PS390 Cities and Power: Urban Politics around the World

Winter 2025, Instructor

Undergraduate

Syllabus

When you imagine a city, what comes to mind? Perhaps New York, L.A., or Paris? Today, over half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and the most rapid urbanization is happening in cities in Africa and Asia. While urbanization can have positive effects, such as increased wages and accelerated innovation, population growth can also create strain on institutions and infrastructure. In addition, the forces of colonialism, capitalism, and racism exclude certain people and groups from the benefits of urbanization. This course will be organized around key questions. How are the cities that are urbanizing most rapidly today similar to or different from industrialized or post-industrial cities in the Global North? Who has power in a city? What determines this? And what are the implications?

In this course, we will examine how politics relates to the lives of urban residents around the world, including right here in Chicago. We will engage with work from a variety of different regions (with an emphasis on the Global South) and media (including podcasts, videos, and blog posts). We will discuss theoretical debates with an eye toward how they are relevant to public policy and to people’s everyday lives. We will also think critically about how to evaluate the evidence presented for different claims about cities.