Postgraduate Course: Urban Project: An Introduction (fusion on-site) (EFIE11351)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | This course focuses on the understanding the different conditions of a particular city/urban area, identifying main challenges that underpinned its development across a range of thematic approaches that include: mobility and socio-spatial integration; public space, green infrastructure and wellbeing; housing and habitat, heritage and cultural context, among other interconnected themes. Students will be introduced to critical concepts around a range of disciplines that engage with urban analysis. They will identify a thematic perspective among those mentioned above, describe and analyse the current situation in the set urban area, and set the scene for future urban development challenges and opportunities. As 'an introduction' the course also provides a helpful underpinning to support urban approaches that may be included within the student's final thesis should they include city and urban analysis. |
| Course description |
This course encourages the adoption of a comprehensive approach towards the delivery of socially inclusive and sustainable urban transformation, from local-specific to global-regional interventions. Urban case studies will be presented and analysed within this approach.
In this course students will learn how to explore and analyse urban areas, through the understanding of a range of theoretical approaches in the context of local, context-specific conditions. Methods and techniques of investigation, research and analysis are introduced and developed.
Considering urban complexities and place-specific conditions, this course will focus on the identification and analysis of current conditions in a given urban context, exploring issues around: built environment; housing; education; transport; work; income; amenities; leisure and recreation; transport; identity; political and representative institutions. Current challenges and histories of transformation of the area you have chosen, will be focus of analysis in order to establish a clear framework through which to frame future interventions. Theoretical considerations will be included in the analysis, building on individual and group work.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - On-Site Fusion Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute will teach this course in a way that enables online and on-campus students to study together. This approach (our 'fusion' teaching model) offers students flexible and inclusive ways to study, and the ability to choose whether to be on-campus or online at the level of the individual course. It also opens up ways for diverse groups of students to study together regardless of geographical location. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities.
Students should be aware that:
- Classrooms used in this course will have additional technology in place: students might not be able to sit in areas away from microphones or outside the field of view of all cameras.
- Unless the lecturer or tutor indicates otherwise you should assume the session is being recorded.
As part of your course, you will need access to a personal computing device. Unless otherwise stated activities will be web browser based and as a minimum we recommend a device with a physical keyboard and screen that can access the internet.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 20 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 6,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 6,
Online Activities 4,
Other Study Hours 4,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
78 )
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| Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) |
Other Study: Scheduled Group-work Hours (hybrid online/on-campus) - 4
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Summative Assessment:
The course will be assessed by means of the following assessment components:
1) 2000 Word Textual Report (100%)
A single summative assessment to demonstrate knowledge and analytical skills to the specific urban condition identified.
Students are required to demonstrate awareness of existing theories surrounding urban analysis, to develop an understanding of the specific characteristics of the chosen location across a range af approaches.
Assignments will take on the form of a textual report by the student supplemented by other media such as photographic survey, cartographic analysis or interview outputs.
Word count: 2,000
Course assignments will be assessed on the extent to which students demonstrate clear critical understanding of core concepts in the course and are able to use these to analyse the proposed case-study location within the theoretical context provided. |
| Feedback |
At the start of the intensive period students will present reflective pieces and will receive verbal feedback from the teaching team and their peers. As the last activity on Day 2, student groups will present their critical approaches and initial analytical frameworks and will receive verbal and online feedback from the teaching team and their peers.
2 weeks before the assessment submission date, all students will have a formative feedback session to give guidance on their final submission. - Coursework support and feedback will be via 4 x 1hr sessions at different times in 24hr clock to support international students and their home locations. These are group sessions where students select the best time for them from the 4 available time options.
Students will receive written feedback on their final assessments. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Knowledge and understanding. To develop knowledge that covers and integrates the main areas regarding the city and the built environment, including their features, boundaries, terminology and conventions.
- Understanding of concepts and theories. The development of a critical knowledge and understanding of principle theories, concepts and principles regarding the city and the built environment.
- Communication of knowledge. The ability to communicate, using appropriate methods, to a range of audiences with different levels of knowledge and expertise, including peers and specialists.
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Reading List
Indicative Reading List:
Essential Reading:
Neil Brenner, Peter Marcuse, Margit Mayer (eds), Cities for People, Not for Profit: Critical Urban Theory and the Right to the City (London: Routledge, 2011).
David Harvey, Notes Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development, Spaces of Global Capitalism: Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development(London; New York: Verso, 2006).
David Harvey, Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference (Oxford; Blackwell, 1996).
Bullivant, L. (2012) Masterplanning Futures, London Routledge Introduction chapter pp.1-23.
Peter Marcuse, Do Cities Have a Future?, in The Imperiled Economy: Through the Safety Net, New York: Union of Radical Political Economists, 1988, pp. 189-200.
Margit Mayer, Contesting the Neoliberalization of Urban Governance, in Helga Leitner, Jamie Peck, and Eric S. Sheppard [eds.], Contesting Neoliberalism (New York; London: Guilford Press, 2006).
Philip R. Crowe & Karen Foley (2017) 'Exploring urban resilience in practice: a century of vacant sites mapping in Dublin, Edinburgh and Philadelphia', Journal of Urban Design, 22:2, 208-228, DOI: 10.1080/13574809.2017.1298401
Carmona, M. (2019) Principles for public space design, planning to do better, Urban Design International 24: 47-59.
Recommended Reading:
Reyner Banham, Paul Barker, Peter Hall & Cedric Price, Non-Plan: An Experiment in Freedom, in: New Society, Vol. 13, No. 338, 20 March 1969, p. 435-443.
Peter Hall, Cities in Civilization (London: W&S, 1998).
Henri Lefebvre, The Critique of Everyday Life, Vol. III: From Modernity to Modernism (Towards a Metaphilosophy of Daily Life) (London; New York: 2005).
Lewis Mumford, The City in History, New York; London: A Harvest Book, 1989.
Lloyd Rodwin, The British New Towns Policy: Problems and Implications, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1956.
Further Reading:
Neil Smith, Uneven Development: Nature, Capital, and the Production of Space (Oxford; Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1991).
Manfredo Tafuri, Towards a Critique of Architectural Ideology, in: K. Michael Hays (ed.), Architecture Theory since 1968, Cambridge, MA; London: MIT Press, 2000.
Michael Young & Peter Willmott, Family and Kinship in East London, London; New York: Penguin, 2007.
Sandercock, L, Making the Invisible Visible: A multicultural Planning History, University of California Press, California, 1998. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
- Urban analysis.
- Team work.
- Formulating and communicating a theoretical argument. |
| Keywords | Urban Design,Urbanism,Urban Planning and Analysis,Urban Case Studies,EFI,PG,Level 11 |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Soledad Garcia Ferrari
Tel: (0131 6)50 5689
Email: s.garcia@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Lawrence East
Tel:
Email: Lawrence.East@ed.ac.uk |
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