SYLLABUS
INTRODUCTION
Course objectives
This course deals with the challenge of globalization, its impact on cities, and the possibilities for response. It begins by showing how the rapid development of a unified world market has changed the politics of urban communities and radically altered the cities themselves, restructuring them physically, enriching some communities, impoverishing others, transforming human relations and altering the politics of community self-defence.
Globalization has, in many ways, left communities more embattled than they were. Therefore, we consider how they can defend themselves against its ill effects and how they can take advantage of any benefits it offers. The subject is vast, and we will not be able to cover it fully. But our objective is to develop a better understanding of the forces impinging on our communities in the 21st Century, and to improve our ability to play a part in defending their interests.
Textbooks
The issues dealt with in this course are attracting a lot of interest, and good books about them are available at relatively reasonable prices -- and, occasionally, at prices that are less reasonable. You will be making extensive use of a collection of readings entitled "Globalization and City Politics", for which I am listed as editor. You should purchase this book. Other books available in the bookstore and relevant to the course, but not required, are:
- Manuel Castells, The Rise Of The Network Society.
- (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 1996)
- Castells looks at the changing world in even broader terms than this course does, and teases out a variety of fascinating material about the changing nature of work, virtual culture and the media, changes in the human life cycle, the denial of death, architecture, what's happened to his old neighbourhood in Paris, and more.
- Linda McQuaig, The Cult Of Impotence: Selling the Myth of Powerlessness in the Global Economy.
- (Toronto: Viking, 1988)
- A highly readable polemic covering a lot of the issues this course deals with, from a somewhat different point of view than mine.
- Naomi Klein, No Logo: Taking Aim At The Brand Bullies.
- (New York: Picador, 2000)
- Another polemic, this one critical of the power global corporations wield through their control of brand names.
- Jordi Borja, Manuel Castells, Mireia Belil, and Chris Benner, Local And Global: The Management of Cities in the Information Age.
- (London: Earthscan Publiscations, 1997)
- Looks at the impact of globalization on such urban concerns as gender, housing, multiculturalism and city planning.
- John McKnight, The Careless Society: Community And Its Counterfeits.
- (New York: BasicBooks, 1995)
- Offers a biting critique of the bureaucracies we've inherited from an earlier period, suggesting a need for the revival of capacities that have always existed within communities. This is relevant to the question of how communities can best defend themselves in a globalizing age.
- Dennis Keating and Norman Krumholz, eds., Rebuilding Urban Neighborhoods: Achievements, Opportunities, And Limits.
- (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1999)
- A rich source of case studies on community self-defence. It deals with American communities. Canadian communities will be covered in other readings and lecture materials.
- Norman Krumholz and Pierre Clavel, Reinventing Cities: Equity Planners Tell Their Stories.
- (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994)
- Another set of case studies of community self-defence.
Availability of instructor. If you have any questions, about course content, or about reading and note-taking strategies, or if affordability or availability of any books you need is a problem, or whatever, please feel free to get in touch with me. I am available by telephone or e-mail, in person during office hours, after class, or by appointment.
Assignments
- 30% - Tests and/or short written assignments
- 35% - Major essay, on a topic relevant to the course, chosen in consultation with the instructor, due 4 July 2000
- 35% - Final examination
Miscellaneous requirements
- The ability to write at a university level is a pre-requisite for the completion of a degree at the University of Winnipeg. Accordingly, although none of the marks in this course are based on English usage, students are expected to write at a university level. If, early in the course, it proves that they are not able to do so, they are required, as a condition for satisfactory completion of the course, to accept a referral to the Centre for Academic Writing for tutoring.
- Students who do not attempt both major assignments (the major essay and the final examination) will not receive a passing mark for the course.
COURSE OUTLINE
NOTE: For full citations on readings, see Leo's REFERENCES.
