Cities: Geography, Planning and Urban Life

GPHY 227/3.0

How to Apply

Overview

This course is an introduction to the city from a social science and humanities perspective, with particular insights from how urban geographers have approached the city. The majority of people around the world now live and work in cities and this course serves as an introductory class for how to understand the city and its place in the modern, globalizing world. GPHY 227 gives students the opportunity to learn about the city in the abstract, and apply concepts to specific case studies on topics such as gentrification, population decline, immigration, housing affordability, the digital city, sustainable land use and transportation. The course draws on examples from around the world, but also offers Canadian case studies for students to engage.

The course is a required course for students in human geography and a foundation course for students pursuing a degree in urban planning and urban studies. The course is also designed as an elective course for students from a variety of backgrounds and programs, including General Arts and Science, Commerce and Engineering. The unique feature of this course lies in its inter-disciplinary approach to understanding the city.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

  1. Articulate the rationale for several approaches to urban geography and how it is possible to gain urban insights from each.
  2. Define the concepts of space, place, scale, urbanization, urbanism and planning and understand how they help us study cities from a geographical perspective.
  3. Describe current urbanization trends and projects for countries around the world, with a particular knowledge of the post WWII and contemporary Canadian urban context.
  4. Compare various approaches to land use, housing, and transportation issues.
  5. Critically discuss a variety of materials related to city development and effectively communicate ideas to different audiences.
  6. Collaborate with peers through problem-based learning activities to explore concepts and research related to city development.