GY317 Half Unit
Geographies of Urban Violence
This information is for the 2024/25 session.
Teacher responsible
Prof Gareth Jones CKK 3.21
Gareth A Jones, Professor of Urban Geography, Department of Geography & Environment
Availability
This course is available on the BA in Geography, BSc in Environment and Development, BSc in Environment and Sustainable Development, BSc in Environment and Sustainable Development with Economics, BSc in Environmental Policy with Economics and BSc in Geography with Economics. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.
Course content
The course examines the relationships between urban space and different forms of violence. Cities are often depicted as inherently, even naturally, violent spaces such that the urban condition is understood to generate, reproduce and transform violence, while for many people the urban experience is framed by living with possibilities of violence and the effectiveness of security measures. The course will analyze four main claims. First, the case for understanding violences as plural socio-spatial processes that produce urban spaces. Second, the case for urban processes such as planning, infrastructure interventions, and segregation producing violences. Third, the case for understanding how people’s everyday lives are framed by violences and policy responses, and how these affect their relations with cities. Fourth, the case for cities as spaces for innovations in violence management and reduction. Students will be introduced to an interdisciplinary range of literatures plus materials from think-tanks, film, and journalism, and if possible, engagement with civil society and policy-makers. The course aims to challenge the dominance of US and European focused research to understandings and policy prescriptions to violences in cities and draw from perspectives relevant to the Global South.
Teaching
10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the WT.
This course is delivered through a combination of lectures and classes, including walks, in Winter Term. Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6.
Formative coursework
Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the WT.
The formative essay is 1,000 word annotated bibliography on a theme relevant to your summative essay choice. The formative essay should assess a minimum of two texts with a short explanation of why these have been chosen and how they relate to each other. The annotated bibliography should summarise the key argument of each paper, critically consider the empirical or other evidence that supports this argument, address embedded assumptions and potential impacts for policy application if relevant.
Indicative reading
Alves, J.A. 2018. The Anti-Black City: police terror and black urban life in Brazil, University of Minnesota Press.
Dikec, M. 2017. Urban Rage: The Revolt of the Excluded, Yale University Press.
Elfversson, E.; Gusic, I. & K. Höglund (eds) 2020. The Spatiality of Violence in Post-war Cities, Routledge.
Feltran, G. 2021. The Entangled City: crime as urban fabric in Sao Paulo, Manchester University Press.
Graham, S. 2010. Cities under Siege: the new military urbanism, Verso.
Hazen, J. & D. Rodgers (eds) 2014. Global Gangs: street violence across the world, University of Minnesota Press.
Jones, G.A. & D. Rodgers (eds) 2009. Youth Violence in Latin America: Gangs and Juvenile Justice in Perspective, Macmillan-Palgrave.
Kaldor, M. and S. Sassen (eds.) 2020. Cities at War: Global Insecurity and Urban Resistance, Columbia University Press.
Pavoni, A. & S. Tulumello 2020. What is urban violence? Progress in Human Geography, 44(1), 49–76.
Salahub, J.E. & M. Gottsbacher (eds) 2019. Reducing Urban Violence in the Global South: Towards Safe and Inclusive Cities, Routledge.
Assessment
Essay (100%, 3000 words) in the ST.
Key facts
Department: Geography and Environment
Total students 2023/24: 34
Average class size 2023/24: 9
Capped 2023/24: No
Value: Half Unit
Course selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Application of information skills
- Communication
- Specialist skills