Course Overview

This course focuses on the cultural significance and interpretation of modernity and urban space. Ever since the industrial revolution, new modes of production have led to significant changes in Western urban culture, including migration from rural to urban areas, and new formations in labor culture, consumer culture and citizen-subjects. It is through this historical process that urban space is constantly changing and being reconstituted, a process that is embedded in East-West power structures of imperialist colonial systems by rendering people from various localities with different imaginations of modernity in a global context. The modern phenomenon of urbanization has had an uneven impact on a multifarious citizenry, made up of actors with a range of identities, and therefore has contributed to the diversification of the urban experience and representations of modern life from the 19th century onward. The research topics and assigned readings, including the concept of the flâneur and urban modernity, relations between human and non-human agents, gentrification, public/private space, intimacy, and geopolitics, are interconnected, illuminating the historical trajectory of academic debates. These discussions will help us understand that the formation of modern urban life is a political process in constant flux, and to investigate how capitalism, colonial systems and the global economy shape modern urban societies, cultures and spaces as well as how the lived experiences of urban inhabitants are constantly being reshaped and represented.

Learning Achievement

By studying and discussing the related scholarship, this course will critically examine ways to represent and interpret modernity and urban landscapes. The main objective is to help students gain a systematic understanding of the interrelationships between urban life and its cultural meanings, informing their critical perspectives while dissecting urban issues. This is a seminar-based discussion class. Students are required to complete all the assigned readings before class and discuss their thoughts with the instructor and peers in class. Through class participation and discussions, students are expected to come up with more critical reflections on urban issues, and acquire the critical skills of reading and analyzing texts, thereby cultivating individual research interests that build up on current scholarship.

Competence

Course prerequisites

The class will be conducted in English, but the final paper can be written in either English or Chinese.

Grading Philosophy

Course schedule

Course type

Online Course Requirement

Instructor

Huang Tsung Yi

Other information

Non-degree Program: Women and Gender Studies Certificate Program,
(College of Science) Graduate Institute of Geography,
(College of Science) Department of Geography

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