Urban Communities

elective courses
proseminars

The course gives an overview of the classic and new community studies in the US, and prepares students to conduct a community case study. In the first part of the semester, each class discusses one or two community studies. An instructor provides an introduction to the academic tradition, author, geographic area and historical context of a place and a community that a given study deals with. A student presents an overview of the objectives, methodology, evidence and conclusions of the study. The class discussion focuses on critical analysis of the study methodology, conclusions, policy recommendations, consequences for the studied community and academic legacy. The course materials include ethnographic, historical and sociological studies of and movies on urban and suburban communities.

Kurs jest przeglądem klasycznych i nowych studiów społeczności miejskich w USA, który przygotowuje studentów do przeprowadzenia własnego badania wybranej społeczności z użyciem danych zastanych. Na każdym spotkaniu seminarium, omawiamy jedno lub dwa badania społeczności lokalnej. Wykładowczyni przedstawia tradycję akademicką, do której należy omawiane studium, jego autora, obszar geograficzny, którego dotyczy i kontekst historyczny, w jakim powstało badanie. Student odpowiedzialny jest z kolei za przedstawienie celów badawczych, źródeł użytych w badaniu i metod ich gromadzenia oraz wnioski z badań. Dyskusja na seminarium skupia się na metodologii badania, wyciąganiu wniosków z materiałów źródłowych, zaleceń dla polityki społecznej, skutków dla badanej społeczności i wpływu omawianego studium na inne badania akademickie. Omawiane na zajęciach materiały obejmują socjologiczne, etnograficzne i historyczne studia amerykańskich społeczności miejskich oraz filmy dotyczące tychże społeczności.

Długi opis

1. Wprowadzenie i omówienie zajęć

2. POMYSŁ, PLAN I PROJEKT BADAWCZY

Chodecka, The Bronx. From Ghetto to Gentrification (2015), Introduction and ch. 1, an ASC MA thesis

WSPÓŁCZESNE SPOŁECZNOŚCI MIEJSKIE:

2. PAKISTAŃCZYCY W NOWYM JORKU I CHICAGO. ETNICZNE NISZE GOSPODARCZE

The Big Sick (2017) FILM

Zukin, Sharon, Philip Kasinitz, and Xiangming Chen. Global Cities, Local Streets : Everyday Diversity from New York to Shanghai. Routledge, 2016

3. DZIELNICE ETNICZNE I ICH RESTAURACJE

Zukin, Sharon, Scarlett Lindeman, and Laurie Hurson. “The Omnivore’s Neighborhood? Online Restaurant Reviews, Race, and Gentrification.” Journal of Consumer Culture 17, no. 3 (November 2017): 459–79. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540515611203.

4. ENKLAWY ETNICZNE. KOREATOWN W NOWYM JORKU

Kim, Jinwon. “Manhattan’s Koreatown as a Transclave: The Emergence of a New Ethnic Enclave in a Global City.” City & Community 17, no. 1 (March 2018): 276–95. doi:10.1111/cico.12276

5. AFRO-AMERYKANIE W CHICAGO

Southside with you (2018) MOVIE

Robert G. Spinney, City of Big Shoulders. A History of Chicago, Ithaca, New York: Northern Illinois University Press, 2020, ch. 13

6. MEKSYKANIE W CHICAGO

Curran, Winifred. “‘Mexicans Love Red’ and Other Gentrification Myths: Displacements and Contestations in the Gentrification of Pilsen, Chicago, USA.” Urban Studies 55, no. 8 (June 2018): 1711–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098017736503.

7. MIEJSKA KLASA WYŻSZA

Martin Wednesday, Primates of Park Avenue. A Memoir. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2016, fragment

SPOŁECZNOŚCI Z PRZESZŁOŚCI:

8. ŻYDOWSKIE SPOŁECZNOŚCI I DZIELNICE W CHICAGO NA POCZĄTKU XX WIEKU

Wirth Louis, The ghetto, with a new introduction by Hasia R. Diner, New Brunswick, London: Transaction Publishers, 1998

9. TERMIN ZŁOŻENIA PROJEKTU BADAWCZEGO

9 I 10. POLSKIE SPOŁECZNOŚCI W CHICAGO NA POCZĄTKU XX WIEKU

Thomas&Znaniecki, Polish Peasant in Europe and America, ed. By Elly Zaretsky, ch. 3 Disorganization in the United States

Maria Anna Knothe, Recent Arrivals. Polish Immigrant Women's REsponse to the City in: Peasant Maids, City Women: From the European Countryside to Urban America, edited by Christiane Harzig, 1997

The Immigrant (2014) FILM

11. SPOŁECZNOŚCI MIEJSKIE W PAMIĘCI ZBIOROWEJ

Museum of the City of New York, Ellis Island Immigration Museum, Tenement Museum in NYC versus Chicago History Museum, National Museum of Mexican Art, DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago

