ANSO 205:
URBAN SOCIOLOGY
Winter 2012
MWF 11:50 to 1:05
Dewing 300
Dr. Laura Barraclough
Dewing 309H
(269) 337-7406
lbarrac@kzoo.edu
Office Hours:
Mon and Wed. 2-3 pm
and by appointment
This course introduces students to the subdiscipline of urban sociology as well as the broader
field of urban studies, especially urban geography, anthropology, and history. From this
interdisciplinary range, we will critical engage major theoretical perspectives on the city, and we
will examine historical processes of urban economic, political, and social change that have
shaped American cities in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, such as the shifting fate of
industrial work and racially exclusive suburbanization. Finally, we will focus on contemporary
urban policy issues ranging from gentrification and the crisis of affordable housing to transit
equity, food deserts, and the privatization of public space. Students will engage in a series of
experiential, field-based projects in which they will apply and test the material about which we
are learning. These projects will serve as a foundation for discussion in class.
Learning Objectives:
 Develop a working vocabulary for the study of metropolitan regions.
 Gain a historical understanding of the major economic, political, demographic, and sociocultural changes in 20th and 21st century U.S. cities.
 Engage with a range of critical social theory on urban form and process.
 Develop a critical awareness of how power dynamics are structured in the urban setting
and through urban processes.
 Come to an informed position on a variety of policies and strategies to ameliorate
contemporary urban problems.
Assigned Texts:
Mitchell, Don. The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space. New York:
The Guilford Press, 2003.
Sugrue, Thomas. The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit.
Second edition. Princeton University Press, 2005.
* Additional articles will be posted on Moodle.
Assignments and Requirements:
Attendance and Participation
In-Class Projects
Three Field Project Essays (25 percent each)
Total
10 percent
15 percent
75 percent
100 percent
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Moodle Site:
This course will use a Moodle site (titled ANSO205 SP12), where additional readings will be
posted. To access our Moodle site, go to moodle.kzoo.edu, scroll down to find the course listings
for Winter 2012, click on “Anthropology and Sociology,” then click on “ANSO 205.” You may
either print out these readings or download them to your computer and read them on-screen.
Because we will often engage directly with the readings in class, you are always expected to
bring a hard copy of the day’s assigned reading(s), your laptop with the PDF version of the
reading, or detailed notes to class with you.
Course Policies:
Attendance. I expect you to attend all class sessions having read the assigned material and
prepared to engage in active discussion. You will be held responsible for all material covered
during any missed class sessions. Please make arrangements to get the notes from a classmate,
and check with me to see if there were any handouts or announcements you missed.
Late and missing work. I do not accept late papers except in case of extreme illness, documented
by a physician, or family emergency. Papers will never be accepted more than one week after the
original due date, regardless of the reason. You must complete all assignments to pass the course.
Academic Dishonesty. You are expected to do your own work and to represent your ideas
honestly and with academic integrity. Plagiarism is defined as the unauthorized reproduction of
someone else’s words or ideas without giving proper credit, whether intentional or not.
Therefore, not knowing how to cite a source is NOT adequate justification for plagiarism, and
you should consult with me if you have any doubts whatsoever about how, when, and why to
provide citations. If I detect or suspect plagiarism, I will report the incident to college
administration. Please note that two documented instances of plagiarism will typically result in
the student’s suspension or, in some cases, expulsion from the college.
COURSE SCHEDULE
Week 1
Tuesday, January 3
Introductions
Friday, January 6
A preliminary understanding of cities
 No assigned readings – get a head start on those assigned for Monday
Week 2
Monday, January 9
The U.S. Industrial City and Working-Class Urban Life
 Readings:
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o Cohen, Lizabeth. “Living and Working in Chicago in 1919.” In Making a New
Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939. Cambridge University Press,
1990. [Moodle]
o Wild, Mark. “Preaching to Mixed Crowds: Ethnoracial Coalitions and the
Political Culture of Street Speaking.” In Street Meeting: Multiethnic
Neighborhoods in Early Twentieth-Century Los Angeles. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 2005. [Moodle]
Wednesday, January 11
The U.S. Industrial City and Working-Class Urban Life, cont’d
 Reading: Sugrue, Origins of the Urban Crisis, Ch. 1
Friday, January 13
The Chicago School of Urban Ecology
 Readings:
o Park, Robert. “Human Ecology.” American Journal of Sociology 42 (1936): 1-15.
[Moodle]
o Burgess, Ernest. “The Growth of the City: An Introduction to a Research Project.”
In The City, edited by R. Park and E. Burgess. University of Chicago Press, 1925.
[Moodle]
Week 3
NO CLASS: MLK HOLIDAY
Wednesday, January 18
Residential Segregation, Suburbanization, and White Flight
 Reading: Sugrue, Origins of the Urban Crisis, Ch. 2
Friday, January 20
Deindustrialization
 Reading: Sugrue, Origins of the Urban Crisis, Chs. 4-5
Week Four
Monday, January 23
White Flight and Re-Segregation
 NOTE: Those students who have a laptop computer should bring it to class today.
 Reading: Rachel Dwyer. “Poverty, Prosperity, and Place: The Shape of Class Segregation
in the Age of Extremes.” Social Problems 57, no. 1 (2010): 114-137. [Moodle]
Wednesday, January 25
Feminist Theory and the Sub/Urban Environment
 Readings:
o McDowell, Linda. “Towards an understanding of the gender division of urban
space.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 1 (1983): 59-72.
[Moodle]
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o Hayden, Dolores. “What Would a Non-Sexist City Be Like? Speculations on
Housing, Urban Design, and Human Work.” In The City Reader, Third Edition,
edited by R. LeGates and F. Stout. London and New York: Routledge, 2003.
[Moodle]
Friday, January 27
Urban Political Economy: The City as a Growth Machine
 Reading: Molotch, Harvey. “The City as a Growth Machine.” The American Journal of
Sociology 82 (1976): 309-332. [Moodle]

