Urban Communities

fakultatywne
proseminaria

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.

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.

1. Introduction and Overview

2. RESEAERCH IDEAS, DESIGN AND PROPOSAL

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

Using newspapers in social and culture research

CONTEMPORARY URBAN COMMUNITIES

2. PAKISTANI AND BANGLADESHI IN NYC. ETHNIC ECONOMIC NICHES

The Big Sick (2017) MOVIE

Community Health Needs& Resource Assessment: An Exploratory Study of South Asians in NYC https://med.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/asian-health2/chnra_southasian_0.pdf, PP. 1-10

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

3. NEIGHBORHOODS AND THEIR RESTAURANTS

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. ETHNIC ENCLAVES. KOREATOWN IN NYC

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. BLACKS IN CHICAGO

South Side with you (2018) MOVIE

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/24/chicago-black-coronavirus-fatalities-us NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

Robert Sampson, keynote address, 50th anniversary of the Kerner Commission Report https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4y7HQ4J9EQ

6. MEXICANS IN 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. URBAN UPPER CLASSES

Martin Wednesday, Primates of Park Avenue. A Memoir

HISTORICAL COMMUNITIES

8. JEWISH COMMUNITIES AND NEIGHBORHOODS IN EARLY 20TH C. CHICAGO

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

CLASS 9. deadline for students’ research proposals

9 and 10. POLISH COMMUNITY IN EARLY 20TH C. CHICAGO

Fourth partition (documentary)

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

Peasant Maids, City Women: From the European Countryside to Urban America Paperback, 1997 edited by Christiane Harzig

The Immigrant (2014) MOVIE

11. URBAN COMMUNITIES REMEMBERED

The Irishman (2019) MOVIE

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

Kapralski, The Battlefields of Memory (2001), Zatorska, Lokalne interpretacje pielgrzymek chasydzkich do Polski i na Ukrainę (Lelów, Leżajsk, Humań) (Lud 2016)

12. Individual consultations

13. The seminar discussion of the research projects OR individual consultations

12. SUBURBAN COMMUNITIES – OLD AND NEW

Gans, Levittowners (1967); Heiman, Driving After Class (2015), fragments

Wright, The Code of the Suburb. Inside the World of Young Middle-Class Drug Dealers (2015), fragments

14 and 15. Presentation and discussion of the selected research papers

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

1. KNOWLEDGE: Detailed knowledge in the field selected for the research

2. SKILLS: Formulating research problem; Preparing literature review; Preparing research proposal; understanding and applying research methods; Critical analysis of primary sources; Writing text in a style and format of an academic article.

3. SOCIAL COMPETENCES: presenting one's research results; expressing constructive and polite opinions on someone else's research.

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 a 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.

Students’ presentations should be submitted to aksosnow1@uw.edu.pl by 10AM on a day preceding the class.

Grading:

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)