THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2023/2024

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Edinburgh College of Art : Architecture and Landscape Architecture

Postgraduate Course: Latin American Cities USD (ARCH11202)

Course Outline
SchoolEdinburgh College of Art CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryEmergent cities focuses on urbanisation in the Global South, where cities are facing a range of challenges related to migration, conflict, environmental risk, informality, lack of suitable infrastructural provision and housing. The course is rooted in understanding the range of approaches taken in the analysis of these cities, from planning policy development to social and cultural perceptions of inhabitants. The course explores the nature of the physical environment of these cities and the natural and technological conditions, as well as infrastructures, that allow for increasing resilience.

The course has the following aims:

To provide knowledge of contemporary theoretical approaches to understanding the development of urban areas in emergent and growing cities across the Global South.

To encourage the application of these theoretical approaches to the analysis of recent urban strategies in emergent cities, exploring in particular cases of rapid urban expansion, development and regeneration projects, and risk and resilience strategies.

To enable the understanding of emergent city case studies, to promote cross-city comparisons and engage in critical urban analyses.
Course description This course provides an introduction to the development of cities in the Global South with specific focus in Africa and Latin America. The approach is rooted on the understanding of urban development as a socio-spatial process. New institutionalism is introduced as the main theoretical framework for the analysis of urban interventions in these cities. Within this conceptual framework, a new political economy perspective is added to the institutionalist approach, looking not only at how politics and economics influence each other, but also at how these are mediated by social (and cultural) institutions, and how the relations between all three of these evolve historically. Following this introduction and analytical framework, the course focuses on key themes linked to urban strategies occurring in growing and emergent cities of the Global South: its rapid urban expansion, the redevelopment and conservation of historic centres, migration, housing, public space and wellbeing, new expansions and regeneration processes such as those associated to waterfront and port areas, and transport and land use strategies. The course will also explore issues around informality, the provision of services and climate change-related risks. These key themes are discussed through the introduction of a range of cases studies.

Indicative schedule

Week 1: Introduction to ¿Emergent Cities¿
- Physical and historical context for the development of Global South cities in Latin America and Africa
- Evolution of urban settlements in the Global South
- Contemporary urban challenges and strategies: overview of trends
Week 2: An analytical framework for the study of ¿Emergent Cities¿
- New institutionalism
- New political economy
- Multi-layered governance: state, private sector, NGOs, community
Week 3: Rapid expansion of Global South cities during the 20th & 21st centuries (Part 1)
- The Modern Movement model in the Global South
- Growth of the ¿informal¿ city
- From community response to international policy: aided self-help and sites & services
Week 4: Rapid expansion of Global South cities during the 20th & 21st centuries (Part 2)
- Slum upgrading
- Social production of housing
- Conflict and migration
Week 5: Regeneration of Historic Centres
- Evolution of conservation policies in the Global South
- Regeneration projects and their impacts
- Citizen participation and budgeting
Week 6: Transport and land use
- Urban sprawl ¿ formal and informal transport
- Policy and urban design responses:
- Integrated transport and land use
- Upgrading & prioritising of public transport
- Linking the informal city to the centre
Week 7: Governance
- The right to the city
- Participatory budgeting
Week 8: Risk and resilience strategies and co-production
Week 9: Strategic urban planning
Week 10: New centralities
- Waterfront developments and regeneration
Week 11
Essays review / presentations
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Demonstrate understanding of the contemporary theoretical approaches surrounding urban development strategies in emergent cities.
  2. Demonstrate an ability to apply the knowledge gained through the examples discussed in the course as a basis for inquiry into the critical analysis of a specific process of strategic development in emergent cities.
  3. Demonstrate the ability to communicate using appropriate methods and media, to a range of audiences, through the following activities, presentations during group seminars and the production and submission of an academic essay.
Reading List
Bachelard, G. (1964) The Poetics of Space, Orion Press, New York, NY

Castells, M. (1996) The Rise of the Network Society, Blackwell, Oxford, UK

Feireiss K., Brillienbourg A., Klumpner, H. Informal City: Caracas Case Prestel: London

Flyvbjerg, B. (1988) Empowering civil society: Habermas, Foucault and the question of conflict in M. Douglass and J. Friedmann (eds) Cities for Citizens: Planning and the Rise of Civil Society in a Global Age, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK

Giddens, A. (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK

Gilbert, A. (1994) The Latin American City, The Latin America Bureau: London

Harvey, D. (1989) Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, UK

Healey, P. (1996) The communicative turn in spatial planning theory and its implications for spatial strategy formulation, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, vol 23, pp. 217, 34

Healey, P. (1999) Institutionalist analysis, communicative planning and shaping places, Journal of Planning Education and Research, vol 19, pp. 111, 22

Healey, P. (2007) Urban Complexity and Spatial Strategies: Towards a Relational Planning for Our Times, Routledge, Abingdon, UK, and New York, NY

Jenkins, P., Smith, H. and Wang, Y. P. (2007) Planning and Housing in the Rapidly Urbanising World, Routledge, London and New York, NY

Madanipour, A. (1996) Design of Urban Space: An Inquiry into a Socio-Spatial Process, Wiley, Chichester, UK

Marshall, R. (ed) (2001) Waterfronts in Post-Industrial Cities, E & FN Spon Press, London and New York, NY

Zukin, S. (1991) Post-modern landscapes: Mapping culture and power, in S. Lash and J. Friedman (eds) Modernity and Identity, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, UK

Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
KeywordsUrbanism,Urban Strategies,Urban Design,Latin America
Contacts
Course organiserDr Soledad Garcia Ferrari
Tel: (0131 6)50 5689
Email: s.garcia@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Ellie Wallace
Tel: (0131 6)50 2309
Email: Ellie.Wallace@ed.ac.uk
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