* Note: You have a choice of attending either (not both) of the following public meetings
to complete your growth machine paper:

Kalamazoo City Commission
Monday, January 30, 7:00 pm
City Hall -- 241 W. South Street

Kalamazoo County Commission
Tuesday, January 31, 7:00 pm
County Building -- 201 W. Kalamazoo Avenue
Week Five
Monday, January 30
Globalization: World Cities and Economic Restructuring
 Reading: Saskia Sassen. “The New Urban Economy: The Intersection of Global
Processes and Place.” In Cities in a World Economy (Pine Forge Press, 2011) [Moodle]
Wednesday, February 1
Neoliberalism, Gentrification, and Urban Development
 Reading: Neil Smith, Selection from The New Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the
Revanchist City. Routledge, 1996. [Moodle]
Friday, February 3
NO CLASS: WINTER BREAK DAY
Week Six
Monday, February 6
 **Growth Machine Paper Due**
Wednesday, February 8
The New Urban Organizing
 Reading: Manuel Pastor. “Common Ground at Ground Zero? The New Economy and the
New Organizing in Los Angeles.” Antipode 33, no. 2 (2001): 260-289 [Moodle]
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Friday, February 10
The New Urban Organizing, cont’d
 In-Class Film Screening: Secrets of Silicon Valley (2001; 60 min.)
 Bus Trip Paper Instructions will be distributed in class
Week 7
Monday, February 13
Transportation Equity
 Readings:
o Bullard, Robert. “All Transit is Not Created Equal.” Race, Poverty, and the
Environment: A Journal of Social and Environmental Justice (2005/06). At:
http://www.urbanhabitat.org/node/306
o Mann, Eric with Kikanza Ramsey, Barbara Lott-Holland, and Geoff Ray. “An
Environmental Justice Strategy for Urban Transportation.” Race, Poverty, and the
Environment: A Journal of Social and Environmental Justice (2005/06). At:
http://www.urbanhabitat.org/node/305
o Blumenberg, Evelyn. “Moving Welfare Participants to Work: Women,
Transportation, and Welfare Reform.” Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work
15 (2000): 259-276. [Moodle]
 Start film: Bus Riders Union (2000)
Wednesday, February 15
 Finish film: Bus Riders Union (2000)
Friday, February 17
Urban Environmental Justice
Readings:
 Di Chiro, Giovanna. “Nature as Community: The Convergence of Environment and
Social Justice.” In Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, ed.
William Cronon (New York: Norton, 1996). [Moodle]
 Pulido, Laura. “Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban
Development in Southern California.” Annals of the Association of American
Geographers 90 (2000): 12-40. [Moodle]
Week 8
Monday, February 20
 ** Bus Trip Paper Due**
Wednesday, February 22
Urban Food Deserts
 Readings:
o Lucan, Sean C., Allison Karpyn, and Sandy Sherman. “Storing Empty Calories
and Chronic Disease Risk: Snack-Food Products, Nutritive Content, and
Manufacturers in Philadelphia Corner Stores.” Journal of Urban Health 87, no 3
(2010): 394-409. [Moodle]
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
o Cannuscio, Carolyn C., Eve E. Weiss, and David A. Asch. “The Contribution of
Urban Foodways to Health Disparities.” Journal of Urban Health 87, no. 3
(2010): 381-393. [Moodle]
o Mark Vallianatos. “Food Justice and Food Retail in Los Angeles.” Ecology Law
Quarterly (2009) At: http://elq.typepad.com/currents/2009/06/currents36-05vallianatos-2009-0625.html
Start film: The Garden: Eviction from Eden
Friday, February 24
 Finish The Garden: Eviction from Eden
Week 9
Monday, February 27
NO CLASS – Use this time to work on your group food desert projects
Wednesday, February 29
 ** Group Presentations: Urban Food Desert Analyses **
 Public Space Ethnography instructions will be distributed in class
Friday, March 2
Public Space and Democracy
 Reading: Mitchell, Right to the City, Chs. 1-2
Week 10
Monday, March 5
Public Space and Democracy, Cont’d
 Reading: Mitchell, Right to the City, Chs. 3-4
Wednesday, March 7
Homelessness and the Right to the City
Reading:
 Mitchell, Right to the City, Chs. 5-6 and Conclusion
Friday, March 9
Conclusions
** Public Space Ethnography due Monday, March 12 by 11 a.m. to professor’s office **
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