1. Introduction.
- Drache and Gertler, "The world economy and the nation-state: the new international order", in Leo, "Globalization And City Politics"
2. Overarching power: corporations, the national state and the city
- Bechterman, "Globalization, labour markets and public policy", in Leo
- 2.1. Historical background: capitalism and regional restructuring
- Harvey, "Fordism", in Leo
- Harvey, "From Fordism to flexible accumulation", in Leo
- Lipietz, "The Fordist compromise", in Leo
- Lipietz, "The end of the golden age", in Leo
- Drucker, "Beyond the information revolution", handout
- Myles, "Post-industrialism and the service economy", in Leo
- 2.2. Theoretical foundation: fordism
- Ramesh Mishra, "The welfare of nations", in Leo
- Logan and Molotch, "The dependent future", in Leo
- Lester, "Manifest destiny", in Leo
- 2.3. Impact of restructuring
- Feagin and Smith, "Cities and the new international division of labour", in Leo
- Sanjek, "A window on America's great transition", in Leo
- Sanjek, "The future of us all", in Leo
- Mahoney, "Street scenes: neighbourhood's pulse grows faint", in Leo
- Ross, "On patrol in Toronto's cold desert of homelessness", in Leo
- Barber, "Behaving badly about the homeless", in Leo
- James, "Facing facts in the land of plenty", in Leo
- Berger, "Trash yields treasures to scavengers", in Leo
- Harris, "Information technology and the end of wage labour", in Leo
- Little, "Nineties take an income bite from the middle", in Leo
- Square, "Rural communities vie for huge hog plant", in Leo
- Pona, "Mayors pave way for NAFTA corridor", in Leo
- 2.4. What is to be done?
- Lipietz, "Towards a new economic order", Ch. 8-9 (on reserve in the library)
- McKnight, "John Deere and the bereavement councillor", in Leo
- McKnight, "The professional problem", in Leo
- McKnight, "The need for oldness", in Leo
- Morris, "Small is still beautiful", in Leo
- Bourette, "Organized labour lures growing number of youth", in Leo
- Golub, "Are international labour standards needed...", in Leo
- Senser, "To end sweatshops: designing a code for a global industry", in Leo
- Cartwright, "Green jobs could just be the answer", in Leo
3. Global forces, the state and the community
- 3.1. The global economy, the national state and cities
- Paul Peterson, "City limits", Ch. 2-4, 11 (Chapters 1 and 2 are in Leo)
- Leo, "The global economy and the local state", in Leo
- 3.2. Dispersal and polarization: throwing up the barricades
- Fishman, "Megalopolis unbound", in Leo
- Schneider, "The suburban century begins", in Leo
- Myron Orfield, Metropolitics: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press/Cambridge Mass.: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 1997), Ch. 1, 2, on reserve.
- Evan McKenzie, Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), Ch. 8, on reserve.
- Leo, "Shootings focus on decaying city", in Leo
- Wolfe, "From the fiftieth floor and King of the Jungle", in Leo
- Leo, "Urban decay: barricading our cities and our minds", in Leo
- 3.3. Gentrification
- Gratz, "Introduction", Ch. 1-3, in Leo
- David Ley, "Gentrification: a ten-year overview", in Leo
- Hugh Millward and Donna Davis, "Housing renovation in Halifax", in Leo
- 3.4. Community self-defence: conciliatory approaches
- Gratz, "Introduction", Ch. 4-6, in Leo
- Hiatt, "Penny-wise loan policy", in Leo
- Stackhouse, "It's a new form of credit: only women need apply", in Leo
- "Small business growth a must", in Leo
- Peirce, "Business takes a new look at inner cities", in Leo
- Wood, "Small solutions", in Leo
- 3.5. Neighbourhood self-defence: confrontation
- Reitzes and Reitzes, "Three Alinsky community organizations", in Leo
- Gerecke, "Success in revitalizing the inner city", in Leo
- Stannard, "Sports and inner city development", in Leo
- 3.6. Globalization in Winnipeg
- Silver, "Solutions that work: Fighting poverty in Winnipeg's inner city", in Leo
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