Classic Theories in Urban Studies 1900-SM-1-TSMK
The course is designed to familiarize participants with the classical theories characteristic of interdisciplinary urban studies, showing the historical evolution of reflection on urbanization processes in the 20th century. The course introduces phenomena pertinent to disciplines such as urban sociology and anthropology, urban planning, socio-economic geography, philosophy, and cultural studies. The lecture consists of sessions devoted to approximately a dozen selected thematic areas. It is complemented by practical work on sources analyzed by course participants within the exercise section.
The course comprises the following thematic blocks:
1. Organizational session
2. The social production of space
3. Main currents and roots of urban planning
4. Classical theories in urban sociology
5. Fundamentals of environmental psychology
6. Modernism and postmodernism
7. The history of urban regeneration and critiques of urban renewal
8. The socialist and post-socialist city
9. The right to the city and the historical roots of municipalism
10. Classical concepts of sustainable urbanization
11. The phenomenological city
12. Gentrification and spatial segregation
13. Final assessment
The thematic blocks listed above are addressed in both the lecture and exercise components.
Student workload: 5 ECTS = 5 × 25h = 125h
(N) – work in direct contact with the lecturer
(S) – student’s individual (independent) work
Classes (lecture) = 30h (N)
Classes (exercises) = 30h (N)
Written test during the lecture, consultation and discussion of the final
assignment during exercises = 5h (N)
Independent preparation for the test = 15h (S)
Preparation of the final assignment for exercises = 15h (S)
Independent preparation for exercises – 2h/week = 30h (S)
Total = approx. 125h
Type of course
Mode
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
A graduate of the course:
In the realm of knowledge
- Knows the most important classical theories characteristic of urban studies.
In the realm of skills
- Is able to use their interdisciplinary theoretical knowledge to perform practical analyses of urbanization processes.
In the realm of social competence
- Accepts critical feedback and responds constructively to opinions expressed in academic debate.
Assessment criteria
Passing the course requires successfully completing both its components: the lecture section and the exercise section.
Lecture section: assessed by a written examination (50% of the final grade).
Credit for the exercises is based on the credit work and verification of participation in the discussion. (50% of the final grade).
Additional criteria include attendance at the required number of classes and systematic work during the semester, which may raise the participant’s
overall course grade.
Bibliography
Lectures:
1. Castells M., Kwestia miejska, trans. B. Jałowiecki, J. Piątkowski, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warszawa 1982.
2. Drozda Ł., Urbanistyka oddolna: Koszmar partycypacji a wytwarzanie przestrzeni, Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Warszawa 2019.
3. Drozda Ł., Uszlachetniając przestrzeń. Jak działa gentryfikacja i jak się ją mierzy, Instytut Wydawniczy Książka i Prasa, Warszawa 2017.
4. Gehl J., Svarre B., Jak studiować życie w przestrzeni publicznej, trans. M.A. Urbańska, Narodowy Instytut Architektury i Urbanistyki, Warszawa 2021.
5. Howard E., Miasta-ogrody jutra, trans. M. Trykozko, Centrum Architektury, Warszawa 2015.
6. Jacobs J., Życie i śmierć wielkich miast Ameryki, trans. Ł. Mojsak, Centrum Architektury, Warszawa 2014.
7. Jałowiecki B., Szczepański M.S., Miasto i przestrzeń w perspektywie socjologicznej, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, Warszawa 2002.
8. Jałowiecki B., Społeczne wytwarzanie przestrzeni, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, Warszawa 2010.
9. Lewicka M., Psychologia miejsca, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, Warszawa 2012.
10. Le Corbusier, W stronę architektury, trans. T. Swoboda, Centrum Architektury, Warszawa 2012.
11. Norberg-Schulz Ch., Architektura jako obraz świata, przeł. M. Kurkowska [w:] B.J. Gawryszewska, J.T. Królikowski (eds.), Społeczno-kulturowe podstawy gospodarowania przestrzenią. Wybór tekstów, Wydawnictwo SGGW, Warszawa 2010.
