GGR241
Historical Geographies of Urban Exclusion and Segregation
Social exclusion and segregation are defining features of contemporary cities. Of course, these are not new phenomena; they have been significant elements of cities from the beginning of urban history. However, the geography of urban inequalities, exclusion and segregation has taken distinctive forms with the rise of industrial capitalism and European colonialism. This course roams across the history of urban development between 1750 and the present day to examine examples of social exclusion and segregation. The course focuses on linking the history of urban growth, social inequality, and geographic divisions within cities. It starts with the housing conditions of contemporary global world and then turns to an examination of the rise of the industrial capitalist city in Europe and North America, the character of the imperial city, and the development of the colonial city in Asia and Africa. Each lecture uses specific cities (such as St Petersburg, Glasgow, Chicago, Paris, New Delhi, Bombay, Dar es Salaam, and Cape Town) to illustrate various forms of segregation and exclusion.
GGR254
Geography USA
This course covers three broad aspects of the geography of the United States: the building of borders; the social and economic impacts of changes to American regions and cities; and the challenges facing American metropolitan areas since the end of World War Two. Particular attention is given to the creation of an American territory; the changing fortunes of regions (the American South and the Manufacturing Belt); the metropolitan geographies of poverty and racism; the rising importance of the postwar suburbs; the geographical effects of changes to twentieth-century immigration policy; and the contested and inequalities of the politics of place.
GGR336
Urban Historical Geography of North America
Urban growth has been an important feature of Canadian and U.S. history for more than 300 years. From the early small settlements along the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to today’s huge metropolitan areas, cities have both shaped and been shaped by international and national economic, social and political processes. Focusing on the period between 1840 and 1970, this course explores two major themes: a) the changing social and economic geographies of the city and suburbs; and b) the urban problems, politics, and planning that emerged with capitalist industrialization after 1840. Issues to be covered include the rise of industrial capitalism and the Industrial City, the creation of the central business district, the building of middle-class, working-class and industrial suburbs, the character of ethnic neighbourhoods, housing markets, and urban planning and redevelopment.
GGR482
The Historical Geographies of Toronto
The course examines the planning history of Toronto’s post-war landscapes using local fieldtrips linked to readings and seminars. Using historical perspectives on the changing character of selected areas, the course explores the planning, creation, reproduction, and evolution of the city’s landscapes over time. An approach centered on the political economy of modernist planning, development, and creative destruction is used to examine the key dynamics of change in Toronto after 1945 with attention paid to the changing ideas about planning and normative models of built form.