Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Bottom-up Urbanism
URBN 1870R - Spring 2015
Monday 3:00-5:30
Urban Studies Program
Urban Studies
Stefano Bloch
stefano_bloch@brown.edu
Office Hrs: Fridays 1:30-2:30
Office: 29 Manning Street
Content
The typical structure of academic articles in the social sciences illustrates how scholars approach and
discuss a phenomenon or problem. In most articles scholars introduce a topic by placing it in a particular
social, spatial, and temporal context; provide an epistemological starting point and theoretical framework
for their study; introduce foundational texts on the topic; review the recent literature that addresses the
topic, look for holes or problems with how others have addressed the topic; provide an argument for how to
fill those holes or address those problems; and finally, conclude with an illustrative case study or argument
that, ideally, furthers our knowledge and potentially contributes to the making of a better world.
This seminar is structured using this very model. We will move through the material coming out of
the disciplines of geography, urban studies, sociology, and cultural criminology on bottom-up, do-ityourself, creative, guerilla, and tactical urbanism, focusing on and incorporating topics including spatial
justice, the right to the city, gentrification, neighborhood change, and cultural capital, anarchism,
subcultural practice, contestation and transgression, graffiti and street art, and Latino/a urbanism and
related forms of everyday cultural insurgency and vernacular placemaking.
In order to make this format work I am looking to you not just as students passively enrolled in a
seminar, but as willing research collaborators who have crucial roles to play in this semester-long research
process focusing on the topic of bottom-up urbanism. I therefore expect full participation and
engagement with the readings, discussions, outside exploration, and critical thinking about the subject.
Coursework and Grading
At the end of the term (April 6, 13, and 20) you will present your research and reflections on a form of
bottom-up urbanism during a formal critique. The final deliverable (due by May 7) will be a written
description of your research (in addition to other accompanying media and annotated bibliography), which
will be placed on an on-line repository designed for this seminar. I will base your grade on your
contribution to the research process and to the quality of your final presentation and research statement.
I expect you to always arrive on time having thoroughly completed the weeks assigned readings
and ready to contribute to a scholarly conversation. Please always come prepared with the weeks readings,
questions, and discussion points in hand for possible reference. Note: Two or more absences may result in a
no pass for the seminar. I do not allow the use of cell phone or laptops in the seminar room.
Reading Schedule (all readings are available on the course Canvas site unless otherwise indicated).
Feb. 16 No class.
Feb. 26 - 6-8pm, Place Making in the Creative Capital: Innovating Urban Districts panel.
Mar. 9 Subculture
Fischer, C. S. (1995). The Subcultural Theory of Urbanism: A twentieth-year assessment. American
Journal of Sociology.
Williams, J. P. (2007). YouthSubcultural Studies: Sociological traditions and core concepts. Sociology
Compass, 1(2).
Daskalaki, M., and Mould, O. (2013). Beyond Urban Subcultures: Urban subversions as rhizomatic social
formations. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 37(1).
Also recommended:
Morgan, G. (2012). Urban Renewal and the Creative Underclass: Aboriginal youth subcultures in
Sydneys Redfern-Waterloo. Journal of Urban Affairs, 34(2).
Morgan, G. and Ren, X. (2012). The Creative Underclass: Culture, subculture, and urban
renewal. Journal of Urban Affairs, 34(2).
Mar. 23 No class.