Memo#5 Urban China III: Inequality and Cultural Economy
Order Description
Write one single page Memo which should summarize following article: Ren, Xuefei (2013) Ch4. Inequality and Ch5 Cultural Economy
Film: Ai Weiwei, Never Sorry (2012)
SOC 161-001: International Development
Spring 2014
Tues & Thurs 10:20-11:40am, South Kedzie S109
Instructor: Xuefei Ren, Associate Professor of Sociology & Global Urban Studies
Office Hours: Tues 2-4pm, 401C Berkey Hall; Email: renxuefe@msu.edu
TA: Jihan Mohammed, PhD student in Sociology
Office hours: Tues 12:00-2pm; Berkey Hall Room 8 (*The room is in the basement);
Email: mohamm62@msu.edu
Outskirts of Kolkata, West Bengal, India/ August 2014, photo by X. Ren
Course Description
This course on international development takes an ‘urban’ approach and examines how urbanization drives development and social change. This first half of the semester introduces major concepts and theoretical perspectives in global urban studies, and the second half takes a closer look at rapidly urbanizing China and India. Currently China has more than 150 cities and India has close to 50 cities with a population over a million. Both countries are faced with daunting development challenges in housing provision, infrastructure, and environmental governance. We will read about a variety of topics, such as on land grabs, urban renewal, gentrification, migration, environmental crises, and inequalities, with case studies from China and India.
Requirement
1. Attendance
I will not check attendance with quizzes etc., but not coming to lectures will significantly affect your grades. You will do very poorly if you don’t come to lectures and plan to study for exams only with my power point slides, which will be posted on D2L.
2. Exams (midterm: 30 pts; final: 40 pts)
There will be a midterm and a final exam. The midterm covers the first 6 weeks of lectures, and the final exam covers the whole semester. There will be review sessions before the exams, led either by myself or the TA. These are in-class and close-book exams, and you are not allowed to consult your notes or with others. The exams will be a combination of multiple choice questions and short answers, such as asking you to explain key terms and concepts. No make-up exams will be arranged so please make sure to be at these exams. Students with disabilities who need special arrangements for the exams should come to talk to me in the first week of the semester.
3. Memos (5 points for each, 6 memos, total: 30 pts)
In addition to the midterm and final exam, you are required to submit a total of six memos for the weekly readings (see assigned weeks below). The memos should be one-page long, single-spaced, and you need to first summarize the readings and then raise one or two questions in the end. I will incorporate your questions in the lectures. You will need to post your memos in the designated Dropbox folders on D2L. The memos should be submitted to D2L by midnight on Mondays.
*Memos required for Week 2, 4, 6, 9, 11 & 13.
Books & Articles
You need to purchase (or rent) the following two books—both are available from the MSU bookstore. The rest of the readings will be posted on D2L in PDF files.
1. Cities in a World Economy, by Saskia Sassen, 2012, 4th edition, Sage Publications.
2. Urban China, by Xuefei Ren, 2013, Polity Press.
Grading Scale:
4.0= 100-90 3.5= 80-89 3.0= 70-79 2.5= 60-69 2.0= 50-59 1.5= 40-49 1.0= 30-39
Extra Credit
To be announced in the class through out the semester.
Honor Option:
If you are interested in the honors option, you can either write a 20-page paper (double-spaced, 12.0 font, Time New Roman) on a topic related to international development, or create a blog perhaps with both texts and photos. The blog can be composed of a number of shorter essays discussing one topic, and the total word count should be about 6,000. Please adhere to the following dates if you decide to pursue the honor option.
March 3. Submit a one-page proposal outlining your topic, relevance to this course (i.e. international development), and how you are going to compose the paper/blog. You can talk with me after class or during office hours for finalizing a topic.
April 14. Submit your paper in a hard copy and bring it to class. If you decide to do a blog, then send me the link on this date. I will give you feedback in the next week, i.e. by April 21, and based on the feedback, you have about 2 weeks to revise your essay or blog entries.
May 7. Final submission; bring a hard copy of your revised essay to class, or send me a link of your blog.
SCHEDULE
Section 1. Cities in a World Economy (Sassen 2012 book)
Week 1/Jan 13. Introduction
Ch1. Place and Production in the Global Economy
Week 2/Jan 20. National and Transnational Urban Systems (Memo #1, due on Jan 19th, should cover Ch2 & 3)
Ch2. The Urban Impact of Economic Globalization
Ch3. National and Transnational Urban Systems
Week 3/Jan 27. The New Urban Economy
Ch4. The New Urban Economy
Ch5. Issues and Case studies in the New Urban Economy
Week 4/Feb3. Inequalities within and between Cities (Memo #2, due on Feb 2, should cover Ch 6 & 9)
Ch6. The New Inequalities within Cities
Ch9. A New Geography of Centers and Margins
Week 5/Feb 10. Global Governance Challenges
Ch7. Global Cities and Global Survival Circuits
Ch8. The Urbanizing of Global Governance Challenges
Week 6/Feb 17. Global Urban Networks (Memo #3, due on Feb 16, should cover the 3 articles below)
John Friedmann and Goetz Wolff, “World City Formation,”
John Friedmann, “The World City Hypothesis,”
Stephen Graham, “Global Grids of Glass,”
Week 7. Review and Midterm
Feb 24. Review session
Feb 26. In-class midterm exam
Section II. Urbanization and Inequality in China and India
Week 8/March 3. China’s Urban Transition
Ren, Xuefei (2013) Ch 1. China Urbanized
Film: CBS documentary China Rises 1 & 2 (2008)
Spring Break ?
Week 9/ March 17. Urban China I: Governing Chinese Cities (Memo #4, due on March 16, should cover Ch2 on governance)
Ren, Xuefei (2013) Ch 2. Governance
Film: CBS documentary China Rises 3 & 4 (2008)
Week 10/ March 24. Urban China II: Migration
Ren, Xuefei (2013) Ch3. Migration,
Film: Last Train Home
Week 11/March 31. Urban China III: Inequality and Cultural Economy (Memo #5, due on March 30th, should cover Ch4 and Ch5)
Ren, Xuefei (2013) Ch4. Inequality and Ch5 Cultural Economy
Film: Ai Weiwei, Never Sorry (2012)
Week 12/April 7. Urban India I: Speculative Urbanism
Goldman, Michael. 2011. “Speculative urbanism and the making of the next world-class city,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 35 (3), p.555-81.
Ghertner, Asher. 2011. “Rule by aesthetics: world-class city making in Delhi.” Ch11 in Worlding Cities.
Week 13/April 14. Urban India II: Slumdog Urbanism (Memo #6, due on April 13, should cover Ch1 below)
Weinstein, Liza. 2014. The Durable Slum. Ch1. Becoming Asia’s Largest Slum
Film: Slum on Sale (or Slumdog Millionaire)
Week 14/April 21. The Elephant and the Dragon
Robyn Meredith, 2007. The Elephant and the Dragon: The rise of India and China and what it
means for all of us. Norton. Ch8. Geopolitics mixed with Oil and Water, and Ch9. A Catalyst for Competitiveness
Week 15/ April 28. Review Sessions