ARC5164 Urban Anthropology (Elective)

This module taught to 5^thyear architecture students examines urban life at different times and places. As more of the world’s population settles in cities, the sites of anthropologists have increasingly shifted from rural to urban settings. The goal of the course in this class year is to unpackthe forces that act to shape and change cities and urban life as well as the resulting policy responses invented to solve the problems associated with the changes in order to improve the vision for the future city. The course further questions how anthropologists can better represent the life worlds of urban dwellers and what anthropological insights and methods could contribute to our deeper understanding of urban phenomena.

Major emphasis is given to the ethnography of city life and its relationship to the practical applications of the final year thesis research that the students will be undertaking as well.  Using literary works, historical studies and ethnographies of case studies, the course hopes to present coherent and readable syntheses of theory, methods, and analysis of various urban issues and experiences of urban life.  This in turn assists the thesis students to better conceptualise their topics and sharpen the focus on the inter-relationships that their projects make with the future city.

The content of this course consists primarily of three questions: 1. What is a city? And How are cities understood?  2. How have social and economic histories shaped the layout and structure of contemporary cities? Major events affecting urban life in life And 3 What is the future for the city?

In order to answer these main questions, the module has been structured in three steps;

(1) introductory and selected narrative chapters from recent ethnographies that provide in-depth anthropological study of particular urban issues in cities around the globe, with specific attention to cities in Africa

(2) short journal articles on specific topics relevant to understanding urban issues with contextual examples and

(3) supplementary material presented by the Instructor during class lectures and discussions.

Students are also required to search for and read research literature relevant to their community based-learning based ethnographic fieldwork projects.

Additional readings may be assigned based on student interest and requests.