This page contains a catalogue of some courses offered under the Urban Studies major/minor that have been offered in recent years. It also provides a short description of required courses and specialised methods courses.
Urban Studies Required Courses
YSS2220 Adelaide to Zhuhai: Cities in Comparative Perspective
This course introduces students to foundational concepts in Urban Studies, including: centrality (cities as economic and demographic concentrations and extensions); relationality (cities in global and regional networks); positionality (cities as pluralistic units of experience and meaning); sustainability (cities as sites of human-environment interface); and collectivity (cities as sites of collaborative problem solving and collective action). It is a required course in Urban Studies, preparing students for Urban Theory as well as other urban thematic courses.
YSS3222 Urban Theory
This course introduces students to key theoretical approaches in urban studies. Throughout the semester, they read selections from essential texts in the field, examining both their methodological techniques and theoretical contributions to understanding cities and urbanization. The course takes an interdisciplinary approach and is divided into three or four thematic units, which in previous iterations have covered topics such as modernity, justice, economy, spatiality, and infrastructure.
Urban Studies Methods Courses
YSS3235 Urban Spatial Representation
This course offers an introduction to spatial visualization tools for the analysis and representation of city forms, infrastructures and social phenomena. Students learn about the history of urban representational concepts (projection, abstraction, plan, perspective), and a number of current tools (digital model-building and plan/map representation and participatory methods). They acquire, interrogate and manipulate digital data relevant for urban spatial analysis, and learn how to visualise data such that it effectively communicates three-dimensional urban spatial conditions. The course also introduces students to key software packages used in urban planning and design (AutoCAD, Adobe Illustrator, and Sketchup/Rhinoceros 3d modelling packages).
YSS3273 Geospatial & Demographic Methods
This course gives training in spatial and demographic methods relevant to urban and social studies with three major foci: (a) essential theories regarding spatial and demographic structures and dynamics of cities (e.g., models of urban form, central place theory, rank-size rule); (b) methods of spatial visualization and analysis of urban social phenomena using (GIS) software (e.g., map projections, coordinate systems, spatial data manipulation & visualization, and geodatabase management); (c) techniques to calculate, interpret, and present basic spatial and demographic changes in cities using STATA software (e.g., immigration and ethnic diversity, racial segregation, concentrated poverty, and residential sprawl).
YSS3231 Methods in the Social Sciences
This course introduces various research methods in the social sciences, including survey methodology, quantitative data analysis, participant observation, and in‐depth interviewing.
Sample Urban Studies Electives
What follows is a sampling of our Urban Studies electives offered on a rotating basis each year. This demonstrates the wide variety of topics and world regions covered through our curriculum.
- YSS3218 Urban ASEAN: The Changing Southeast Asian City
- YSS3229 Urbanization and the Environment
- YSS3245 Key Debates in Urban Planning and Policy
- YSS3246 Cities of the Global South
- YSS3250 Cityscapes and Urban Form
- YSS3251 Urban Political Ecology
- YSS3269 Water and Waste in Urban Environments
- YSS3274 Urban Singapore
- YSS3275 Social Life of Cities
- YSS3282 Architecture and Society
- YSS3284 Healthy and Resilient Cities
- YSS3297 “Green” Cities and Urban Natures
- YSS3303 Cities and Economic Development
- YSS4220 Housing and Social Inequality
- YSS4234 Urban Heritage: Place, Memory, Identity
- YSS4247 Global and Transnational Urbanism
