Created Spaces

Code

LIBA3005

School

Liberal Arts

Level

3

Credits

20

Semesters

Spring UK

Summary

We live in a world dominated by cities: sociocultural, economic, and logistical centres that concentrate the global population and that drive global policy, practices, and productivity. They are spaces of vibrancy and creativity; they are also sites of inequality, precarity, and peril. Much of the logic of contemporary life is rooted in the urban experience: over 50% of the world live in cities today, and over two-thirds are expected to do so by 2050. As such, it is vital for our understanding of the modern world – and the future society generated by it – to examine the complexities, the challenges, and the cultural forces arising from these most crucial of created spaces.

Within this module, we will look at cities as living places and focuses of power, as sites which require both historical understanding and radical rethinking in our era of economic, political, and cultural flux. Engaging an interdisciplinary approach that includes sociology, cultural studies, architecture, and art, we will look at cities both as abstractions and as specific sites through a range of theories and examples, most prominent of which will be our own local city and regional capital, Nottingham.

Target Students

Available to Year 3 or Year 4 Liberal Arts students, including Liberal Arts Exchange students.

Classes

• One 1-hour seminar each week for 12 weeks
• One 2-hour lecture each week for 12 weeks

This module will be delivered primarily through 2 hour lecture-workshops and 1 hour seminars, both of which will centre on student-led discussion and provide key information through scholarly sources, readings, and case study examples. It is essential for the design and delivery of this module that all seminars are scheduled after the lecture. Further, as this module is expected to be delivered by one member of staff, seminars cannot be stacked. The School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies operates an attendance policy. The details of this policy can be found in the student handbook on Workspace.

Assessment

• 50% Coursework 1: Coursework- 2000 words or equivalent
• 50% Coursework 2: Coursework- 2000 words or equivalent

Assessed by end of spring semester

Educational Aims

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding:
•    Awareness of the processes of urban development
•    Understanding of how creativity is fostered within urban centres 
•    Knowledge of the social and political study of cities and communities

Intellectual skills:
•    Understanding of interdisciplinary analysis
•    Problem solving skills 
•    Application of mixed methodology

Professional skills:

• Synthesising and analysing ideas and information
• Independent research
• Time management
• Oral communication of ideas
• Written communication of analysis and argument
• Feedback and feedforward 

Conveners

• Prof Ross Wilson
• Dr Edward Clough