KSOD 2645 - Global Urban Sociology

WEEK 1 - GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO URBAN SOCIOLOGY (SUKRITI ISSAR ET

AL)

Many streams of urban sociology: outlines of urban history (U.S., Europe, Asia, Latin America,

Africa). The classics and the city. Urbanization process versus cities. Cities in History. Towards a

planetary urbanization? Sociology and urban studies.

Andreotti, A., & Coletto, D. (2023). The Contribution of the Sociological Approach to Comparative

Urban Studies. In The Routledge Handbook of Comparative Global Urban Studies (pp. 142-155).

Routledge.

Garrido, M., Ren, X., & Weinstein, L. (2021). Toward a global urban sociology: Keywords. City &

Community, 20(1), 4-12.

Brenner N. and Schmid C. (2015),  Towards a new epistemology of the urban? City, vol. 19, n° 2-3,

• 151-182.

Fourchard, L. (2023). Comparative Urban Studies and African Studies at the Crossroads: From the

Colonial Situation to Twilight Institutions. In The Routledge Handbook of Comparative Global

Urban Studies (pp. 58-72). Routledge.

WEEK 2 - TERRITORIES, METHODS, CATEGORIES, SCALES (MARCO CREMASCHI)

How to study urban societies ? Context and scales :

Brenner (théorie urbaine), Forrester et Kudva (Teaching échelle), Swyngedouw (politique de

l'échelle)...

WEEK 3 - SPATIAL THINKING (SUKRITI ISSAR)

Urban sociology has always drawn on maps, spatial thinking, considering distance, proximity,

exposure etc. What does scale mean when thinking spatially? How is regression analysis extended

to the spatial context?

MUST READ: Logan, John R. 2012. Making a Place for Space: Spatial Thinking in Social Science.

Annual Review of Sociology 38: 507-24.

HOMEWORK: Read or re-read any paper of your choice about spatial methods and fill in the excel

sheet sent to you.

WEEK 4 - URBAN POLITICAL ECONOMY AND HOUSING  (SUKRITI ISSAR)

Molotch, H. (1993). The political economy of growth machines. Journal of urban affairs, 15(1), 29-

53.

Pattillo, Mary. 2013. Housing: Commodity versus Right. Annual Review of Sociology, 39: 509–31.

Aalbers, Manuel B. 2009. The Sociology and Geography of Mortgage Markets: Reflections on the

Financial Crisis. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Volume 33 (2): 281–90.

WEEK 5 - PRODUCTION OF THE CITY (MARCO CREMASCHI)

How is the city produced, in its materiality and symbolism? What is regular in urban production

processes, and what differentiates cities from one another? Sociology of architecture

-Therborn, G. 2002. Monumental Europe: The National Years. On the Iconography of European

Capital Cities. Housing Theory and Society 19(1):26-47

• Ponzini, D. (2011). Large scale development projects and star architecture in the absence of

democratic politics: The case of Abu Dhabi, UAE. Cities, 28(3), 251-259.

-Akhil Gupta (2021) Infrastructure as decay and the decay of infrastructure.

WEEK 6 - URBAN INFORMALITY I (SUKRITI ISSAR)

Durst, N. J. and J. Wegmann. 2017. Informal Housing in the United States. International Journal of

Urban and Regional Research, 41 (2): 282-297.

Holland, Alisha. 2014. The Distributive Politics of Enforcement. American Journal of Political

Science, 1–15.

WEEK 7 - URBAN INFORMALITY II (MARCO CREMASCHI)

Urban segregation and urban informality. Informality as an object of study; informality as a

perspective for analyzing the city; informality as an instrument of power. Economic informality and

urban informality. Is the informal informal? Is it illegal? Hybrid urban orders. Case studies: Rome,

European capital of informality

WEEK 8 - THE SOCIAL DIVISION OF URBAN SPACE (BRUNO COUSIN)

How urban inequalities, exposure to diversity and segregation have been since the beginning crucial

issues addressed by sociologists studying the city - Defining and measuring urban segregation

(indices, the use of big data) - The causes and the effects of segregation.

• Duncan O. and Duncan B. (1955) “A methodological analysis of segregation indices” American

Sociological Review 20(2): 210–217.

• Massey D. S. and Denton N. A. (1998) American Apartheid. Segregation and the Making of the

Underclass. Cambridge (MA), Harvard University Press, chapters 2, 3 and 4.

