GEOG 322 - Ecologies of the City

With half of the world’s population living in and around cities, the needs of urban-based populations and economies dominate non-urban peoples, places, and habitats worldwide. This course begins with an introduction to political ecology, a body of knowledge combining political economy and cultural ecology. Political economy is the study of how different societies are connected globally, and cultural ecology is the study of the relationship between a society and its natural environment. Although political ecology largely focuses on places and cultures of “pristine” or “native” nature in “other” countries, this course turns to urban settings to explore how people understand urban areas and what their relationship to the environment in these areas is. Case studies of specific places (from small cities in upstate New York to global cities in distant countries) are used to learn about urban political ecological issues through readings, assignments, discussion, and interaction with local/regional experts on urban environmental problems. Students apply their knowledge about urban political ecology both collaboratively, in a final project conducted in a workshop-type setting, and individually, in a final term paper.

Credits: 1.00
Corequisite: None
Prerequisites: None
Major/Minor Restrictions: None
Class Restriction: No First-year
Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
Liberal Arts CORE: None

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