The Country The City

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Is it true that modernity denotes the extinction of the rural? Does the rural necessarily imply traditional ways of life in idyllic landscapes? This course raises these two interrelated questions in order to challenge much received wisdom in the social sciences as well as in popular culture that equates the “modern” with the city and the “traditional” with the countryside. Reading classic and contemporary works in political science, history, anthropology, sociology, and economics, we shall explore the myriad meanings of modernity in rural contexts, whether contemporary or historical, Western or non-Western. Along the way, we shall strive towards a more sophisticated understanding of the how rural peoples, crops, and landscapes have shaped – and continue to shape – modern societies and imaginations.