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
Type of course
Course coordinators
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
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: