THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF COMMUNITY STUDIES
Critical and interdisciplinary exploration of foundational and contemporary theories in community studies. Examination of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and space as intersecting factors shaping individual and collective identities within diverse community contexts. Analysis of social life, social issues, and transformative change.
Prerequisites & course information
Requisites: Graduate/professional standing Course Designation: Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Fall 2025 Learning Outcomes: 1. Critically analyze competing theoretical frameworks of community across classical and contemporary traditions, including sociological, geographic, feminist, decolonial, and ecological perspectives. Audience: Graduate 2. Evaluate the intersection of race, space, and power in shaping community dynamics through frameworks such as racial formation theory, conflict theory, racial capitalism, settler colonialism, and decolonial thought. Audience: Graduate 3. Assess the impact of settler colonialism, neoliberalism, and globalization on communities by examining the restructuring of urban and rural spaces, the role of the state, and community responses through resistance, resurgence, communing, and movement building. Audience: Graduate 4. Apply interdisciplinary approaches to understand community and community-based transformations, exploring how social, ecological, and psychological dimensions influence identity, cooperation, conflict, and belonging. Audience: Graduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Critically analyze competing theoretical frameworks of community across classical and contemporary traditions, including sociological, geographic, feminist, decolonial, and ecological perspectives. Audience: Graduate 2. Evaluate the intersection of race, space, and power in shaping community dynamics through frameworks such as racial formation theory, conflict theory, racial capitalism, settler colonialism, and decolonial thought. Audience: Graduate 3. Assess the impact of settler colonialism, neoliberalism, and globalization on communities by examining the restructuring of urban and rural spaces, the role of the state, and community responses through resistance, resurgence, communing, and movement building. Audience: Graduate 4. Apply interdisciplinary approaches to understand community and community-based transformations, exploring how social, ecological, and psychological dimensions influence identity, cooperation, conflict, and belonging. Audience: Graduate
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027