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| Semester | fall semester 2019 |
| Course frequency | Every fall sem. |
| Lecturers | Sophie Oldfield (sophie.oldfield@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | African cities are complex and contested, sites of contemporary global ‘best practice,’ as well as colonial legacy and the challenges of post-colonial development. This course draws on an excit-ing body of work that engages with African cities, grounded in place, as well as in national and transnational contexts, cultures and histories. It builds on critiques of African urban exceptional-ism and engages with a southern urban literature that helps reinsert African cities in broader global debate, inspired from, but not confined to the continent’s history. The course explores the scale and breadth of African and southern urbanism as a heterodox field which calls for com-parative readings of cities, alternative modes of inquiry and new geographies of theory. |
| Learning objectives | The course 'African cities' combines academic readings on urban theory with multimedia and literary works on three African metropoles: Johannesburg, Lagos and Kinshasa. Their diverse urban realities help us to explore different aspects of the so-called 'Southern' turn in urban studies, tracing both idiosyncrasies and commonalities through a comparative perspective. In taking this course, students will have: • Gained a deeper understanding of the nature, scale and scope of contemporary African urbanization • A good knowledge of the main arguments and knowledge imperatives formulated by 'Southern' urban scholars • The ability to read scholarly literature on African cities in conjunction with their popular representations and to question common stereotypes about the continent's development trajectory |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Course auditors welcome |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|
No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Modul: Basics: Environment (Master's degree program: African Studies) Modul: Europäisierung und Globalisierung (Master's Studies: European Global Studies) Modul: Fields: Environment and Development (Master's degree program: African Studies) Modul: Fields: Governance and Politics (Master's degree program: African Studies) Modul: Sachthemen der Ethnologie (Bachelor's degree subject: Anthropology) Modul: Theory and General Anthropology (Master's degree subject: Anthropology) Module: Projects and Processes of Urbanization (Master's degree program: Critical Urbanisms) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Urban Studies |