New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles: Introduction to the US Cities 4219-SH0010
1. Introduction and overview
2. Chicago: The Fourth Partition (2013). Documentary
3. J. J. Macionis, V. N. Parrillo, Cities and urban life, Case study: Chicago, ‘City of the Big Shoulders’, pp. 320-328
Chicago neighborhoods’ economic and ethno-racial inequalities - an up to date newspaper article
4. Southside with You (2016). Movie
5. NYC: New York, PBS documentary, vol. 7
6. J. J. Macionis, V. N. Parrillo, Cities and urban life, Case study: New York – The ‘Big Apple’, pp. 74-84
New York City immigrant groups - an up to date newspaper article
7. West Side Story (1963)
8. Lost Los Angeles documentary, Season 2, Episode 2, Building the Metropolis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUkwI6vQxHs
9. J. J. Macionis, V. N. Parrillo, Cities and urban life, The development of North American cities, pp. 55-74, 84-85. Los Angeles and postwar urban planning
10. LaLa Land (2017). Movie
11. How to prepare a final essay?
12. Marriage Story (2019). Movie
New York City versus Los Angeles in an interview of the movie makers
13-15. Crime, refugee crisis, ethno-racial relations, homelessness in three cities. Public policy analyses and newspaper articles
Course coordinators
Type of course
Learning outcomes
1. KNOWLEDGE: Introductory knowledge about the history and sociology of the US three largest cities.
2. SKILLS: Understanding the academic textbook, think-tan articles, documentaries and movies, and seeing them as divergent sources of knowledge about cities. Preparing a reaction paper. Writing a short academic text.
3. SOCIAL COMPETENCES: discussing academic topics in polite and competent manner.
Assessment criteria
Participation and well informed in-class discussion (30%). Scale 2-5!
2. Two 1 page reaction papers to the assigned readings, documentaries or movies (30%, 15% each). Scale 2-5!
3. Final essay: 2000-3000 words, topic and research discussed with an instructor, based on assigned or additional readings (40%). Scale 2-5!
Each activity is graded 2 to 5!.
The final grade will be a result of: 0,3 x Participation grade + 0,15 x 1st response paper grade + 0,15 x 2nd response paper grade + 0,4 x final essay grade.
Bibliography
Cities and urban life by J. J. Macionis, V. N. Parrillo, Pearson, 2010
www.citylab.com