PSCI 110
The Politics of Place in America
Last Offered Spring 2012
Division II Writing Skills
This course is not offered in the current catalog

What does it mean when someone says they’re a Midwesterner? A New Englander? A Texan? Is there importance attached to being an urban resident versus a suburbanite? What about a rural resident? What’s the significance of living in a border town? This course explores the politics of place. The country’s politics have always been keyed, in important ways, to geography: representation in national government is defined in terms of geographic areas; resources from the national government are distributed unequally around the country; state and local governments, which have an influential role in our political system, vary tremendously from one place to the next; and the country’s history has been marked by the violence of geographic conflicts as well as the acquisition of new territory. Much of its social and economic life can also be understood in terms of geography. Patterns of settlement, immigration, slavery, agriculture, education, religion, and cultural production have left and continue to leave different patterns of sediment throughout the country; these patterns and their interactions form the bedrock of American politics. We will spend the semester thinking about the significance of place in politics by exploring the ways that culture, economy, and political institutions vary throughout the country. Topics covered will include urbanization and urban politics, the development of the suburbs, regional differences, and the effects of globalization on local differences.