Undergraduate Course: The Making of African Urban Spaces in the 19th and 20th Centuries: Order, Disorder and Urban Identities (HIST10172)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Urban history is emerging at the cutting edge of African studies. Reconstructing the history of urban identities is essential for a deeper understanding of the present development of social and political processes in African countries, such as nationalist clashes and class, ethnic and gender conflicts. This course seeks to explore a variety of historical experiences which shaped African urban development in the 19th and 20th centuries and whose legacy has had a lasting impact on Africa's towns and cities of today. |
| Course description |
The course aims to provide an understanding of the main themes within the 19th and 20th centuries' urban history of Africa. Moving between pre-colonial, colonial and contemporary times, it examines the making of different forms of urban spaces in the context of the variety of socio-economic, cultural and political systems in which African towns and cities developed. The course explores the human agents and variety of forces which not only defined spatial forms, but also contributed to the identities of towns themselves. Topics include urbanisation, migration, race relations, the making of urban working classes, prostitution, crime, transportation, development and politics.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | A pass or passes in 40 credits of first level historical courses or equivalent and a pass or passes in 40 credits of second level historical courses or equivalent.
Before enrolling students on this course, Personal Tutors are asked to contact the History Honours Admission Secretary to ensure that a place is available (Tel: 503783). |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 History courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. Applicants should note that, as with other popular courses, meeting the minimum does NOT guarantee admission.
** as numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course ** |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, command of the body of knowledge considered in the course;
- Demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to read, analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship;
- Demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to understand, evaluate and utilise a variety of primary source material;
- Demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, the ability to develop and sustain scholarly arguments in oral and written form, by formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence;
- Demonstrate independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers.
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Reading List
AbdouMaliq Simone & Abdelghani Abouhani (eds.), Urban Africa: Changing Contours of Survival in the City (London, 2005).
David Anderson and Richard Rathbone, Africa¿s Urban Past (Oxford, 2000).
Liora Bigon, (2013) "Garden cities in colonial Africa: a note on historiography." Planning Perspectives 28, no. 3: 477-485.
Andrew Burton (ed.), The Urban Experience in Eastern Africa c.1750-2000 (Nairobi, 2002).
Andrew Burton, African Underclass: Urbanisation, Crime & Colonial Order in Dar es Salaam (Oxford, 2005).
Frederick Cooper (ed.), Struggle for the City: Migrant Labour, Capital and the State in Urban Africa (Beverly Hills, 1983).
Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, The History of African Cities South of the Sahara (Princeton, 2005).
James Ferguson, Expectations of modernity: myths and meanings of urban life on the Zambian Copperbelt (London, 1999).
Daniel Headrick, ¿Botany, Chemistry, and Tropical Development,¿ Journal of World History 7, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 1¿20.
Diana Jeater, ¿No Place for a Woman: Gwelo Town, Southern Rhodesia, 1894-1920¿, Journal of Southern African Studies (2000).
Jeanne Marie Penvenne, African Workers and Colonial Racism: Mozambican Strategies and Struggles in Lourenço Marques, 1822-1962 (Portsmouth, NH/Johannesburg/London, 1995).
Steven J. Salm and Toyin Falola (eds.), African Urban Spaces in Historical Perspective (Rochester, 2005).
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | African Urban Spaces |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Lawrence Dritsas
Tel: (0131 6)50 4011
Email: L.Dritsas@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Marie-Therese Talensby
Tel: (0131 6)50 3780
Email: M.T.Talensby@ed.ac.uk |
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