DIRITTO URBANISTICO - GEOGRAFIA E SOCIOLOGIA URBANA

Module SOCIOLOGIA URBANA

1. Knowledge and understanding: students will gain knowledge in the field of urban sociology and geography, with a specific focus on the transcalar patterns of territorial organization. In particular, students will gain specific skills about the analysis of socio-economic processes occurring at the urban scale, particularly those related to conflicts on the use of urban spaces due to economic globalization, urban neoliberalism, climate change and the different dimensions of the right to the city.
2. Applying knowledge. Students will be able to use theoretical and analytical tools of urban sociology and geography useful for planning, managing and safeguarding the territory and landscape, with a specific focus on the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainability. What is more, students will be able to collect, understand and process quali-quantitative data in order to evaluate inherent characteristics of urban spaces, apart from using them in a systemic way within specific local systems. Students will also gain skills in socio-territorial methods of participative planning.

3. Making judgments: students will be able to critically evaluate structural characteristics of urban spaces, by catching their inherent complexity.

   Communication skills: The student will be able to transfer to others, with a full command of sociological and geographical technical language, information and assessments about urban systems.

   Learning skills: at the end of the the course students will have gained the knowledge necessary to deepen and integrate theoretical concepts with practical skills for territorial analysis in urban spaces.

Lectures (also based on interactive digital tools)

Seminars

Case study analysis

Flipped classroom

Workshops

Fieldworks

Information for students with disabilities and/or Learning Disorders
As a guarantee of equal opportunities and in compliance with current laws, students with disabilities and learning disorders can ask for a personal interview in order to plan any compensatory and/or dispensatory measures, based on their specific needs and on teaching objectives of the discipline. 

The course is focused on the sociological and geographical analysis of urban spaces from a transcalar point of view, starting from the main theoretical pillars of the discipline and analyzing them in the different analyzed spaces with the aim of deepening the huge transformations occurred in territorial structures of urban at the interplay between global dynamics and local processes.

Through the theoretical exploration, the case studies analysis, a series of workshops and fieldworks, the course aims at exploring the inherent complexity of urban systems by evaluating critically the conflicting uses of the different urban actors.

The main objectives are to provide students with knowledge and skills about the networks and multi-scalar processes of urban transformation inserted in a wider global context, as well as exploring the multidimensional character of sustainability, social frictions and inequalities  included. In particular, after an excursus on the historical evolution of the city and the related sociological and geographical main theories, the course deepens topics such as global urban hierarchies, the role of culture, tourism and regeneration programs as drivers of development, the different forms of power territorialization and the public-private coalitions that influence urban policies. The main aim is to provide students with an interpretative frame to identify contradictions and impacts in terms of new inequalities and promote more sustainable paths of development.

Textbook 1. Governa F., Memoli M. (2011). Geografie dell’urbano. Spazi, politiche, pratiche della città, Carocci editore, Roma.

Learning materials include scientific papers, documents and dossiers that will be provided by the teacher during the course, to be retrieved from Studium.

With the aim of enhancing the students' different attitudes, the evaluation will be made through a final written test to be integrated with the oral test. The evaluation will follow to the following criteria:

1. Learning skills and degree of in-depth knowledge
2. Synthesis & analysis skills, appropriate linguistic register
3. Capacity of critical thought  

Final mark will be assigned according to the following scheme:

Test failed
1. serious flaws 2. inability to synthetize and analyse 3. inability to critical thought

18-20
1, 2, 3: just enough 

21-23
1, 2, 3: enough

24-26
1, 2, 3: good

27-29
1, 2, 3: very good

30-30L
1, 2, 3: excellent