Classes:
1. The social production of space
• Italo Calvino, Niewidzialne miasta, trans. Alina Kreisberg, Grupa Wydawnicza Foksal, Warszawa 2013.
2. Main currents and roots of urban planning
• Charles Baudelaire, Paryski splin, trans. R. Engelking, Wydawnictwo Słowo/obraz Terytoria, Gdańsk 2008.
• The Human Scale (2013), dir. Andreas Dalsgaard
3. Classical theories in urban sociology
• Call Northside 777 (1947), dir. Henry Hathaway
• Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003), dir. Thom Andersen
4. Fundamentals of environmental psychology
• Story/conversation about the perception of space in Warsaw — the area around home, the area around the University of Warsaw, imagined childhood maps (possibly with a drawing).
• Tomasz Bodnar, Postrzeganie przestrzeni miejskiej przez uczniów – przypadek Darłowa”, „Prace Geograficzne”, 2025, 177, pp. 7–27.
• M. H. Matthews, Environmental Cognition of Young Children: Images of Journey to School and Home Area, „Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers”, 1984, 9(1), pp. 89–105.
5. Modernism and postmodernism
• Superjednostka (2014), dir. Teresa Czepiec
• Lidia Klein, Postmodernizm polski. Architektura i urbanistyka. [1]. Antologia tekstów. Stowarzyszenie 40 000 Malarzy, Warszawa 2013.
• Lidia Klein, Alicja Gzowska, Postmodernizm polski. Architektura i urbanistyka. [2]. Z architektami rozmawiają Alicja Gzowska i Lidia Klein, Stowarzyszenie 40 000 Malarzy, Warszawa 2013.
6. History of urban regeneration and critiques of urban renewal
• A project from Joshua Charow’s YouTube channel about New York City lofts today.
• Bartosz Józefiak i Wojciech Górecki, Łódź. Miasto po przejściach, Czarne, Wołowiec 2020.
7. The socialist and post-socialist city
• Panelstory aneb Jak se rodí sídliste (1979), dir. Věra Chytilová
• Za żelazną bramą (2009), dir. Heidrun Holzfeind
• Bloki (2017), dir. Konrad Królikowski
8. The right to the city and the historical roots of municipalism
• Rotes Wien
• The Red Vienna Sourcebook, red. Robert B. McFarland, Georg
Spitaler i Ingo Zechner, Camden House, Rochester, New York 2020.
• Children's participation in urban planning.
• Terese Wilhelmsen, Steinar Øvreås, Hege Roll-Hansen, Anne- Line Bjerknes i Simen Thorrud, Developing child-friendly cities: Young children’s participation in urban planning, „Journal of Childhood Education & Society”, nr 4, 2023, s. 274–290.
9. Classical concepts of sustainable urbanization
• The City (1939), dir. Ralph Steiner, Willard Van Dyke
• Selected issues of Działkowiec, an illustrated monthly magazine dedicated to allotment gardens from various decades
• Selected episode of the documentary series Działkowcy (2021)
• Olivia Laing, Ogród poza czasem. W poszukiwaniu wspólnego raju, przeł. Dominika Cieśla-Szymańska, Wołowiec 2025.
10. The phenomenological city
• selected memories from: Pamiętniki bezrobotnych. Issues 1-57, preface: L. Krzywicki, Warszawa 1933.
• Stephanie Weismann, The Smellscape of Jewish Lublin––and its Afterlife w: The afterlife of the Shoah in Central and Eastern European cultures: concepts, problems, and the aesthetics of postcatastrophic narration, red. Anna Artwińska i Anja Tippner, Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon 2022, s. 115–131.
11. Gentrification and spatial segregation
• Bruce Norris, Clybourne Park, Bloomsbury, London 2015.
• Listy z Wilczej (2025), dir. Arjun Talwar / Aquarius (2016), dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: