Sociology
10 C. Chase-Dunn
TuThurs
9:40-11:00 Sproul
1102
The City
W. O. J. Niewencamp, “The
mill at
This is a
course on the emergence and transformation of human settlement systems in
comparative and evolutionary perspective. We discuss the annual circular treks
of nomads from camp to camp, the emergence of winter hamlets and the transition
to permanent villages and towns, the emergence and growth of cities, and
city-systems and their interactions with still-nomadic peoples, the changing
structure of cities and urban regions and the development of the contemporary
global city system. Settlement systems are networks of interacting settlements.
We will study the forces that have led humans to live in larger and larger
urban agglomerations and the problems of sustainability that urban growth
processes have created and are creating. Topics that will be covered are:
problems associated with the estimation of the population sizes of modern and
premodern settlements; settlement size distributions; high density and low
density settlements; the relationship between empires and cities; the process
of urbanization by which the proportion of the total population of a society
living in cities goes up; world cities and global cities; megacities and slums
in the Global South; the whole global system of settlements, the Southern
California urban agglomeration; and the problems associated with the pattern of
low-density urban growth (urban sprawl)
that are so apparent in Southern California. We will also study industrial
urbanization, megacities and the urbanization of the global system with its
world cities tightly linked to one another by communications, transportation,
trade and organizational networks. Contemporary urban issues in
The
course will employ the comparative world-systems perspective to examine the conditions
and problems of living in settlements in evolutionary perspective. A primer on
the modern world-systems perspective is Thomas Richard Shannon’s An
Introduction to the World-Systems Perspective (Westview 1996). Used copies
are available from half.com
Grading is based on the midterm exam (30%) [May
5], the final exam (30%), [June 11] attendance (15%), and a short (less than 10
pp. typed, double-spaced) research paper
that comparatively analyses the settlement system of a modern country or a
whole world-system (25%) [due date June 4]. The midterm and the final will be
in-class essay exams.
The following books are available at the Campus Store and are on reserve:
Mike Davis, Planet of Slums
William Cronon, Chicago and the Great West
The Cities Reader is available on the course Ilearn web site..
March 31 Overview of
“the city”
April 7 The comparative world-systems perspective
*T.D. Hall and C.
Chase-Dunn, “Global social change in
the long run” Chapter 3. in
C. Chase-Dunn and S. Babones (eds.) Global
Social Change. (under course materials on course ilearn web site)
April 9 Settlement
Systems
* Christopher Chase-Dunn, “The role of
ecosettlement systems in social evolution”
in Cities Reader.
Settlement systems: hamlets, villages and towns
High-density and low-density settlements
* Christopher Chase-Dunn “The
changing role of cities in world-systems” in Cities Reader.
Jill
E. Neitzel (ed.)
* Christopher Chase-Dunn, Daniel Pasciuti, Alexis Alvarez and Thomas D.
Hall “ The ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian world-systems”
in Cities Reader.
Marc
Van De Mieroop, The
East Asia, South Asia, Mesoamerica, the
*Christopher Chase-Dunn and Alice Willard, Systems of Cities and
World-Systems in the City Reader.
* Christopher Chase-Dunn, Alexis Alvarez and Daniel Pasciuti, “Power and size: urbanization and empire formation in world-systems” in Cities Reader.
April 28 Cities, Empires and Hegemony2
* Christopher Chase-Dunn and Alice Willard, “Cities
in the Central Political/Military Network Since CE 1200:Size Hierarchy and Domination in Cities
Reader.
Charles
Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European states, AD 990-1990
(Blackwell, 1990)
* Christopher Chase-Dunn and E. Susan Manning, “City
systems and world-systems: Four millennia of city growth and decline’ in Cities
Reader.
Janet
Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony (
The urbanization of
societies and world urbanization
From capitalist city-state in the semiperiphery to
capitalist nation-state in the core; The
rise of the Dutch republic
Abel Wolman, “The metabolism of cities.” Science 1965
Saskia Sassen, The Global City:
May 5 Midterm Exam
May 7 Urbanization
in the
* William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis:
May 12 Urbanization
in the
* William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the
Great West Chapters 4-6
May 14 Urbanization
in the
* William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the
Great West Chapter 7-Epilogue
* Christopher Chase-Dunn, “The
coming of urban primacy in Latin America”in Cities Reader.
*Mike
Davis, Planet of Slums Chapters 1-5.
David
A. Smith,
[May 25 holiday]
*Mike
Davis, Planet of Slums Chapters
6-Epilogue.
Allen J. Scott and Edward Soja, The
City:
Suburban power and the
“globalization project”
Low density and multicentric cities
Mixed Use Developments
June 4 Lyrical Upsurge (Research
Paper is Due) (study questions for the Final handed out)
Instruction ends June 5
June 11 8 am final exam
Quarter ends June 12