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S1406 Cities, Global Change and Sustainable Development

Turvani Margherita, Costa Camilla

The course aims to provide students with the basic tools and frameworks to recognize and analyse contemporary urban issues. The course will explore from an interdisciplinary perspective how cities work and change, in terms of urban life, configurations of people and place, social and environmental issues, and urban sustainability. Starting from a theoretical introduction on cities, the course focuses on Venice as a peculiar case of global city. From the second week on, students will have the chance of working on four “hot spots” of the city, chosen as enlightening some of the key urban components. In particular, the selected components and the related case studies are the following:

 

CITY COMPONENTS    CASE STUDIES
Architecture              Arsenale
                               (MOSE – European Project Second Chance)
Economy                  The Harbour (Cruise tourism)
Environment             Marghera
Culture                    Magazzini del Sale


Students will be organized in four groups and from the very start of the course they will work on these case studies with the dual aim of investigating the underlying phenomenon and trying to evaluate their impacts on the city. Four field trips will be arranged in order to let the students become familiar with the “spots” as early as possible. Each field trip will be introduced by a lecture exploring the theoretical background. Since the sixth week, students will be provided with the main tools to understand the urban functioning, with a focus on the governing side and the policy making process and the issue of sustainability. The course will end with a view on some of the main concepts that are currently influencing and leading urban development, for instance the organization of big events and the ideas of creativity and innovation.

 

Course organization and requirements

Students will be expected to do the required readings and to attend class regularly. Attendance is compulsory for all students. Required readings will be designated on a weekly basis according to the themes listed in the course outline. Students will be also encouraged to find additional material for their group works by searching the Internet and accessing suggested websites.


 

Exam:
Two parts will compose the final exam:
1.    The presentation of research results on case studies (group work) - A detailed framework for the analysis will be provided at the beginning of the course.
2.    A written test based on four open questions.

The first evaluation is scheduled on week 9th.
The second one on week 12th (final presentation of group work) and on week 13th (written test)