and information on course selection for Geography and Environment courses (GY4xx) will be available on the Geography and Environment Course Selection Moodle page which will go live from Monday 8 September and will be updated with course availability information daily throughout the course selection period. This page includes information on the timeline for course selection decisions in the Geography and Environment Department as well as the individual course application processes and requirements
A list of all taught master's courses in this Department are listed on LSE's course guide webpages.
For queries contact: geog.ud@lse.ac.uk
Course content
The course considers the role of ethnography to how we understand cities. We will look in detail at different types of ethnography, raise issues of methodology, ethics and writing. Specific themes will cover the urban belonging and the neighbourhood; gentrification, hustle, the sensory city; the 'ghetto' and abandonment; street ethnography; time, waiting and hope; bodies and sex; food ethnographies; infrastructure and mobilities; gates and the middle class; gangs, intimacy and violence. The course offers an opportunity to reflect on cities in ways which do not reduce them to arenas for technical, policy-driven interventions, and instead to consider the richness of the urban experience.
Teaching
20 hours of seminars and 2 hours of workshops in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
In the Department of Geography and Environment, teaching will be delivered through a combination of classes/seminars, pre-recorded lectures, live online lectures and other supplementary interactive live activities.
Formative assessment
A 1,500 word essay or review of readings on a chosen topic from class list.
Indicative reading
There are some useful Readers on urban ethnography such as:
- M. Duneier et al., The Urban Ethnography Reader, 2014;
- S. Low, Spatializing Culture: The Ethnography of Space and Place, 2016;
- The course is based on key ethnographies supplemented by articles.
- J.S. Anjaria, The Slow Boil: street food, rights, and public space in Mumbai, 2016;
- J. Auyero, The Patients of the State: the politics of waiting in Argentina, 2012;
- T. Belmonte, The Broken Fountain; 2005;
- P. Bourgois. In Search of Respect: selling crack in El Barrio, 2003;
- P. Bourgois and J. Schonberg, Righteous Dopefiend, 2009;
- M. Di Nunzio, The Act of Living: Street Life, Marginality, and Development in Urban Ethiopia, 2019;
- C. Freeman, Entrepreneurial Selves: neoliberal respectability and the making of a Caribbean middle-class, 2014;
- H. Garth, Food in Cuba: the pursuit of a decent meal, 2020;
- A. Goffman, On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City, 2012;
- R. Heiman, Driving after Class: anxious times in ann American suburb, 2017;
- K.K. Hoang, Dealing in Desire Asian Ascendancy, Western Decline, and the Hidden Currencies of Global Sex Work, 2015;
- C. Jeffrey, Timepass: youth, class the politics of waiting in India, 2010 ;
- C. Melly, Bottleneck: moving, building and belonging in an African City, 2017;
- B. O’Neill, The Space of Boredom: Homelessness in the Slowing Global Order, 2017;
- L. Ralph, Renegade dreams: living through injury in gangland Chicago, 2014;
- A.M. Reese, Black Food Geographies: race, self-reliance, and food access in Washington DC, 2019;
- F. Stuart, Down, out, and under arrest: Policing and everyday life in Skid Row, 2016;
- S. Venkatesh, Gang Leader for a Day, 2008;
- J. Zhang, Driving toward modernity: cars and the lives of the middle class in contemporary China, 2019;
- T. Zheng, Red lights: The lives of sex workers in postsocialist China, 2009.
Assessment
Essay (100%, 5000 words)
Key facts
Department: Geography and Environment
Course Study Period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 34
Average class size 2024/25: 34
Controlled access 2024/25: NoCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Communication
- Specialist skills