Hauptseminar Key Texts in Urban Studies

Through the discussion of key texts by Manuel Castells, Saskia Sassen, Richard Sennett, David Harvey, Edward Soja, Sharon Zukin, Mark Gottdiener and others, this seminar will provide an overview of key issues, debates and texts in recent urban studies. We will discuss issues and concepts such as urban semiotics, urban cultural studies (-What is urbanity?-, -What is 'urban' about urban culture?-), theming, imagineering and city marketing, conflicts over the use of urban space, urban cultural ecology, the city in the global network society, -complexity- as a key characteristic of urban environments, or interdisciplinarity and the role of the humanities in urban studies. Depending on the interests of the participants, we may discuss selected literary representations of some of these issues in literary texts. A reader containing most texts to be discussed will be available in the copy-shop Reckhammerweg from early October. Further texts will be proved electronically. In order to receive the credits for this seminar, participants will have to write a Klausur in the final session as well as a short essay. In addition, there will be several short reading quizzes. Students can acquire the additional credits for a term paper by writing a 15-page research paper. For the first session, partipants are expected to have read the first two texts in the reader. For those of you who took my -Urban Studies- seminar in the summer: The texts will be entirely different ones this time. If you are interested, you are most welcome to attend this class as well. Anglistik Universität Duisburg-Essen WS 2011/12 Master, Master Professor Gurr Jens Martin