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Frameworks of Urban Governance

Graduate · Historical course

January IAP 2007

Urban governance comprises the various forces, institutions, and movements that guide economic and physical development, the distribution of resources, social interactions, and other aspects of daily life in urban areas. This course examines governance from legal, political, social, and economic perspectives. In addition, we will discuss how these structures constrain collective decision making about particular urban issues (immigration, education…). Assignments will be nightly readings and a short paper relating an urban issue to the frameworks outlined in the class.

Readings

  • Frug, Gerald. “The City as a Legal Concept.” Harvard Law Review 93, no. 6 (1980): 1059-1060 and 1095-1120.
    Listed reading
  • Barron, David. “A Localist Critique of the New Federalism.” Duke Law Journal 51, no. 377 (2001): 390-397.
    Listed reading
  • Briffault, Richard. “Our Localism: Part I - The Structure of Local Government Law.” Columbia Law Review 90, no. 1 (1990): 1-6.
    Listed reading
  • Ford, Richard. “Law’s Territory: A History of Jurisdiction.” Michigan Law Review 97, no. 843 (1999): 858-861 and 913-928.
    Listed reading
  • Peterson, Paul. “Who Should Do What? Divided Responsibility in the Federal System.” The Brookings Review 13, no. 2 (1995): 6-11.
    Listed reading
  • Bridges, Amy. Morning Glories: Municipal Reform in the Southwest . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999, pp. 12-17 and 207-222. ISBN: 0691010099.
    Listed reading
  • Caro, Robert. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York . New York, NY: Vintage Press, 1975, pp. 71-76, 172-176, and 15-20. ISBN: 0394720245.
    Listed reading
  • Cohen, Cathy, and Michael Dawson. “Neighborhood Poverty and African American Politics.” American Political Science Review 87, no. 2 (1993): 286-302.
    Listed reading
  • Lewis, Paul. Shaping Suburbia . Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996, pp. 208-225. ISBN: 0822955954.
    Listed reading
  • Dreier, Peter, et al. Place Matters . Wichita, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2005, pp. 218-226, 251-254, and 257-260. ISBN: 0700613641.
    Listed reading
  • Wirth, Louis. “Urbanism as a Way of Life.” The American Journal of Sociology 44, no. 1 (1938): 1-24.
    Listed reading
  • Young, Iris. Inclusion and Democracy . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 133-141. ISBN: 0198297556.
    Listed reading
  • Harris, Fredrick. “Something Within: Religion in African-American Political Activism.” Journal of Politics 56, no. 1 (1994): 42-68.
    Listed reading
  • Della Porta, Donatella, and Mario Diani. Social Movements: An Introduction . Boston, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006, pp. 89-98, 145-150, and 188-191. ISBN: 1405102829.
    Listed reading
  • Harvey, David. “From Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism.” Geografiska Annaler 71, series B (1989): 3-17.
    Listed reading
  • Logan, John, and Harvey Molotch. Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988, pp. 1-4 and 32-39. ISBN: 0520063414.
    Listed reading
  • Savitch, H. V., and Paul Kantor. Cities in the International Marketplace . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004, pp. 29-54. ISBN: 0691120145.
    Listed reading
  • Shefter, Martin. Political Crisis, Fiscal Crisis . New York, NY: Basic Books, 1987, pp. 219-235. ISBN: 0231079435.
    Listed reading
  • Sellers, Jeffrey. Governing from Below . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 178-190. ISBN: 0521651530.
    Listed reading
Sources