Update 2/16/2017
- Please read the announcements on the homepage for an updated schedule because this syllabus has not been updated: Seminar 4 – Spring 2017 syllabus
- All links for the readings have been replaced so that you don’t need to use a password to access the files!
- All readings listed in the schedule including journal articles (pdf) and the required books (pdf and ebook files) can be accessed here.
What about the critical review assignments?
A page to help students with the critical review papers has been added to the site. You can find this page under the menu item “Resources” or by clicking here: Critical Review Papers: Some Tips & Strategies
February 2: Introduction – Studying New York City
I. What kind of city? Whose City?
February 9: The Corporate City
Readings:
- Kenneth T. Jackson, “Robert Moses and the Rise of New York: The Power Broker in Perspective;”
- Hillary Ballon, “Robert Moses and Urban Renewal: The Title I Program;’
- Martha Biondi, “Robert Moses, Race, and the Limits of an Activist State;”
- Robert Fishman, “Revolt of the URBS: Robert Moses and His Critics;”
All readings in Hillary Ballon and Kenneth T. Jackson, Robert Moses and the Transformation of New York
February 16: The Urban Village
Due: Members of groups A, B, C will submit a 3-page critical review of the readings for February 9th and 16th.
Readings:
February 23: The Neoliberal City Readings:
Due: Each member of groups D and E will submit a 3-page critical review of the readings for February 23rd.
- Brian Tochterman, “Theorizing Neoliberal Urban Development: A Genealogy from Richard Florida to Jane Jacobs,” Radical History Review 112 (Winter 2012), pp. 65-87.
- Tom Angotti, “The Real Estate Capital of the World,” in New York for Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate, (2011), pp. 37-80.
II. Gentrification: Causes, Effects, and Policies
March 2: Mega Projects and the Question of Power to Shape the City
Due: Each member of Group A will submit a 3-page critical review of the reading for March 2nd.
Readings:
- Julie Sze, “Sports and Environmental Justice: “Games” of Race, Place, Nostalgia, and Power in Neoliberal New York City,” Journal of Sport and Social Issues (2009), pp. 111-129.
- Susan Fainstein, “Mega-projects in New York, London, Amsterdam,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (2008), pp. 767-784.
- Naved Sheikh, “Community Benefits Agreements: Can Private Contacts Replace Public Responsibility,” Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy (Fall 2008), pp. 223-246.
Film: The Battle for Brooklyn (2011) – click here to watch the trailer.
March 9: Neighborhood Level Processes
Due: Each member of Group B will submit a 3-page critical review of the reading for March 9th.
Readings:
March 16: Gentrification, Social Mixing, and Positive Outcomes
Due: Each member of Group C will submit a 3-page critical review of the readings for March16th.
Readings:
- Lance Freeman and Frank Braconi, “Gentrification and Displacement: New York City in The 1990s” Journal of the American Planning Association 70:1 (2004), pp. 39-52.
- J. Vigdor, “Does Gentrification Harm the Poor?” Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs (2002), pp. 133-173.
March 23: Residential Displacement
Due: Each member of Group D will submit a 3-page critical review of the readings for March 23rd.
Readings
- Filip Stabrowski, “New-Build Gentrification and the Everyday Displacement of Polish Immigrant Tenants in Greenpoint, Brooklyn,” Antipode 46:3 (2014), pp. 794-815.
- Kathe Newman and Elvin K. Wily, “The Right to Stay Put, Revisited: Gentrification and Resistance to Displacement in New York City,” Urban Studies 43:1 (2006), pp. 23-57.
March 30: Industrial Displacement
Due: Each member of Group E will submit a 3-page critical review of the readings for March 30th.
Readings:
- Winifred Curran, “’From the Frying Pan to the Oven’: Gentrification and the Experience of Industrial Displacement in Williamsburg, Brooklyn,” Urban Studies 44:8 (July 2007), pp. 1427-1440.
- Winifred Curran, “In Defense of Old Industrial Spaces: Manufacturing, Creativity and Innovation in Williamsburg, Brooklyn,” International Journal Of Urban and Regional Research (34:4 (December 2010), pp. 871-885.
April 14: Research Team Preliminary Presentations
Due: Each research team will make a preliminary 10-minute presentation of their research project. Each group will receive feedback from peers.
April 13 & 20: Spring Break
April 27: Research Team Presentations
III. What is to be done?
May 4: Community Strategies and Planning Processes
Readings:
- Hamil Pearsall, “Superfund Me: A Study of Resistance to Gentrification in New York City,” Urban Studies 50:11 (August 2013), p. 2293-2310.
- Tom Angotti, “From Protest to Planning Stories” and “Community Planning for the Few,” in New York for Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate, (2011), pp. 113-130 and 179-224.
May 6 and 7: CUNY-wide “Planning the Future of New York City” Conference
Students are required to attend. Each research team will make a 10-minutre presentation on their proposal to solve a problem related to the effects of gentrification that are currently faced by city residents. Experts in the field will provide the teams with feedback on their proposal.
May 11: Living and Learning in the Shadow of Gentrification
Film: Marc Levin’s Class Divide (2016) | HBO Website
May 18: On-going Debates in Gentrification Research
Due: Each member of groups A, B, C, D and E will submit a 3-page critical review of the readings for May 4th and 18th and the film Class Divide.
Readings:
- Sharon Zukin, “Conclusion: Destination Culture and the Crisis of Authenticity” in The Naked City: The Life and Death of Authentic Public Places (2011), pp. 219-246.
- Chris Allen, “Gentrification ‘Research’ and the Academic Nobility: A Different Class?”
- Lance Freeman, “Comment on ‘The Eviction of Critical Perspectives from Gentrification Research”
- Kate Shaw, “A Response to ‘The Eviction of Critical Perspectives from Gentrification Research”
- Neil Smith, “On ‘The Eviction of Critical Perspectives”
- Loïc Wacquant, “Relocating Gentrification: The Working Class, Science, and the State in Recent Urban Research”
- AbdouMaliq Simone, ed. “Debates and Developments” in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 32:1 (March 2008) pp. 180-205.
May 28: 20-page research projects are due by 3:30 PM
Instructions for Research Project Assignment
The research assignment asks you to work collectively with a group of your peers to imagine a “solution” to a current “problem” facing our city. Each research team will examine the effects of gentrification on a specific New York City neighborhood and make a specific proposal on how to improve the impact these effects are having on the dynamics of the neighborhood. First, your team will need to create a profile of the neighborhood. This profile will help you identify the effects the forces of gentrification have had on the neighborhood over the last decades. Secondly, your team will need to identify a specific “problem” resulting from these forces. Once your team has done so, the team will need to conduct further research to identify the best “solution” to this “problem.” Your final paper will also need to identify potential intended and unintended consequences of your proposed “solution.” You will be assigned to a team with five members. Your team will need to make two in-class oral presentations as well as a presentation at the CUNY-wide conference on May 6th and 7h. Seventy percent of your final grade for this assignment will be based on your individual contribution to your group and thirty percent of your grade will be based on your group’s collective performance.
Below are due dates associated with the research project. These dates are important. They are designed to keep your team on-track to producing a successful project.
- Feb. 9: Research Teams will be chosen
- April 6: Preliminary Research Team presentations in class
- April 27: Research Team Presentations in class
- May 6 and 7: CUNY-wide Conference
- May 28: 20-page research paper due by 3:30 PM