• Sampson R. J. et al. (2002) “Assessing ‘Neighborhood Effects’: Social Processes and New

Directions in Research” Annual Review of Sociology 28: 443-478.

WEEK 9 - GENDER AND THE CITY (BRUNO COUSIN)

Norms of urbanity and the public realm - Gender, racial and intersectional boundaries and symbolic

barriers within public spaces - Neighborhood sociability and forms of micro-segregation

• Spain D. (2014) “Gender and Urban Space” Annual Review of Sociology 40: 581-598.
• Le Renard S. A. (2011) “Gender, class, nationality, and women’s access to public places in

Riyadh” Sociétés contemporaines 84: 151-172.

• Anderson E. (2015) “The White Space” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 1(1): 10-21.

WEEK 10 - DYNAMICS AND PROCESSES OF URBAN SEGREGATION (BRUNO

COUSIN)

Local transformations - From the US ghetto to the “hyperghetto”? - On the possibility of cross-

national comparisons - Local social upgrading, displacement and the gentrification debates - The

segregative effects of suburbanization and urban sprawl - The role of public policies - Individual

and intergenerational trajectories

• Butler T. (2007) “Re-urbanizing London Docklands: Gentrification, Suburbanization or New

Urbanism?” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 31(4): 759-781.

• Sharkey P. (2008) “The intergenerational transmission of context” American Journal of Sociology

113(4): 931-969.

• Préteceille E. (2012) “Segregation, social mix and public policies in Paris” Pp. 153-176, in T.

Maloutas and K. Fujita (eds), Residential Segregation in Comparative Perspective: Making Sense

of Contextual Diversity. London and New York, Routledge.

WEEK 11 - ENVIRONMENTALIZING URBAN SOCIOLOGY: THEORETICAL

DEBATES (MANISHA ANANTHARAMAN)

How environmental issues have become central to the sociological analysis of cities, reshaping

understandings of inequality, governance, and everyday urban life.  How attention to urban

metabolisms, material flows, and temporalities challenge purely social accounts of the city.

Questioning whether ecology is a metaphor or a material force shaping urban inequalities.

Rethinking urban theory and methods beyond human-centered and static models.

• Angelo, Hilary, and Miriam Greenberg. "Environmentalizing Urban Sociology." City &

Community 22, no. 4 (2023): 257–265.

• Heynen, Nik, Maria Kaika, and Erik Swyngedouw. "Urban political ecology: politicizing the

production of urban natures." In the nature of cities. Routledge, 2006. 16-35.

• Angelo, Hillary, and David Wachsmuth. "Urbanizing urban political ecology: A critique of

methodological cityism." International Journal of Urban and regional research 39.1 (2015): 16-27.

• Barua, Maan. "Metabolic geographies: Work, shifts and politics." Progress in Human

Geography 49.2 (2025): 145-163.

WEEK 12- URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE AND CLIMATE JUSTICE

(MANISHA ANANTHARAMAN)

How cities are constituted as environmental actors, navigating diverse communities, institutional

constraints, and ecological limits. Examining the uneven distribution of environmental burdens and

amenities (pollution, green space, climate risks). Analyzing how urban policies, governance

arrangements, and social movements address environmental challenges while producing new forms

of inequality, contestation, and resilience.  Bengaluru as case study.

• Angelo, Hillary, and David Wachsmuth. 2020. "Why Does Everyone Think Cities Can Save the

Planet?" Urban Studies 57 (11): 2201–2221.

• Anantharaman, Manisha. Recycling class: the contradictions of inclusion in urban sustainability.

MIT Press, 2024.

• Gopakumar, Govind. Installing automobility: Emerging politics of mobility and streets in Indian

cities. MIT Press, 2020.

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Week 1 General introduction to urban sociology (Sukriti Issar et al)

Week 2 Territories, methods, categories, scales (Marco Cremaschi)

Week 3 Spatial thinking (Sukriti Issar)

Week 4 Urban political economy and Housing  (Sukriti Issar)

Week 5 Production of the city (Marco Cremaschi)

Week 6 Urban Informality I (Sukriti Issar)

Week 7 Urban Informality II (Marco Cremaschi)

Week 8 The social division of urban space (B. Cousin)

Week 9 Gender and the city (B. Cousin)

Week 10 Dynamics and processes of urban segregation (B. Cousin)

Week 11 Environmentalizing urban sociology: theoretical debates (Manisha Anantharaman)

Week 12 Urban environmental governance and climate justice (Manisha Anantharaman)

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