S1517 Cities, Global Change and Sustainable Development (Sustainable Development Sp. Track)
Turvani Margherita
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 challenges, and urban sustainability. Students will understand how cities are complex systems, where natural and built environment co-evolve. Starting from a theoretical introduction on cities, the course focuses on Venice as a peculiar case of global city. Students will work on city “hot spots”, chosen as examples of the key challenges enlightening the city complexity: architecture, culture, social structure, economy, and natural environment as interrelated components in all case studies under examination.
The course will take advantage of a digital lab where students get in touch with fundamental digital tools for mapping and communicating researches on complex places and spaces. Lab participants will learn how manipulating and editing raster and vector images, as well as learn how to contextualize historical and current data through the use of mapping and annotations in 3D space. Moreover students will acquire knowledge about presenting richly annotated, time-based and interactive visualizations of their case studies.
Students will be organized in groups and from the very start of the course they will work with the aim of investigating the underlying complexity of the city ‘hot spots’ to highlight the contemporary major socio-economic and environmental challenges and to propose policies and planning goals, trying to evaluate their impacts on the city.
Field trips will be arranged on three Fridays in order to let the students become familiar with the ‘Case studies’ which will offer the base for providing the main tools and concepts to understand the urban functioning, with a focus on city governance, the policy making process, and the achievement of sustainability.
Course organization and requirements
Students are expected to do the required readings and to attend class regularly. Attendance is compulsory for all students. Required readings will be made available 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.
Exams
Two evaluations will take place during the course:
1. Midterm evaluation: four written open questions will be assigned on week 6 and due on week 7, after the brake.
2. Final evaluation made up of the presentation of research results on case studies (group work) and a final written test in class based on four open questions.
The first evaluation is due on week 7th.
The second evaluation is on week 12 and 13th (final presentation of group work, on week 12th; final written test on week 13th).
Classroom rules
1. Attendance is compulsory for all students. Maximum 15% absence.
2. Exam dates are:
- Due 7th week: mid-term evaluation
- Due 12th week group presentation
13th week: written final evaluation in class
Students will have the chance of taking the exam just once and not have the possibility of taking the exam on other dates.
3. The use of any kind of phones, tablets and computers (if not explicitly required by the instructor) is strictly prohibited during the class hours.
4. Penalty grade will be assigned to students who will not follow these rules.
Attendance/class participation/interaction grade can be negatively affected. It means that unexcused absences, lateness, low participation in class discussion, disrupting classes and the use of technological devices if not required will reduce the grade.
Course Timing
There are 2 lessons per week (90 minutes each) except for the 6 Lab sessions which will last 2 hours each and that will take place in the VIU Digital Lab with the assistance of Ludovica Galeazzo, and jointly organized with the course Coastal Wetlands, Lagoons and Estuaries: Environmental Monitoring and Management.
There are three site visits on Fridays: Murazzi, Arsenal, Mose, jointly organized with the course Coastal Wetlands, Lagoons and Estuaries: Environmental Monitoring and Management
Schedule for lessons: Monday and Wednesday 15.15 – 16.45
N.B. Schedule for digital labs: Monday and Wednesday 13.30 15.30
Evaluation