GY438 Half Unit
Urban Asia: Cities and Social Change
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Prof Hyun Shin
Availability
This course is available on the CEMS Exchange, MA in Asian and International History (LSE and NUS), MBA Exchange, MSc in China in Comparative Perspective, MSc in City Design and Social Science, 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 International and Asian History, MSc in Local Economic Development, MSc in Regional And Urban Planning Studies, MSc in Urban Policy (LSE and Sciences Po) and MSc in Urbanisation and Development. This course is freely available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. It does not require permission. 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
The number of students able to be accommodated is limited. If the course is over-subscribed, places will be allocated at the Department’s discretion and a waiting list may be created. For further details, please contact your relevant Programme Coordinator
Course content
This is an interdisciplinary urban course that encourages students to develop a critical understanding of how urban space is transformed in diverse social, economic and political settings, and what social implications are made upon the powerless and the poor. Examining the process of socio-spatial transformation in times of condensed urbanisation and economic development, this course makes use of Asia as an empirical site to unsettle Western notions of urban development. Various examples of urban policies and practices will be drawn from cities across East and Southeast Asia, with emphasis on newly industrialised capitalist economies as well as transitional economies such as mainland China.
Focusing on urban questions in particular, the course comprises of lectures and seminars on the following themes:
- the political economy of urbanisation;
- the politics of land;
- global gentrifications;
- displacement and dispossession;
- cities of spectacle and mega-events;
- urban social movements
Students will also have opportunities to view and discuss various sources of audiovisual materials and documentaries related to these themes.
Teaching
In the Department of Geography and Environment, teaching will be delivered through a combination of classes/seminars, pre-recorded lectures, live online lectures, in-person lectures and other supplementary interactive live activities.
This course is delivered through a combination of seminars, workshops and lectures across Autumn Term.
This course includes a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.
Indicative reading
Chen, Y.-L. and Shin, H.B. (eds.) Neoliberal Urbanism, Contested Cities and Housing in Asia. Palgrave Macmillan;
Chua, B.H. (2017) Liberalism Disavowed: Communitarianism and State Capitalism in Singapore. Cornell University Press;
Doucette, J., and Park, B.-G. (2019) Developmentalist Cities? Interrogating Urban Developmentalism in East Asia. Brill;
Haila, A. (2016) Urban Land Rents: Singapore as a Property State. Wiley Blackwell;
Lees, L., Shin, H.B. and Lopez-Morales, E. (2016) Planetary Gentrification. Polity Press;
Roy, A. and Ong, A. (eds.) (2011) Worlding Cities: Asian Experiments and the Art of Being Global. Blackwell;
Wu, F. (2015) Planning for Growth: Urban and Regional Planning in China. Routledge
Further reading:
Abbas, A. (1997) Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance, University of Minnesota Press;
Allen, J.R. 2012) Taipei: City of Displacements, University of Washington Press;
Forrest, R., Koh, S.Y. and Wissink, B. (eds.) (2017) Cities and the Super-rich: Real Estate, Elie Practices and Urban Political Economies. Palgrave Macmillan;
Glassman, J. (2018) Drums of War, Drums of Development: the Formation of a Pacific Ruling Class and Industrial Transformation in East and Southeast Asia, 1945-1980. Brill Press;
Harvey, D. (2016) The Ways of the World. Profile Books;
Labbé, D. (2014) Land Politics and Livelihoods on the Margins of Hanoi, 1920-2010. UBC Press;
Lees, L., Shin, H.B. and Lopez-Morales, E. (Eds.) (2015) Global Gentrifications: Uneven Development and Displacement, Policy Press;
Mathews, G. (2011) Ghetto at hte Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong, The University of Chicago Press;
Hsing, Y-t. (2010) The Great Urban Transformation. Oxford University Press;
Park, S.H., Shin, H.B. and Kang, H.S. (eds.) (2021) Exporting Urban Korea? Reconsidering the Korean Urban Development Experience. Routledge;
Seng, L.K. (2013) Squatters into Citizens: The 1961 Bukit Ho Swee Fire and the Making of Modern Singapore. NUS Press;
Simone, A. (2014) Jakarta: Drawing the City Near. University of Minnesota Press;
Smart, A. (2006) The Shek Kip Mei Myth: Squatters, Fires and Colonial Rule in Hong Kong, 1950-1963. Hong Kong University Press;
Sorensen, A. (2002) The Making of Urban Japan: Cities and Planning from Edo to the Twenty-first Century. Routledge/Curzon
Assessment
Course participation (5%)
Presentation (20%)
This component of assessment includes an element of group work.
Presentation (15%)
This component of assessment includes an element of group work.
Essay (60%, 3000 words)
Key facts
Department: Geography and Environment
Course Study Period: Autumn Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: Unavailable
Average class size 2024/25: Unavailable
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
- Application of information skills
- Communication
- Specialist skills