12 i 13. METODY BADAWCZE, ANALIZA DANYCH - WARSZTATY

14 i 15. PREZENTACJA STUDENCKICH PROJEKTÓW W FORMIE MINI-KONFERENCJI

Foner Nancy, Foner, Nancy. New York and Amsterdam: Immigration and the New Urban Landscape, New York: NYU Press. 2014

Foner, Nancy. One Out of Three: Immigrant New York in the Twenty-First Century, New York : Columbia University Press. 2013

KNOWLEDGE:

K_W01 - a role and significance of sociology, history and ethnography, their specific approaches i relationship with other academic disciplines within humanities and social sciences, a paradigm of interdisciplinary urban studies

K_W02 - selected facts, objects, processes, products and cultural phenomena related to American urban communities and their characteristic historical, social, political and economic contexts

K_W05 - theoretical and methodological approaches within the social sciences (sociology, history, ethnography) and their use in students' own research

K_W06 - selected issues, facts, processes, social phenomena (industrialization, international and internal migrations, suburbanization, post-industrial changes, gentrification, group conflicts) and features of social structures (relations between social classes and ethno-racial groups) in American urban communities and the regularities, norms and rules that govern them, their evolution and the causes and consequences of the changes occurring in them

K_W08 - historical processes (industrialization, international and internal migrations, suburbanization, post-industrial changes, gentrification, group conflicts) that have shaped American urban communities over the last 120 years, as well as the theoretical and methodological foundations of historical research

K_W12 - ethical norms for conducting social research, including the influence of researchers' own experiences and views on the research process, involvement in the life of the researched community, informing the community about conducting research, critique of sources (newspapers, respondents, websites) and principles of copyright protection

SKILLS:

K_U01 - to use the acquired knowledge to formulate and innovatively solve complex and unusual research tasks and problems, formulate and test hypotheses related to them by selecting and using appropriate sources and information, their evaluation, critical analysis, synthesis and creative interpretation in the context of interdisciplinary research of American urban communities

K_U02 - to use appropriate research methods and tools, as well as adapt existing and interdisciplinary studies of American urban communities

K_U03 - to recognize, understand, describe, interpret, explain and analyze in-depth the causes, effects and course of processes and phenomena occurring in American urban communities

K_U04 - to adapt to one’s own research the knowledge of traditions and research schools in the field of studies on American urban communities (analysis of press content and data generated by consumers, Chicago school of urban research, use of existing statistical data, statisticalatlas.com, official documents, websites of institutions, anthropology and ethnography)

K_U05 - to notice and analyze the manifestations of urban political culture in selected American cities using theoretical and methodological tools from the field of political sociology

K_U07 - to identify and describe social phenomena and manifestations of social culture in American urban communities using theoretical and methodological tools from the field of social sciences, as well as formulate and solve research problems in this area

K_U08 - to interpret primary sources from various eras regarding American urban communities, taking into account their historical, political and socio-cultural context

K_U09 - to communicate in a seminar group and lead a debate about selected materials regarding American urban communities using specialized terminology in English

K_U10 - to use English at least B2+ level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, including specialized terminology

K_U12 - to prepare and present presentations using advanced information and communication techniques in English on issues related to the study of American urban communities, as well as prepare written studies in the format of a social science scientific article in English

K_U13 - to propose a topic and prepare one’s own research project in the field of studies on American urban communities

K_U15 - to lead the seminar group by proposing questions and leading discussion on the selected topic

COMPETENCES:

K_K01 - critical assessment of acquired knowledge regarding American urban communities

K_K02 - wykorzystywania zdobytej, interdyscyplinarnej wiedzy z zakresu studiów nad amerykańskimi społecznościami miejskimi celem formułowania własnych opinii

K_K03 - recognizing the importance of knowledge in solving cognitive and practical problems and seeking the opinion of experts in case of difficulties in solving them independently

K_K06 - conducting social research responsibly and ethically and demanding the same from others

1. research proposal 25% (25: excellent; 20: very good; 15: good; 12: acceptable)

2. participation in the class discussion 25% (25: excellent, 20: very good; 15: good; 12: acceptable)

3. research paper 50% (50: excellent; 42: very good; 35: good, 27: acceptable)

Inspired by the methods and following the structure of the discussed studies, the students prepare a research proposal. In the second part of the semester, they conduct research and prepare a research paper. The research should concern a selected local community in the US. The research methods can include: observation, in-depth interviews, survey, official data analysis generated by local governments, churches and associations, newspaper content analysis, analysis of artifacts, i.e. architecture, topography, public space arrangements, family history analysis. The paper should have a format of a scholarly article and be about 10 standard pages long.