Postgraduate Course: Encountering Cities (PGT) (PGGE11185)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences | 
College | College of Science and Engineering | 
 
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) | 
Availability | Not available to visiting students | 
 
| SCQF Credits | 20 | 
ECTS Credits | 10 | 
 
 
| Summary | This course explores the everyday geographies of cities through the concept of encounter. Questioning how we understand cities, the course introduces diverse theoretical approaches to the city and examines different modes of researching and representing cities. | 
 
| Course description | 
    
    Using Urban examples as diverse as Bradford and Baghdad, the course is organised around lectures and discussions that address 3 key conceptual concerns: understanding the everyday sociality of cities (the spaces of encounter and mundane interaction that make up so much of urban life); grasping the emotional and affective life of cities (the embodied experiences of inhabiting and using urban spaces); and appreciating the urban materialities (the often overlooked things, technologies, natures, and infrastructure that are a part of everyday life in cities). These conceptual concerns then form the basis for examining a series of important issues facing contemporary cities including; urban multiculture and living with difference; segregation and the sorting of bodies in cities; fear and the city; terrorism and wounded cities. 
 
Course syllabus 
Week 1: The everyday city 
Week 2: Urban Materialities 
Week 3: Urban Affects 
Week 4: Everyday Edinburgh: Fieldwork 
Week 5: Zines workshop 
Week 6: Urban Multiculture: Bradford 
Week 7: Hydraulic Cities: Mumbai 
Week 8: City of Walls: Sao Paulo and Baghdad 
Week 9: Haunted Cities: Berlin 
Week 10: Urban Ruins: Detroit 
Week 11: Wounded Cities: London
    
    
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites | 
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Co-requisites |  | 
 
| Prohibited Combinations |  | 
Other requirements |  None | 
 
 
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |   
Learning Outcomes 
    On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
    
        - evaluate how different research methods, conceptual frameworks and modes of representation shape how we know and understand cities
 - demonstrate a critical understanding of key concepts including the everyday, encounters, emotions, and materiality
 - employ a range of writing and analytical skills to identify and analyse complex issues facing contemporary cities with originality
 - develop skills in working independently and collaboratively
 
     
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Reading List 
Amin, A. and Thrift, N. (2002). Cities: Re-imagining the Urban. Cambridge: Polity Press. 
 
de Certeau, M. (1984). 'Walking in the City' in The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp.91-110. 
 
Hubbard, P. (2006) City. London: Routledge. 
 
Latham, A., McCormack, D., McNamara, K., and McNeill, D. (2009). Key Concepts in Urban Geography. London: Sage. 
 
Lefebvre, H. (1996). Writings on Cities. (Oxford: Blackwell). 
 
Pile, S. (2005). Real Cities. London: Sage. 
 
http://www.ed.ac.uk/institute-academic-development/learning-teaching/staff/inclusive/accessibility 
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills | 
Not entered | 
 
| Keywords | Not entered | 
 
 
Contacts 
| Course organiser | Dr Daniel Swanton 
Tel: (0131 6)50 8164 
Email:  | 
Course secretary | Ms Louisa King 
Tel: (0131 6)50 2543 
Email:  | 
   
 
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