PSCI 13
The Third World City
Last Offered n/a

This course is not offered in the current catalog

In 2007, the world became majority urban. But most of these urbanites live not in places like New York or Tokyo but rather in places like Lagos or Mumbai, dwelling in shantytowns and working in petty commerce. Their cities’ path of urbanization diverges from the “normal” one accompanying industrialization in the West and East Asia. Toward this phenomenon, arguably the most important social fact in today’s world, writers have adopted wildly divergent stances, from the optimistic to the apocalyptic. We read a few of these, including Mike Davis, Rem Koolhaas, Sukhetu Mehta, Hernando De Soto, and Robert Neuwirth, and watch some films and videos on the subject.