What kinds of individuals can live in modern cities? How are modern cities spatially organized and does this affect the social practices that citizens 'ought' to observe when inhabiting urban centers? Modern cities are distinct in terms of their common experience with state-led urban planning which strives to bring social and physical order to street life. Participants in this course will explore if and how such institutional desires to control urban space shape the cultural identity of urban citizens. We will also study how notions of citizenship that diverge from classical European and North American views of political identity, have emerged as a result of colonization and decolonization, nationalism and transnationalism, economic liberalization, and globalization in the non-western world (ex. urban planning in South Asia; housing in Mumbai; hyper commercialization in South Africa, and squatter movements in Brasilia). Of course the production of meanings of cities and citizens does not rest solely within the ambit of powerful institutions, elites, and national movements. Therefore we will also examine how art and aesthetics, public ceremonials, social movements, and street commerce create `insurgent' conceptions of citizenship and urban space.